African American & Hispanic Unity EssayAfrican Americans and Hispanics share a common history here in the U.S. A history of racial and ethnic adversity stretching back over one hundred years. Our separate yet similar battles against Anglo-American prejudice united us as brothers in struggle. Yet this strong communal love, something of an enigma amongst other factions of society, has been challenged within recent times. A growing dislike and in some cases even contempt for each other threatens to undermine the social security that the “browns” and the “blacks” have used for so long as an empowering foundation against oppression. So through the course of this essay I hope to express my reasons for and proposed solutions to this growing division between our communities.Discrimination as institutionalized and enforced as that of white upper classes on African Americans and Latinos bears evidence in almost every quarter of American society. As minorities we are underrepresented politically, miss-represented culturally and overlooked communally. Tangible power within a state or borough lies with the government, democratic or not. Historically political parties and organizations always had les powerful “auxiliaries” in which African Americans were siphoned off into. While our Latino counterparts have less than 20% registered voters, almost negating their political influence. The result is that our communities are inversely and adversely affected by a lack of power to make change. The media has done well to exploit our situation, portraying us as predominantly uneducated, lawless and poverty stricken. Along the way many black actors have done their part to knock these stereotypes, but Latino actors have found it considerably harder to achieve this. So our economic situations have shown only tentative relief. Hispanics have twice the poverty levels of Anglo-Americans while an estimated two thirds of blacks live in the lower classes with 33% below the poverty line. Our social status like our education remains stagnant. When describing their experiences in the U.S. public school system, most blacks would describe graduating from overcrowded schools with inexperienced teachers. Latinos meanwhile after just four years of elementary schooling have illiteracy rates seven times those of whites. This is reflected at the tertiary level where only 6% of the Hispanic populous attends college. Such is the cyclic existence of the two most segregated groups in the U.S. demographic. With little chance for economic advancement and little power to exact change, a disproportionate number of blacks and Latinos are kept in slum dwellings usually owned by white landlords who only provide communal services if they’re cheap.Hip-Hop music was pioneered by blacks and Latinos in the early 1970’s but African Americans have since been at the forefront of the music genre’s mainstream acceptance and evolution into a culture. Nonetheless there’s likely no better way to integrate the customs of African Americans and Latinos than through the expressive arts of music, dance and fashion. Starting with schools and community centers, school and after school programs can be used to dispel stereotypes and increase harmonious acceptance of each others backgrounds. Once grassroots concerns are addressed further progressive steps in the media could be taken to accelerate the movement. Using such minority run media portals as BET and Ebony magazine blacks and Latinos can be portrayed in increasingly amicable relations. Recruitment programs by minority owned businesses can seek to attract a more diverse population for their workplace. Even prominent media personalities such as Spike Lee can make a movie or two depicting black and brown love.HBCU’s have a long tradition of service to not just the African American community, but the global African community at large. Some of their alumni’s include deceased Emmy winning journalist Ed Bradley, 2006 national teacher of the year Kim Oliver and Congressman James E. Clyburn just to name a few. For over half a century HBCU’s have been producing some of the most prominent blacks in the liberal arts fields. But our Latino brothers and sisters have no such window of opportunity. They have no choice but to rely on the state, community or private institutes of Uncle Sam which may not address the specific needs of the Hispanic minority. If there was any demographic that could empathize the needs of the Latino community, it is the Blacks. Many of the financial, locomotive and recruitment needs of the African American communities have already been addressed. All that is needed is to apply these same measures to the Latino community. That shouldn’t be hard considering the close proximity both literally and from a social perspective of the two communities. And with an already existing close relationship between the two minorities, with the possibility of growing even stronger, it shouldn’t be hard to integrate Latinos into HBUC social life. Blacks and Latinos owe it to each other to have one another’s backs. As minorities it is important that we remember American society was designed with our failure in mind. The hypocritical “land of the free” and “leader of the free world” has a history of prejudice as deep as its famous banners are, well, famous. Discrimination so deeply embedded within the fabric of a society would require time and commitment beyond our own generation to be righted. So for the foreseeable future it is important that African Americans and Hispanics show greater kinship towards one another for our own sake.
