Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :Ethnic Studies: Issues and Approaches (Quote 1)
[E]thnic studies [i]s an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and comparative study of ethnic groups and their interrelations, with an emphasis on groups that have historically been neglected. […] Ethnic studies scholars study ethnic groups and their interrelations through the combination and integration of perspectives of various disciplines, including anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, and humanities (e.g., philosophy, literature, linguistics, arts).
Ethnic Studies is a totally interdisciplinary field. It's all about studying ethnicity from all types of different angles: historical, anthropological, literary, psychological, sociological—you name it. Ethnic Studies theorists want to understand ethnic groups individually and as a whole, and they tend to focus on groups that have been consistently oppressed in the U.S. over time.
Quote :Ethnic Studies: Issues and Approaches (Quote 2)
The broad definition of ethnic group defines ethnic group as a group socially distinguished, by others or by itself, on the basis of its unique culture, national origin, or racial characteristics…[T]he broad definition includes racial or physical characteristics as a determining factor. In light of the broad definition, ethnic groups include racial groups. […] Both racially defined ethnic groups and culturally defined ethnic groups are within the domain of ethnic studies.
An ethnic group is any group that self-identifies, or is identified by others, as different in some way. A group can be different because of its culture, and/or nationality, and/or race. According to Yang, an ethnic group can be defined mostly in terms of its racial characteristics (like African Americans), or it can be defined mostly in terms of its unique national or culture background (like Irish Americans and Jewish Americans).
So an ethnic group can refer to a "racial" group, but it doesn't have to refer to a "racial" group.