Ethnic Studies Education in Community Colleges as Racial Microaffirmations for Students of Color

As Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Scholars, we understand that community colleges can be sites where harm and pain are reproduced for Students of Color. Racial microaggressions, a form of systemic everyday racism, adversely impact the academic experiences of community college Students of Color, producing high pushout and low completion rates. Knowing the detrimental academic consequences of racial microaggressions, we pay close attention to the largest system of higher education in the United States—the California Community College (CCC), which served close to 1.4 million Students of Color across 116 community colleges in the 2022–2023 academic year. We support the recently implemented CCC Ethnic Studies Area F requirement by advocating for Ethnic Studies courses, a form of inclusive and antiracist education. As part of our advocacy work, we ask a preliminary question: Can Ethnic Studies curricular, pedagogical, and relational practices in the community college classroom mitigate the dehumanization and consequent academic toll on Students of Color? In this manuscript, we theorize an Ethnic Studies Education (ESE) and argue that it can serve as a racial microaffirmative response to the dehumanization of everyday racism found in the community college classroom.