Mickel Hoback

Diversity

This week’s reading covered diversity, populations-at-risk, and empowerment in the macro social environment. The chapter discussed how African-Americans, Hispanics, GLBT people and women still faced many challenges in today’s society. The chapter explained that several things have been done to help these groups establish themselves within the community. African-Americans have established support groups, women have created community programs that educate the public about issues facing them, and the gay and lesbian community have started support groups and recently taken an active role in legal litigation in order to improve their standing within the community. All these groups have come a long way in recent years and still much is need to be done, however the one group that impacted me the most was that of the Hispanic community.
About ten years ago I never gave much thought to the Hispanic immigrants that lived in this country and may have even at one time agreed that if “they” were not here by legal means then we should deport them. Within the last few years several situations have changed my way of thinking and educated me concerning this way of thought. It seems like just recently several laws concerning Hispanics have been enacted which has made it pretty much legal to discriminate against this population. While other groups may be making small steps forward Hispanics have been kicked several steps back. No just looking Hispanic when you are grocery shopping is a reason to be detained and taken off to jail. This last issue is really odd in that I have been to Mexico several times and have seen several pale Hispanics with blond, red and brown hair.
In recent years mothers and fathers in Mexico have found their young sons forced into the drug trade and their daughters, sometimes not even 10-years old, forced into prostitution. I’m pretty sure if you asked most parents here in America if they would flee a situation where this was happening to their children they would all respond yes, weather it was by legal means or not. It seems odd that the Hispanic community is good enough to fight for our country pave our roads and work in jobs that are unwanted by the American population but they are not good enough to live here. A little food for thought……..Hurricane Katrina. This was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. If anyone is familiar with the storm in Louisiana then they should be aware of the people that came to the rescue well before our own government did. This was the first time in history that our government opened the boarder and allowed the Mexican military to cross into the United States and help these people that were displaced and hungry. I remember sitting there watching the TV as a convoy of Mexican military trucks crossed over the boarder bringing food, water, and much needed supplies to our citizens when we were in need. It seems that the Hispanic community rose to the occasion when we needed them the most but have now been cast as a strain on our community since the situation has now been addressed by our own government. Guess we will just have to wait until once again we are the victims of some unforeseen situation and then we will call on them once again.