Cesar Chavez and Impacts of Racism in California
No matter how ridiculous it may seem, but even today, two absolutely different public institutions -Public Schools and Jails- are competing for government attention. And oddly enough, the prisons can be declared as the fair winners. Now, what are the reasons behind these unpleasant results? Does racism have to do anything with it? What place does racism have in our community? What is the reason behind major Black homelessness? These are some questions this paper will answer, using Statement from Cesar Chavez, by Cesar Chavez. This writing piece is to highlight the mighty impact racism has on one of the richest states, i.e. California.
Were public educational institutes always a less priority to the Government? Fortunately, or unfortunately, they were not. Foreign correspondent Gumbel tells The Guardian, “California once had one of the best funded, most envied public education systems in the United States.” In the 1960s and early 70s, public schools got much more attention by the government than what they do now. Back then, five cents out of every dollar of personal income were spent on schools. Now, the amount of personal income spent has dropped to a little more than three cents, and will continue to decrease if the same strategy follows. But what is the real culprit for this sudden lack of interest? It seems to be a certain pattern to it.
Back then, dominating the public schools were the children of Caucasians belonging to wealthy suburban communities. But now it is the children of minorities and low-incomed people that mostly go to public schools. And they? Apparently, they do not have any rights to have proper funding for their education. On the other hand, jails and prisons are well fared by the government, which might make it seem that now, according to the pattern, prisons should be dominated by whites to be well funded. But no. Prisons too are dominated by minorities. So, to be get recognition, children of these minorities must commit crimes? Are they destined for prisons? It seems so!
Evidently, racism has everything to do with this sudden drop of attention towards public schools. Cesar Chavez argues, “We have looked into the future and the future is ours! Asians and Hispanics and African Americans are the future in California. That trend cannot be stopped. It is inevitable.” Chavez emphasizes the major role played by minorities of the California in its future. He tries to bring to spotlight the truth that minor ethnicities in California, i.e. Asians, African Americans, Latinos etc., are the state's future. And keeping them underprivileged is to make our future underprivileged.
In 2002, a federal law, No Child Left Behind Act came into action. It was to raise educational achievements for everyone without any racial or ethnical boundaries. The intentions were to focus on raising the standards of each and every school and institution. But even this law could not bring the solution to California’s educational inequity. As stated by Darling‐Hammond the complications in implementation of the law, instead of achieving the goals, provoked a lot of unintentional frequently harming consequences, affecting the ones it was meant to help the most. Such as narrowed curriculum, inappropriate assessment of English language learners and students with special needs, and focus on low-level skills. She further states, “In addition, the law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children and the shortage of well‐prepared teachers in high‐need schools. A policy that would live up to the law’s name would need to address these issues and reshape the law’s requirements to enable the use of assessments and school improvement strategies that support higher‐quality teaching and learning.” Even after this major act, the problem still persists, and race determines the standard of education a person gets.
USA is a country with multiculturism; a noticeable amount of different people (racially/ethnically) reside within. “When you say ‘America’ you refer to the territory stretching between the icecaps of the two poles. So, to hell with your barriers and frontier guards!” Especially California is home to people from many different ethnicities. Asians, Hispanics, African Americans and as well as the whites. According to 2018 Census estimation, 59.5% Whites (36.6% Non-Hispanic Whites) populate California. The rest are 14.7% Asians, 13.8% Some Other Race, 5.8% Black or African Americans, 0.8% Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, 0.4% Pacific Islanders and 5.1% from two or more races. Still, racism has affected the 40-45% of colored people’s lives in many aspects; other than education. According to Library of Congress, Chinese immigrants have been forced out of business, run out of town, beaten, tortured, lynched, and massacred in Seattle, Los Angeles, Wyoming and even the small towns of California, with little or no hope of help from the law. Since 2016, hate crimes against Latinos/Hispanics have seen to increase by more than 50 percent in California alone. Also, Los Angeles’ issue of homelessness is heavily entrenched in racism, especially against African Americans.
Many families arrived in L.A. as part of the Second Great Migration of African Americans from the South, who were seeking for a better life. At that time, housing discrimination prevailed, and African American families were only allowed to live in specific neighborhoods in the South of Los Angeles, and the practice of redlining, by the racists, denied home loans to residents in these areas. Therefore, three-fourths of Los Angeles County’s African American population lived only in about twenty neighborhoods in South Los Angeles, thus making it a blooming center for Afro-American culture in 1970. But as per a report in the Times, a decade that saw increased outsourcing of manufacturing jobs emaciated the area in the 1980s. Unemployment, gangs, drugs, and high incarceration ate up their zone. Then, the arrival of Hispanic residents raised the cost and standard of living, consequently pushing Afro-American residents to Inglewood, Crenshaw, and even outside of Los Angeles County completely. Today, rates of homelessness among California’s population of Latinx, whites, and Asian and Pacific Islanders don’t even reach the littlest to those of Black residents. Skid Row, also known as “homeless capital of the United States,” is a home to the “Lost Angels” of Los Angeles. It consists of two-thirds of African American homeless and mentally ill/drug addict population, drawn to the area by social services that have been on purpose transferred from other parts of the city.
Thus, all questions answered, it is not hard to figure out that most of the problems faced by the minorities (non-whites) in California are deep-rooted in racism. Racism has a major role in the current circumstances of the state; let it be the unpleasant results of the competition between prisons and public schools; let it be lack of standard of education for Hispanics; let it be major Afro-American homelessness; let it be hate crimes and violence against certain ethnicities. And that is so ridiculous. How can the mere amount of melanin present within determine your status in this world? How can the ones with ABSENCE of color be superior to the ones RICH in color? Should not it be the other way around? Ethically, it should not be any way around. No amount of cells in a body can put anyone above others. Besides, this colored population of California is our asset. Mistreating them, keeping them away from quality education and resources is equivalent to mistreating and disrupting the future. Also, the way mentally ill and disabled people are treated in smaller and poor areas (especially the colored people) is horrible. They are arrested for not being normal. They are beaten up for acting weird and silly. They are abused for not being able to do certain things. These people are not disabled… They are special! They require equal rights and special care and protection. And accepting everyone as equal, providing them with equal opportunities, and staying united will definitely turn our “Unprivileged Future” to a privileged and a successful one!
Work Cited
- “Chinese - Intolerance - Immigration...- Classroom Presentation: Teacher Resources - Library of Congress.” Chinese - Intolerance - Immigration...- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/chinese4.html.
- Darling‐Hammond, Linda. “Race, Inequality and Educational Accountability: the Irony of ‘No Child Left Behind.’” Race Ethnicity and Education, vol. 10, no. 3, 2007, pp. 245–260., doi:10.1080/13613320701503207.
- “Demographics of California.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_California.
- Gumbel, Andrew. “California Schools Were Once the Nation's Envy. What Went Wrong?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Jan. 2019, www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/19/california-school-funding-los-angeles-strike-what-went-wrong.
- Hinojosa, Maria. “Hate Crimes Against Latinos Increase In California.” NPR, NPR, 15 July 2018, www.npr.org/2018/07/15/629212976/hate-crimes-against-latinos-increase-in-california.
- Pandika, Melissa. “How LA's Homeless Problem Is Heavily Rooted in Racism.” Mic, Mic, 23 Dec. 2019, www.mic.com/p/how-las-homeless-problem-is-heavily-rooted-in-racism-19628116.
