Blog 4: Being Latino

I read an article by HuffPost discussing school walkouts and how we are still fighting for latino students. There are many problems with hate and segregation in America but there is a severe problem with hispanic discrimination, and there has never been a real movement for this.

In this article the author, Sanchez, discusses her life as a teacher in Los Angeles and looking back at the last 50 years since the East L.A. school walkouts. In 1968 there were school walkouts due to “unequal conditions of their schools, high push-out rates, racist and discriminatory attitudes or practices of school staff, not being reflected in the school curriculum, and being tracked into vocational and special education classes” (Sanchez). She then discusses how the walkouts paved the way for many students to follow what they did, but there are still tons of problems with education and segregation for hispanic students. A study by Civil Rights Project at the University of California shows that schools are more segregated now than there was in the 1970’s, meaning that Latinx’s are being forced into schools that are under resourced and limit the opportunities for education out of high school.

Personally I’ve been very privileged in my education and I am the first in my family to have ever graduated from High School or gone to college. My family members were not so lucky and this is because they have had the same chance their peers did. The education system is skewed and especially in Texas, as they don’t teach Hispanic history in depth (or at all) and the schools are heavily segregated due to gentrification.

This article uses real facts that can actually be fact checked and it’s by a hispanic author! Irene Sanchez has a diverse educational background and works with the hispanic community in California, so I believe she is trustworthy. I personally agreed with this article in many ways even though it was a reflection. I highly recommend reading this article, because it’s important to remember that there’s more than one disadvantaged minority in America.