Discrimination

Shannon Pollard Doyle Axia College of University of Phoenix Though bilingual programs are offered in the schools, Hispanic minorities do not get the same education as other students due to language barriers and an absence of bilingual teachers. As the former room mother for my daughter’s second grade class, I have seen first hand the problems associated with this topic. When planning special activities such as parties, field trips, and PTA events, some of her classmates were unable to communicate with me due to the language barriers mentioned above. It was even harder for me to communicate to the parents of these children when it was necessary. As a community member of Henrico County, Virginia most of the residents surrounding me are of white European decent. The majority of my immediate neighbors look like me in color and have similar features. However, there are multiple African American and Asian families in my neighborhood as well. Although, these races are predominate in my area there are a number of Hispanic families in the county. According to the US Census Bureau, only 3.6% of the county’s residents are of Latino or Hispanic background. This is a small percentage compared to the 65.4% of White Americans and 27.8% African Americans. “As Principal of Ridge Elementary, it is my duty to treat each child equally no matter what their religious, racial or ethnic background may be.” (Mrs. Robin Exton) Though this may be true for Mrs. Exton, it may not be true in every school in the county. In 2002, George W. Bush signed off on the “No child left behind” law allowing every elementary school child to pass on to the next grade. This law allows the school systems to teach what needs to be taught in order for the children to pass Standards of Learning tests. I believe that this law was placed into effect in order to help the students with learning disabilities and children of races not speaking English to feel as equal as others. Considering these two factors I feel that the leaders in my community treat people like me and others in the same way. I have lived in my current neighborhood for the last three years and have been treated with the utmost respect since the day that I moved in. Considering the neighborhood that I live in is an old neighborhood still heavily populated by elderly white families, I feel that there is a lot of prejudice that still lingers here. When a house goes up for rent or for sale in this neighborhood, my neighbors always express their fears of a black family or Hispanic family moving in. I don’t believe that the other members of my community treat all races equally. I have noticed that when a family of white European decent moves into our neighborhood there is a sense of relief and the residents are more than happy to welcome them to the neighborhood. In Richmond, Virginia there are four local news stations. Each of these stations display the same news broadcast with different approaches. It is rare that you ever see a positive story about a middle class Caucasian female such as myself. Most often than not the stories that surround women like myself are of a negative nature that envelop legal issues. These issues can range from petty theft to homicides and the like. In the Henrico County community in which I live, daycares, spas, hair salons and schools are predominately owned and/or operated by middle class white women. Our local gas stations, convenient stores and bodega’s are predominately owned and/or operated by middle class Hispanics. The Fortune 500 companies and local distribution centers such as Coca Cola and Wella in Henrico, Virginia are almost always owned and operated by upper class white men. Though these companies are run in this fashion, there are several opportunities for other races to become part of their team. This being said, it appears to me that there is little to no opportunity for lower or middle class citizens in my area to be promoted to positions of leadership. Due to the diversity of the area in which I live, I feel that the interest of the minority groups surrounding me are represented. There are many shopping centers that have been created in order to provide clothing, food, religious items, and other necessities to accommodate the different races and cultures within my community. These shops are normally in areas where the different ethnic and racial groups are densely populated. In addition to this accommodation there are also different places for religious worship. In the last couple of weeks I received a letter from the Henrico County Public School Board notifying all parents of school-aged children that there would be changes in the way they collect and report race and ethnicity. The letter states, “The new reporting format allows students to designate multiple races in order to more accurately reflect their diversity. In doing so re-identification of some current students will be required as our system is aligned to new guideline.” It further states, “The new race and ethnicity data collections will use a two question format. First you will be asked if you are of Hispanic and/or Latino origin. Hispanic and/or Latino is defined as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central America or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race. The second question will pertain to race. You will be asked to identify one or more race categories you identify as your child’s race. (Henrico County Public Schools) I believe that it is a positive thing that Henrico Public Schools are now distinguishing the different races that fall within an origin. In doing so I feel that prejudices against the Hispanic/Latino race and ethnicity will decrease. I feel this way because we are setting a better example starting with educating today’s youth as well as their parents on the different categories of race. I feel an enormous inequity within Henrico County is the pay scale and how Hispanics/Latinos are treated in the job market. I have witnessed in my previous jobs that Hispanic women and men are paid minimum wage or below doing the same type of job that I did. For example, when I was hired to work for American Security Group, I was being paid twice as much an hour than my Hispanic co-worker. I was also promoted to a higher paying position within four months of being hired, whereas my co-worker was declined the promotion and she had worked for the company for two years. I feel that Hispanic men and women are discriminated against in the work force because of lack of education on ethics within management. In an attempt to change this inequity I would create workshops for business owners as well as people of the Hispanic race. The approach that I would take for business owners would be a workshop educating them on racial diversity of all races. By doing so my hope would that they would develop a better understanding of racial quality. For the Hispanic employees my goals would be targeted toward building better self-esteem, self-confidence, motivation, and overall self-worth. By completing these two goals I would hope that the pay rate and job promotions would increase drastically. By educating both the business owners and the Hispanic employees I believe that this would create a happy medium.