Cleveland Morinvil
The biggest problem for minorities has always been public opinion, it always seems that if one person does something wrong or offensive the whole group is stereotyped in the same manner. Rappers on MTV use derogatory words towards eachother and women that make make it easier for society to look down upon us, Jennifer Lopez has been married enough times to indicate that hispanic women are promiscuous. But when a white person does the same thing, the individual is judged not the group. Public opinion and stereotyping has become so damaging that even black/hispanic people will already assume the worst about us. For ex. in the Sean Bell **** there was a black officer but its still racism because he assumed the worst about a group of black men in a car at night in front of a club. We generally seem to struggle in a world that doesn't see us as "normal," but little can be done about the prejudice of others especially if there are people out there who continue to fuel that negative train of thought that prohibits so many young minorities.
As of now 70% of black children are born out of wedlock and broken home which has shown to lead to gang ****, drug abuse, crime and mistreatment of women. At least 50% of HIV/**** cases involve African-Americans with black women making up 63% among women, the ironic part is that African-Americans only make up 13% of the U.S. population and hispanic men make up the smallest group to go to college while HIV/**** is the number **** in the hispanic community. We have to work together because as long as these statistics remain the same they can be used to further fuel racist beliefs. By associating deadly diseases to only minority groups, it can be used to say that we don't deserve the same opportunities or equal because of immoral behavior, that way we can forever be seen as sub-human. Once rid ourselves of those burdens than we can handle the issues of the community and politics alot better without the ball and chain of racism.
One problem that we have is that stereotypes aren't a tool just for the white majority. Black people can have stereotypes about hispanics and vice versa, so in that we are hesitate to truly work together as a cohesive unit because we may think that black people are lazy and hispanics can't speak a word of english. That kind of backwards thinking will always keep us in a perpetual state of suffering, we have to break those stereotypes and burdens that were placed on us to really have a working relationship and its only together as one unified voice that we can be heard rather than the buzzing sound of individual whispers. But at the same time we are two separate groups and we need to understand one solution won't always work for the issues of both black and hispanics, the last thing we need is for people to say clump us into one problem that can be solved with the same solution. What we also need are positive male/female role models which have been shown to have a greater impact on a child than finance and economy. That last thing is that we need to stop belittling our struggle, too many people within our community suffer yet they don't want to acknowledge it because they have seen so much that they feel they don't have the right to complain. They thinkg that because they're mother or father went through Jim Crow laws and the other went through slavery that they shouldn't admit they are suffering silently. Just because you aren't in jail or doing **** doesn't mean you should be content with welfare and a job at Burger King.
As for Black colleges, I feel that it is mostly up to the individual to make a drastic change. Jeffrey Canada is a black man who grew up in poverty but made a promise to himself that later on in life helped him contribute millions to urban areas in Harlem where he mentors 10,000 children in hopes of getting them a better lease on life. He feels that the best way to help people is to offer them hope because too many young children are exposed to the wrong thing at an early age where they think that being a rap artist is how we can be successful. Its really important that we expose children to other ideas especially history which is seen so much from a European perspective and minorities are learning a history that aren't attuned to their culture. I feel that if African/Hispanic - American were to learn about heores from their own history it would make the biggest difference in the world.
As a last and final thought, I feel that its important to have one person believe in you but the biggest influence can be yourself.
