"African American & Hispanic Unity" Essay Contest

[WiLLMoss]

The "African American & Hispanic Unity" Essay Contest is available to:

1. Graduating High School Seniors
2. Undergraduate College Students
3. Graduate College Students

Scholarship Rules:
You must write an essay that is between 500 and 2,500 words explaining your thoughts and solutions to the following points:

1. Why should African Americans and Hispanics in the United States work together as minorities to address political, cultural, communication, and community issues?
2. What can be done to strengthen the relationship between the African American and Hispanic communities living within the United States?
3. How and why should Historically Black College & Universities continue to support the needs of African American Students and possibly the needs of the growing Hispanic (and Afro-Hispanic) population in the United States?

Deadline For Essays:

• June 1st, 2007

Scholarship Payout:

• September 2007
• $1,000.00
• Must prove enrollment in a college or university in the United States

Submitting Your Essay:
First create a user account: http://forums.hbcuconnect.com/register.php

Essays need to be submitted as NEW THREADS here in the HBCUCONNECT user forums under the "Essay Contest Forum". You can edit your submission as many times as necessary before the deadline...
All essays will be made readable only by you until our deadline for submissions has been met. Once the deadline has been met, we will open up all threads for PUBLIC viewing while we select finalists. Once finalists are selected we will post a poll to allow for public voting for winners.

In order to manage your submission you will need to create a user account and post your essay using the following link:
http://forums.hbcuconnect.com/newthr...newthread&f=52


Sincerely,

HBCU CONNECT STAFF
750 Cross Pointe Rd. Suite Q
Columbus, Ohio 43230

[kfountain]

Historically black colleges should continue to support the needs of African Americans students and the also the needs of growing Hispanics because it give adults another chance to educate themselves for the better. From the ones that does poor on test, low income, young parents, drop outs, and the ones that contain a criminal record. These are all people that are seeking for another chance in life and HBCUS are here to provide forgiveness. Horace Mann said, “Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin ... the great equalizer of the conditions of men - the balance-wheel of the social machinery. It does better than to disarm the poor of their hostility toward the rich; it prevents being poor.” Sadly a Degree is the only thing that African Americans and Hispanics can contain to compete in the real world to be considered eligible for a job. Education is the equilibrium in United States and Historically Black Colleges and University has proven that fact plenty of times with the success of having alumni’s that accomplished the unbelievable and unthinkable.

HBCUS knows living life not being white in society is arduous in especially in modern times because during this generation we are undergoing an open racism society. Not only against whites but every ethnic group even our own. I say this because Blacks and Hispanics are being degraded and Historically Black College and Universities give us an environment for the moment to not be reminded that Blacks and Hispanics are considered the inferior and make us superior in mind, body, and soul. Hispanics and Blacks need to come together because we are the race that people point their finger to when things in society are wrong. For example we are the race with the highest drop out rates, pregnancy, and the highest race in jail. We need to change these statistics by working together doing more community services and become a role model for the young and get involved in the Big Brother and Sister Program especially in college to show them that college. Because if we reach out to the young ages and becoame a role model they will view life and education as a requirement for gaining money and not stealing and drugs.We must give confidence and love back that we have lost through the struggles and the constant battles of failure. Furthermore remind us that we are the youth of progress and were can change even more then our ancestors. When Blacks are Hispanics graduates it give them a purpose and send them off with a mission. A Mission that All Historically Black Colleges and University supplies, which is not to forget your past because you’re past will make the future and is the instigator of your life work.

With the ambition of Og Mandino saying, “I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.” A person that A Historically Black College had made and craft to perfection.

[miabee83]

A lack of communication in our country dates date back decades before slavery. My parents and grandparents often shared with me there stories of hardship growing up during the fifties, sixties, and seventies. During my elementary and secondary school years I attended predominately white schools. The only time discrimination or slavery was brought up was during the month of February. After the brief “black history” lectures, I can remember my naïve mind thinking, “Boy, I’m glad things have changed.” There is a serious lack of communication in the world today. Starting high school I moved from the country to an urban and diverse city, this was an eye-opening experience. As a woman and African American I am constantly reminded that even today I have strikes against me. I see neighborhoods that are filled only with once race, and I find myself pondering how nothing has really changed. We are still segregated, we have segregated ourselves.

It would be beneficial for Blacks and Hispanics to integrate. Although, it seems that each individual race has been hurt and neglected for so long, that the overwhelming response has been to bind yourself to your own. This was done in the beginning as self preservation. It is now time to heal. The strength of our communities will start with the strength within each individual.

Black colleges are need to continue to give guidance, especially to those in areas where poverty rules. Opportunities are hard to recognize when survival itself becomes a challenge. Black colleges do a superb job of breaking the stereotypes, and passing the message that we are a people of great value. Other peoples of color need encouragement and I believe black college’s unconsciously gives such encouragement. Joining together our two strong and proud cultures would show there is strength in numbers. Drawing together, learning from each other, no longer feeling hopeless, and appreciating that we are not alone will help to infuse that needed true sense of respect.

Love is the answer; we need to love our neighbors, family, and most importantly ourselves. The world is unique and valuable due to its diversities. African Americans and Hispanics can not do it alone. The issues drowning our society are not racial, there is a global problem. We must start a new chapter, a whole new book with a new fresh title and fresh pages. Pen to paper will tell of the glorious achievements yet to be reached. Always writing of memories, but using these memories as a forward stepping stone. We were not made to walk the earth and live alone. There is an unknown that is laid out before us and one nationally will not make it alone.

[rfishercap2]

I believe that the only way that we wil be able to gain full acceptance in this world is to work together as minorities, in order to become a majority. Even though we have all settled in this country as one, we have been seperated into a different class of a low income of people. As a minority we do not feel welcome, due to the serious amount of discrimination received as a whole. We often have to fear for our lives mainly because of the fact that we are different, expectually in urban and metro areas. The majorities of our nation are blinded by incompatance and fail to see the problems that we as minorities have to face, such as social and economic conditions. It shows throughout the nation that the majorities have the mentality to treat minorities unequal. I believe that the journalists and reporters could come across some of the issues of minorities that we deal with such as, employment, housing, and fear that we won't gain full acceptance in a nation that is supposedley free. With the political issue, African Americans were already vaulted from the doors of politics until the 80's and the 90's, but after they were able to run for office they have shown the nation that they have a immense political expierience. But we as a minority need to address this problem of political issues in a strong manner, or we will further drift from the area of politics. I believe that historically should support the needs and wants of black colleges, and universities based on the common fact that it is a black majority in black colleges and universities. So African Americans should be the binificiary for the needs and wants of the universities. Our date of justice is overdue, and there will come a day when African Americans and Hispanics will come together to fight against injustice. Not only African Americans and hispanics, but as a whole minority we will rise up and achieve justice. We must follow the road to sucess. I believe that we all have unlimited ideas of bringing hispanics and african americans together, but we have a limited voice to speak the idea.

[ajtaber]

One can not truly understand the real meaning of being discriminated against until one experiences the discrimination and begins to feel ashamed and isolated. The vision of a life in the land of freedom often turns into a gloomy reality when the world that surrounds you turns against you, denies you of your basic needs as a human being and singles you out in a crowd. The feeling is nauseating and it could easily turn you into one of those people that at some point or another classified you as different, an outsider or simply put Hispanic.
As I grow into the woman I hoped to become, I have learned that classifying myself will not allow me to continue growing. Classifying myself as a Hispanic or as a minority will prevent me from attaining the goals I wish to achieve within this life time. I strongly believe that we must not continue to isolate each other from the rest of the World. The idea of being part of a better World must begin with a total unison of all the members of this country. We must work together, as one, not as African Americans working together with Hispanics but as one entity with a common goal of a better, safer world.
Education and life itself has taught me that forgiveness and understanding are the first two steps one must take in order to grow as a person. As I give my time to a community filled with different races, backgrounds and beliefs, I see myself as part of this World. I see myself as a team member trying to accomplish one ultimate goal of community awareness, not awareness for Hispanic only or African Americans only. In order to strengthen the bonds between communities we must begin to see each others as members of one bigger community. A community filled with forgiveness and willingness to accept each other for who we are under the color of our skin or the place where we were born. A community that will take all those who wish to enter, after all it is inscribed into the Lady of Liberty: “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses learning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door”
Being singled out and made to feel inferior to others for reason like place of birth or color of skin has allowed me to truly understand what being discriminated against feels like. I am a firm believer that being part of a bigger picture is the solution to all our problems. Believing that we belong to one group, the human kind, will allow us all to achieve more, not only with political or community issues but with all aspects of life. Supporting each other, with that I mean all of us; will be the only way for us to continue succeeding as human beings.

[Jjean23]

Jeffrey
Malden High School
4/24/07

Health Desparities

One of the greatest community desparities African American and Hispanics deal with today is health desparity. Today in the U.S. prices for health care are at an all-time high and it seems that the majority of the minority class is being left behind.
Health Desparities in the United States is a large epidemic that needs to be countered with a solution.Unfortunately many people are aware of this problem ,but not much has been done about it. They spin of jokes or think it is hopeless to believe it will every change. In regards defining to health deparities , one might define it as the inequality or unequal chance for promotion , fashion of treatment , or tenderness of care.These resenments towards attending proper health care can be seen in everyday minority's , and as a result it is causes them shorter lives.This epidemic will never cease unless people of different color continue to penetrate barriers in thier careers.
People like thier own people, especially when they are in times of doubt . Minority's feel uncomfortable going to the doctor, they rather put faith into herbal remedies than listening to a doctor half the time. In thier eyes the world is a money making machince, and since most of them are in no close proximity to the top they have a constant feeling of being an "underdog". An "underdogs" never side with the big dog they try to show them up or deal with thing own thier own. Instead of thinking the doctor is helping them out, they probably have an inclination that the doctor wants to get thier money. One might also, conjure the theory that whites have lesser risk for certain health malacies , because of thier likeliness to go to the doctor.While African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population, they account for only nine percent of nurses, six percent of physicians, and five percent of dentists, according to the Sullivan Commission report. If one puts these statistics together its safe to say whites make up about 90 percent of the nurses , about 95 percent of docters and about 95 percent of all dental hygenist. The higher rates of good health seem to be a direct relation to the circumstance and futhermore the prominece of thier race in health. Therefore one should conclude that health desparities is a result of lack of trust. Not a method lack in biological understanding.

[Jujuu]

James Carraway
"African American & Hispanic Unity" Essay Contest
May 2007

African American & Hispanic Unity Resulting from Education

As the son of an African American father from South Carolina and a mother from Panama, the topic of African American and Hispanic unity is one that I find very important and feel could be addressed better through a clearer understanding of each respective culture between the two groups. I feel that young people are the hope of the future concerning issues such as this, and that through education and studying the historical and sociological backgrounds of African American and Hispanic cultures they can become closer and accomplish a great deal through cooperation.
Published in 1968, the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences described the function of education in the U.S. as raising the “culturally unformed” (512). Two specific examples of the culturally unformed given in the volume were children and immigrants. Nearly forty years later, the leading group of immigrants to the United States, Latinos, also lead the country in high school drop out rates. Many of these students are either the children of recent immigrants or immigrants themselves. Unable to afford the luxuries of private schooling and upper middle class homes, children living in urban areas attend schools where they are tracked into vocational occupations rather than encouraged to matriculate to college. Details of our educational system such as the ones just described are indicative of the crises American students face.
My third grade classroom provided me with the experience to witness another aspect of the flawed American educational system firsthand. One of my classmates lived with a mental disorder. The school I attended offered Special Education classes, however he was not involved in any of them despite being mentally challenged. Being in a normal paced class, he was unable to be as involved as the other students either. He was constantly ridiculed and made fun of by other students and the teacher did not have the patience to effectively manage him because of his disability. At the same time, there was another student in the school who was not mentally challenged but required Special Ed classes. He was one of very few African American students at my elementary school, and his being in Special Ed earned him the crude moniker “that black retarded kid.” The fact that children do not all learn at the same pace and immediately placing a new student in Special Ed would only exacerbate the embarrassment and potential aggressive behavior of this specific student were not taken into consideration. In addition to this particular student, several other African American children as well were relegated to Special Ed. Caucasian students deemed hyperactive or disruptive on the other hand took “Occupational Therapy.” Nationwide, African American students constitute 17 percent of the population, but make up 41 percent of students placed in Special Education.
Problems such as these stem from as far back as 1954 and have been relatively overlooked since. The significance of 1954 is that this was the year that the U.S. Supreme Court declared racially segregated education unconstitutional. While obviously a step forward, years of social psychological work that studied the problems of ethnic prejudice and discrimination, some of which was even cited in the Supreme Court ruling, ended up being ignored, resulting in desegregation conditions that were largely inadequate. Consequentially, as stated in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, “the self esteem of minority students and the favorability of interracial attitudes among both majority and minority students often decreased rather than increased after schools were desegregated” (29).
The application of American psychologist Elliot Aronson’s “jigsaw classroom” concept could help to alleviate the strain of cultural differences within classrooms if implemented. This model of class creates equal-status relationships and cooperative learning situations by giving all students the responsibility of taking turns teaching their own interracial groups part of lesson materials. In taking part in this, students learn tolerance and acceptance of others who are different than their selves.
First used in Austin, Texas in 1971, the system was brought into usage due to the growing tensions among African American, Latino American, and white American students attending school together for the first time as a result of busing. They came into the situation aware of the stereotypes they had been raised with, but no real experience of a multiracial environment. Thus, they more or less believed in those preconceived notions.
From a historical perspective, African Americans are coming from a long cycle of poor education. While enslaved, they were not allowed to read or write. Once freed, they had few people willing to teach them. In the following decades, they were unable to attend good schools as a result of the “Separate but Equal” law.
Latinos, on the other hand, often come from a household where English is a second language and as a result their parents sometimes are unable to offer help with schoolwork. Their culture also is similar in some ways to that of African Americans. Prior to European colonization, indigenous cultures thrived in Mexico and Central and South America. Spanish colonizers intermarried and had children with the indigenous people, and also brought in African slaves that too intermarried and had children. Through these processes, modern Latinos came about. So aside from the colonial historical similarities, there are significant numbers of Latinos with African blood.
Over the past 140 years or so, African Americans have been able to found and sustain 114 historically Black colleges and universities. Despite much adversity and discrimination, they had help from white sympathizers. Latinos are also facing a large amount of adversity and discrimination, yet they do not have as loud a voice in society. Because of their similar economic, societal, and historical conditions, I think African Americans should absolutely do what they can.
Both African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in the medical field, among others. The pharmacy program at Xavier University of Louisiana has already attracted large numbers of Asian American students. Fisk University has a good relationship with medical schools, and Tougaloo College ranks among the top 50 U.S. institutions whose graduates earn PhDs in science and engineering disciplines and among the top 15 HBCUs in the graduation of female students with undergraduate degrees in the physical sciences. It also has produced more graduates who have completed their PhD degrees through the UNCF -Mellon Doctoral Fellowship Program than any other American Institution (National Science Foundation.) With resources such as these, African Americans have put themselves in the position to be able to reach out and help young Latino students who do not have the same assistance in their communities.
Beyond education, students living in urban and rural areas continue to lag behind in comparison to those attending better schools. Students from low-income backgrounds are directed towards careers in vocational fields and manual work, while those from higher income families have access to schools with college preparation courses and other resources for
furthering their education, thus giving them more opportunities after graduation. The educational system is turned into a talent farm of sorts. Once a teacher has in their mind what they believe a student to be capable of, that student’s educational destiny may very well be determined for them. In an article for the “Harvard Educational Review”, journalist Ray Rist noted from his own observations that tracking can begin as early as the eighth day of kindergarten.
The futures of these students are being placed in the hands of the teachers. Educational consultant Jawanza Kunjufu has done extensive studies within classrooms, with some common factors within the results. One example is that of students being told a story, and then having to recite it back. African American children from low-income households tended overwhelmingly to recreate the stories with a lot of hand gestures and body movement, attempting to make the story more interesting. These animated behaviors are seen in a negative light most often. Simple traits such as the livening up of a fairy tale theoretically may result in a student being placed in Special Ed, and tracking takes over from there.
In a country where there is such a shortage of workers in the medical fields and also limited numbers of teachers, it is beneficial to everyone that the high school graduates of this society are not relegated to jobs in the field of manual labor just because of where they are from or how much money their family has. The United States of America is still an oppressive society, where female workers continue to make less money than males and standardized tests required for college entry are still culturally biased. If all students are given an equal chance and integrated at an earlier stage in life, bigotry and bias possibly will eventually become obsolete. A broader range of individuals will be able to succeed. Learning that we are not so different and are all out to better ourselves is an excellent thing to have and is attainable most easily through the younger generations.