Examples Of Field Observations

Just to provide an image of my family's size, my maternal grandfather is one of seventeen siblings; all except four had children and so forth. With that in mind, it is no surprise there are many ethnic and social groups represented in my family such as Hispanic, Caucasian, African American, Asian, European, Arabic, lesbian, gay, liberal, conservative, Christian, Catholic, Islamic, and physically and mentally disabled. Growing up, knowing people and qualities from many groups, I became more inclusive and respective of what people believed and, from my viewpoint, I hadn’t really experienced diversity and inclusion issues. At Tarleton, however, I would say I am more aware of same issues and have learned to be especially mindful and careful on campus in order to not provoke

Growing up as a Latino in a community where most of the population are Hispanic had made me blind, detached from the reality of the world and the reality of the college experience, especially in Santa Cruz. Looking at the world I have always known to an extent who had more privilege than others, special attention, and more rights. I have also vaguely known which groups have been treated with less respect seen as less, but all of this didn’t really seem to matter to me in my immediate world. Coming to Santa Cruz on trips such as ORALE and JUSTICE has made me see, made me realize that it does affect me, my family, and my community that privilege is something that isn’t gifted to us but which we fight for, which causes us to be looked at differently

The University of Texas at Austin claims that it has good justifications for its use of race in the admittance program. To provide evidence against Fisher’s claim of being unable to stand up to strict scrutiny, the University said that the Court had previously ruled that the “UT’s limited consideration or race was ‘necessary’ and narrowly tailored to UT’s compelling interest in achieving student body diversity” ("Brief of Respondents University," 2015). After Fisher’s case went to court the first time, the court was persuades that the need for having race as part of the holistic admittance program is not considered a quota because it “a search for students of unique talents and backgrounds who can enrich the diversity of the student body in distinct ways” ("Brief of Respondents University," 2015). The University conducted internal studies and was alarmed at the low rate of minorities attending classes, and is committed to improving the interracial relations by increasing diversity. The University believes that by promoting diversity it will break down long standing racial and ethnic stereotypes, as well as improving cross-racial understanding. They find that this is necessary because our society is still race conscious. Texas is in fact racially segregated within cities. I think that Santa Rosa may even have some segregation, with Roseland having a predominantly low-income Latino population the elementary schools are made up of entirely Latino children, and have poor

There is an examination of the admission rates that demonstrates the mechanism by which the freshman pool of African American and Latino students has shrunk so dramatically” (Patricia Gandara). In California, these supposed benefits of affirmative action are not being seen. A study run by Liliana Garces “documented a 5% decline (from 2,010 to 1,906 students) from 1995 to 1996” of the minority group that was attending “five selective public law schools in California, Texas, and Washington” (Garces). These statistics help notify the public that affirmative action in these few states is actually having a reverse effect on these people, and in this situation affirmative action is creating no benefits for minorities. A similar study performed at UC Berkeley stated that “even as Chicano/Latinos increased their representation in the applicant pool at UC Berkeley from approximately 13 percent in 1995 to 19 percent in 2010, they experienced… nearly [a] 75 percent decline in the rate of admissions compared to just over 40 percent decline for whites” (Gandara). The facts prove that affirmative action at prestigious colleges is not helping minorities become accepted. It is a useless effort that the government is wasting their time on. Therefore concluding that affirmative action within this area is useless and leads many to wonder if we should even waste time on the

In Southern California, whites are no longer the majority in public schools. Throughout my years in school, from kindergarten to high school, Hispanics and Asians were the majority. There were no whites in the schools I attended. There were few white teachers in my schools who practiced racial mimicry.

Given that a university is typically a microcosm of a larger community, the popular discourse about Latina/os can influence the campus climate for Latina/os. This was evident when Calculator and Baileyboy discussed their reactions to the statements a political candidate made about Latina/os. While Calculator and Baileyboy characterized these as false and defamatory, it is possible that these comments resonated with other students on campus. This was evidenced when Maria heard the comment that “Mexicans should go back their own country” and “Mexicans steal all our jobs.” These comments communicated hostility towards Latina/os and may contribute to a hostile climate for Latina/os.

Historically, Latinos have struggled against ethnic labeling, immigration as well challenges surrounding education. This can traced back to mid-19th century when according to Harvest of Empire America’s annexation of Mexico which gave the United States Texas, California, and the southwest. “Mexico’s territory was cut by half and its mineral resources by three-quarters. These appalling numbers help explain so much. In fact, you can arguably lay Mexico’s poverty and loss through emigration right at our doorstep. We got the land. We got the oilfields. So, when you hear talk of a wall at the border know that we also walled off prosperity a century-plus back” (Whittemore, para.1).

With America’s history of people fighting for their rights, we have become accustomed to the idea that activism needs to be extreme; to cause riots, have aggression, and for people to be put in jail to make a point. We have created an image that there needs to be a fierce willingness to fight, in order for activism to be effective. As Malcolm Gladwell describes in “Why the Revolution Should not be Tweeted”, he reminds us of what ‘real’ activism is and how other generations have risked their lives to make a difference, in both their lives and the future of America. He does not think that activists can be considered true activists if they are non-violent when protesting for their rights. However, Gladwell should consider that protesting

According to the Washington Post, UC has admitted more Latino applicants than non-Hispanic whites to its freshman class this year. The Washington Post also states that forty percent of its students are the first in their generation to attend college and four out of ten students come from poor families. The ban on affirmative action seems to be working seamlessly here; however, it is not. This year, UC has admitted 22,000 Asian American, 17,000 Hispanic/Latino, 16,000 non-Hispanic whites, and 2,500 African Americans according to the Washington Post. The diversity on campus is extremely low. There are only 2,500 African American and 22,000 Asian Americans. Because affirmative action increases diversity on campus, many colleges and universities do not want to abolish such a program. Therefore, they are looking for other ways to maintain diversity without violating the constitution.

Institutional analysis has been a crucial component of understanding race and ethnic relations. As many of our institutions are based on education, they are a necessary foundation for establishing equity. Cal Poly has a reputation of having small numbers when it comes to students and faculty of color. While the majority of the population has insisted that conditions have improved, the remainder of the demographics are still underrepresented. Events such as Culture Fest are cultural celebrations, which are held throughout the year to build community for people of color on campus. The attendance of white students for these events is relatively low, and there are mixed feelings about whether or not the numbers should increase. I interviewed six

Nonviolent movements are widespread across America, but very little are effective enough to create monumental change or to have a lasting impact. In their article "Waging Nonviolence: What makes nonviolent movements explode", Mark and Paul Engler explore what makes nonviolent protests powerful enough to force change. Written in December 2014, the article uses modern and historic examples of protest movements, with the main focus on the Occupy Wall Street movement, to create the context as to what each of the methods discussed has accomplished. Using the main example of Occupy Wall Street, the article showcases two major points, disruption and sacrifice, that nonviolent protest movements utilize in order to have the greatest effect, as well as how those two points work together to create lasting impacts. Disruption relies on interrupting everyday life and preventing business from occurring, while sacrifice focuses on what people are willing to risk and give up in order to see the change they wish for. In their article, the Engler’s propose that while these two methods of protest can be effective, protests rarely become large enough to actually create any change, even if they are combined, simply because the major businesses, corporations, and organizations that are being protested hold incredible amounts of political power and therefore are able to very easily shut down protests with police forces. This argument, that protests are inevitably going to fail, is very realistic

There are movements today that seems to be having an extraordinary impact on the social changes that they wish to promote to change, but how much is that driven by authentic activism with a strong tie to specific values that those movements hold? Author Malcolm Gladwell discusses and analyzes how, in the past, the movements that emerged were composed of people who had personal connections with either what the movement was seeking to achieve or the people within that movement. Today it seems as though movements have no noticeable impact and are very loosely tied together due to advances in technology and how we use it. At the time that Malcolm Gladwell’s wrote his article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, it seems like

My understanding of underserved rural environments is limited to what I have read and what I have observed while visiting the Pacific Northwest and the Appalachian region. However, my familiarity with more urbanized underserved regions is much keener. I have discovered a common theme in many of these underserved areas.

“On November 2nd, a coalition of students called Next Yale marched on University President Peter Salovey’s house to submit a list of measures the administration should take to improve the racial climate on campus, including an ethnic studies distributional requirement for all Yale undergraduates” (Victor, 2015). A majority of the students at Yale University voted in favor of making ethnic studies a requirement for undergraduates. In Arizona, around July, legislators decided to prohibit students from taking a Mexican-American ethnic studies class because they believed the class would promote ethnic solidarity instead of promoting the treatment of the people as individuals.

One of the speakers that I was able to connect to was the SSU UndocuScholar Coalition, I’m also an undocumented student and I was able to share my experiences with these speakers. I can speak for myself, when I first came to SSU, I experienced some discrimination because I’m an undocumented student, and because I’m brown. It sounds ridiculous that these things still happen, specially here at Sonoma State University. At some point I felt like dropping out because of how I was treated, but I told myself I’m better than them, and I’m going to prove them wrong. It’s not an easy journey to college for undocumented students, specially for first generation students, who have never been exposed to this type of environment. Not just in education but we also struggle with having some type of representation on this country. Specially now with the new president we have, we don’t feel safe anymore, we are not criminals or rapist, we just want to be educated and pursue a career to have a better future for us and our family. I feel like we have been the target of a lot of