The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s through the 1970s opened doors not only for people of African descent, but to all minorities, especially to people of Hispanic descent. Now, in the 21st century African Americans and Hispanic Americans still have many social obstacles to overcome. Hispanic and African Americans are stereotyped as inferior, irrational, **** and capable only of minimal achievement; racially profiled as criminal; victims of hate crime and police ****;have a large proportion of their population in poverty, un-insured, uneducated, unemployed and incarcerated.
Aside from these negatives Hispanic and African Americans still have many postive things in common: both groups are very religous; live in and provide for an extended family; and are community oriented, " I am because we are and we are because I am", an ancient African proverb which also applies to people of Hispanic descent.
Recently in the last couple of years crime and drug abuse increased dramatically in Hispanic and African American communities. The media portrays these issues as entertainment to White audiences and politicians do not take these issues seriously. This perpetuates the problems in these communities, because other races and ethnicities begin to attach these negatives with black (people of African descent) and brown (people of Hispanic descent) people as part of and inherent with their culture.
African Americans and Hispanic Americans share the same positive attributes and should ally to combat these major issues. Neither race is capable of succeeding in this fight alone, because these issues continue since the arrival of each group, either on **** ships or by crossing borders, to the United States of America. Since their arrival blacks and browns were fighting for equal rights, desegregated schools, etc this is more reason for them to ally. Blacks and browns acting in unison toward issues is a different approach and is un-expected, therefore making this approach most effective.
To strengthen their relationship, Hispanic and African Americans should partake more in each others celebrations and festivities. Experiencing another group's cultural celebratons is the best way to understand what they are about and provides a platform for communication based on this shared experience. From this platform African Americans and Hispanic Americans can transcend into activism.
Educational institutions can be a positive and powerful force in the movement toward unity between Hispanic and African Americans. This is because schools play a major role in the socialization of individuals: they instill social norms and values. A negative education system can create and perpetuate racism and false feelings of supremacy. A positive education system can prevent those things from happening by providing even information of the different ethnic groups in a society. This is why universities are so important, because they are the final stage of structured or systematic teaching and learning. Students in university's can compliment what they learned at previous institutions or reject it and learn something entirely new.
Historically Black College Universitys (HBCUs) are very important in the movement toward African American and Hispanic unity because the majority of black university students attend these institutions. HBCUs help to educate many African Americans by providing low tuition and fees, which helps the many black prospective students at the low end of the social ladder. By admitting more Hispanic Americans HBCUs provide hard evidence to them, prooving their desire toward black and brown unity. This also provides an opportunity to for the growing Hispanic population to obtain tertiary education.
Working together with people toward a common cause is always a good thing and greatly increases each individuals chance of accomplishing the goal. African and Hispanic Americans today face the same obstacles and are very community oriented, this is why maintaining an alliance should not be difficult for these two groups.
