Ethnic Diversity In Texas Essay

The richness of El Paso, Texas relies on the vast diversity observed in each one of its citizens, which has opened the way for El Paso to develop as a multicultural city.

As the United States faces many changes, every state under its regime is affected. This is why Texas always seems to be facing issue after issue. According to current college students attending different universities in the state of Texas, the problems Texas has recently been facing ranges from: high rates of accidents caused by highway constructions; influx of illegal immigrants crossing over especially here in Brownsville; to the smuggling of drugs into the country since the Gulf of Mexico is so close. However, surprisingly each of these students living in different cities within the state have expressed that the most worrisome current issue Texas has been struggling with is funding the educational system.

Texas Ten Percent plan purpose is to maintain diversity in its most-competitive public universities in a race-neutral way (Daugherty, Martorell, and McFarlin). The way this program works is by automatically accepting anyone who attended a public high school in the state of Texas and graduated within the top ten percent of their class. Although what this programs was meant to help disadvantaged minorities or low income students, it ends up hurting not only students that attended a low performing high school by admitting them in an university for which they’re not qualified for, but they also “take spots from better-qualified students who are not admitted under the TTP Plan” (Daughtery, Martorell, and McFarlin Jr.) Giving students who attended a competitive high school a disadvantage to get accepted in a flagship university. However, the main issue on the education issue is not about what race is getting the better education, but how the system is funded.

Texas has always been very diverse in regards to our political cultures. These cultures have transformed over the years which makes Texas a hard place to govern. According to Daniel Elazar, each state is associated with a political culture classification scheme of moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic cultures. By definition, political culture is the shared values and beliefs about the nature of the political world that give us a common language that we can use to discuss and debate ideas. (21)

This growth has led Latinos to become one of the “largest” racial/ ethnic groups in American Higher Education: 55 million strong, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2014. Yet, they are one of the least educated and the least represented ethnic groups in educational institutions. However, they are the least studied and represented ethnic groups in educational institutions. The Latino representation in educational institutions are lower compared to other ethnic minorities.

The history of political parties in Texas is marked by nearly a century of Democratic Party dominance followed by a realignment that shifted the balance of power in favor if the republicans. Political science professor Cal Jilson noted that the dominance of one party in Texas has been a result of the state’s dominant values. Both parties in Texas today reflect more conservative versions of their national counterparts. The other chapter talks about the Interest groups in Texas. Interest groups plays a critical role in all democratic systems of government.

Immigrants have become a relevant topic as well with racism and unfair treatment, but even so things have begun being more pessimistic, and the overall feeling is not extremely focused on Latinos, but everyone as a whole. Texas government and history have deep roots with the spanish and while many people see this in the cities, and the culture that is predominantly hispanic there are still issues that come up daily. Nonetheless the progress that has been achieved is commendable, and Latinos have truly gone a long way despite that things still could be better. The heritage and lifestyle is still troubled by leaders and everyday racism, but those are things that are slowly changing as unions and people group up together. Just like Texas was once in possession of the Spanish the roots go deep in this

Ivins ' Article points out important arguments in Texas that require greater research and comprehension, however, all of her stances have supported research. The dilemmas that Ivan addresses in her literature are situations Texas is still dealing with in the modern era and requires much improvement on. These problems include Homophobia, Racism and a new identification of what it means to be a ‘Texan’. Although changes such as same-sex marriage legalization are sweeping across America, there are still articles surfacing about blatant Homophobia in the same regions of Texas. More recently, Houston voted against the non-discrimination policy, which made it illegal to actually discriminate against someone in the workplace; this is while Texas is still dealing with hate towards race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Although voter turnout has been steadily climbing within recent years, Texas is still on the lower end of the spectrum for voter turnout in America. Many are eligible, but few send in their ballots or show up to the polls on election day. The projected voter turnout is measured by the state's voting age demographic, eighteen years and older, and further estimated based on ethnic groups. Back in early Texas history, voters

El Paso- Juarez deal with the influx of their diverse student body in many different ways. When migration illustrates a positive influence; it revolves around the scope of

Political culture establishes the backdrop against which politics unfold, it establishes the outer limits of what is possible, or even probable in the political realm. Texas political culture can be described as traditionalistic and individualistic. Texas traditionalist political culture believes in the values that policies are designed to preserve social order in the state, politicians come from society’s elite, and politicians have a family obligation to govern. While on the other hand, individualistic political culture believes that government should be limited when it comes to the lives of the public, individual rights of the citizens should be the main focus of a government rule, and a stronger support of personal politics rather than elitism. Texas also has a strong populism influence. How populism is different from traditionalist and individualistic is that populism in Texas focuses on economic justice. The populism party was formed by the Farmers Alliance movement and the party’s main focus was using government power to protect individuals from the exploitation of big business and corporations.

The saying for Texas is “everything is bigger in Texas”. Most Americans see Texas as a thriving state with large areas of land, big homes, and big incomes. This reality may be true for some Texans, but not the majority. Texas actually leads in the rankings for poverty. “As of January 22, 2015, Politifact Texas listed on their website that Texas has increased in the poverty rates from 15.1 percent to 17.5 percent.”

Race Relations in Texas History Texas has long been regarded as The Lone Star State, and throughout its history, attracted many different cultures and ethnicities to call it home. Some migrated to the land for gold, other to escape religious persecution in European countries. From the early contact with Native Americans to the discrimination of illegal immigrants in present day, the history of Texas teems with examples of issues of races relations. Texas’ long battle with racism began with the discovery of the Mexico and Texas area in the 1500s by the Spanish. Motivated by the fabled riches and cities of gold to be found in the new world, these men, known as conquistadors, began a journey into unknown territory, and with them, brought immense

The increasing numbers of Latino youth who obtain college degrees are become active in politics, with the biggest trend of Latino population is youth and growth we can only hope for even more support in politics. “For the first time ever, Latinos accounted for one in ten votes cast nationwide in the presidential election, and Obama recorded the highest ever vote total for any presidential candidate among Latinos, at 75%” (Barreto and Segura 145). The Latino vote is becoming a crucial element to politics because of their size in population. . “While turnout declined nationally from 2008 to 2012 (by 2%), among Latinos there was a 28% increase in votes cast in 2012 (from 9.7 million to 12.5 million) and Obama further increased his vote share among Latinos in 2012 compared to 2008” (Barreto and Segura 145). In recent polls

As the Latino population of the United States continues to burgeon, so does its influence in all aspects of American society. The far-reaching influence of Latinos has exploded in the past few decades, with 17% of the U.S. population who identify as Latino controlling over $1.5 trillion USD in spending power. A section of society where Latino influence continues to rise is in the American political process and the formation of public policy. Latinos have managed to fill a vacant position in nearly every spot of government, culminating with a U.S. Latino holding a crucial stake in a fierce battle for the presidency. As Latinos continue to grow in size and influence, attention should be invested in promoting civic engagement and enhancing political representation of Latinos at all levels of government.