This article should make me feel better than I feel, right?
The thing is, I don’t think I’ve truly known what it meant for my ethnic group to be prospering like this. Growing up, Hispanics always had the lowest high school graduation rate, lowest college enrollment rate, and it seemed that everywhere I went, I saw people of Hispanic origin as the people that were in lower job positions (like cleaning crew, cooks, or waiters).
And I’ve been trying to fight it. To be the change. The hope. For myself. For my family. For my people.
Praise God, I’ve been successful so far… becoming the first person in my family to graduate high school, first to go to college and graduate, etc. But little did I know, other people of my same roots were doing the same. I mean, I knew more were going to school, but I escaped it all. I went to a college where the majority of the people were Caucasians… and so I was a bit oblivious to the reality of it all.
Yet, here we are. 2014. And high school drop-out rates have fallen from 32% to 15%! The percentage of high school graduates enrolled in college has increased from the 30’s (for so long) to 49%!
What this means is that, thank God, efforts across the country to change disparities and injustices are working! I mean, we still have quite a ways to go… but this is a good step!
So, now what? When you fight with the same statistics, the same disappointment and sadness, for so long, what do you now when it starts to change? How do you react? What do you feel?
At first, I was lost. At first, I was saddened. Why? Because I feel that by having better statistics, successful programs, the majority of the U.S. will stop pushing… I fear they will say “Well, job well done, let’s move on, there are no more battles to fight or hoops to jump through.” But the reality is that the battle has barely begun! We are advancing, yes, but we are not at the finish line… by any means!
Our children are still at a disadvantage; low-income children hear 3 million fewer words by age 3 than the wealthier peers. Our incarceration rates are still high; nearly 1 in 3 persons held in federal prisons are Hispanics. Our income is still low. And our health is still poor.
And with an increase in college enrollment rate of Latino youth, the battle just begins. As a person who was the first in her family to go to college, I can attest to this reality—- it’s a battle in and of itself to go to college when no one in your family has done it before. Many people give up. Praise God, I didn’t, because His strength sustained me. But it was hard and I could not have done it without all the support that He provided me through those around me.
Enough with the ranting.
I am proud. I do rejoice. I have hope. That things are changing.
But I also pray. I pray that the support will grow for Latino youth. For Latino children. For my people. For all people.
Because the battle’s not over.
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