Could it be?

Blog9: Race & Ethnicity

Wow! Was the first impression I got seeing the whole video. In the video there is an experiment going on, where a group of different students take their DNA to see who they are more genetics similar between each other. Of course one of the girls said she will be more alike to Natalie, because of being Latin American. Just as the white male student assumes he will be more genetic similar to the other 2 white males. Now I would say the same, because before seeing this video that’s what I thought, I might have more genetic similarities with my friend, she is from Ecuadorian, than my friend who is African American. After the experiment, they conclude that their assumptions were wrong. The white male actually had more genetic similarities 100% to an African American genetics. This video to me basically explains, how us human beings we assume base on each other’s psychical characterizes, which race we from. But the conclusion is that it’s false, and we are the ones who set society thinking that’s how it was. This was an eye opening for me, because I wouldn’t think that there was even 1% chance that I can have the same genetics as to someone who isn’t a Latino.  The skin color also is said to come in different forms, which at first I did not understand. But as stated in the video “mutations cause variations in our DNA”. I’m still confuse about the sunlight topic.

Throughout my high school experience I seen many of my friends, friends of friends, cousins and even people I did not know drop out of high school. At first I saw it as everyone was dropping out, but while reading  the article “The Hispanic Dropout Mystery: A Staggering 30 Percent leave School, Far More Than Blacks or Whites by Susan Headden, I see that Hispanics have a greater percentage of being dropouts.  The article explains to reasons why there are more Hispanics then whites and blacks dropping out. When teens are asked to why they have dropped out some have answered that, “They’re bored” or “They’re working to support a family”. This is what the teens say, but further in the article it explains to other reasons. Like for one, teens that are born in their native countries their first and only language they know is Spanish. When coming here to the U.S they have to learn English since that’s the number one language that is taught in schools. In Headden article, it states that 43% Hispanic dropouts do not get the “language help” they should get. As stated it is said and been argued that in high school more classroom lessons should be taught in Spanish, in order to help the Hispanic students and prevent them from being a drop out. In Chapter 10, states certain terms about race and ethnicity.  For one being Institutional discrimination, schools not helping Hispanics by teaching more courses in their language can be a sort of way of discrimination. By schools only teaching in English and forgetting about the percentage of Hispanics that do not know anything of English .One question arises in my mind, could it be that the government does not care about Hispanics and could care less if they drop out or not. Being that the government does not set a law that high schools make it mandatory to teach more class lessons in Spanish, to help Hispanic students. The statement I stated previous, addresses to the foreign students, but in the article it states that majority of the Hispanics drop outs are born here and they do speak and understand English. But there is still some Hispanics that Spanish is the only language they know. What I stated previous, I addressed it towards those teens who do not understand nor speak English. Poverty was issue that was also stated in the article. It is a reason towards why Hispanics that were born into poverty also have an impact in the drop out percentage. I feel that this article is connected with the chapter 10, as stated in the chapter, Latinos being the biggest group of people that are growing, but they still growing in minority. Just as poverty being a reason for Hispanics drop outs, maybe having to do with them not being wealthier enough, teens feel the need they have to get a job and help pay house bills. As some of the teens said being one reason they drop out in the article.

                I can say I somewhat agree with what the article stated about reasons towards why Hispanics drop out of high school. I believe that it is true about being born into poverty, by seeing my own friends telling me that their parents have told them to look for a job to help pay bills around the house. Now some of my friends that were born into middle class like me, I never had to worry about the house bills since my parents cover that for me. I can say that my brother is a Hispanic and i really do not like to speak about my private life, but I feel like in this blog I do.  One day about like 2 years ago we got a notice home saying that we have a chance of being the house taken away due to failure of mortgage pay. This was due because 2 apartments in my building the tenants have not paid their rent in 7 months.  My dad cannot work and my mom did not make enough money to pay the mortgage on her salary. My brother had to work and pay the house mortgage of the months that were due. Now my brother at the moment was in college and I believe I was in my senior year of high school. I could have dropped out of high school to get a job and help pay the mortgage.  But I didn’t, because my parents were on top of me every single day making sure I do not drop out. This article has some good points, but everyone has their opinion and I believe it’s the job of a parent to make sure your child does not drop out of high school and within one self. My parents did not play when it came to education, they said I was going to finish high school and they made sure I did.Now where are the parents of these Hispanic drop outs? My father who had a stroke, even though he had a stroke he made sure that I was going to school, even though he at the moment he was not speaking well, he still went to my high school and spoke to my teachers, and see my progress in grades. I can say I am amaze that Hispanics are the more drop outs we have, I was not aware of that.