Alabama Trip My mom and and dad told me in December that we were going to Gulf Shores, Alabama to visit my grandparents. Gulf Shores is the southernmost town in Alabama, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. I have been there twice when I was little. I remember that I collected seashells and went swimming with Boppa in the pool.
Our government must also be weary of allowing minorities to not be represented in our government. This is very critical in our post 9/11 environment where there is a lot of racial ideals that Muslims and those of middle eastern cultures have a predisposition for terrorism. We can’t let our citizen’s rights be infringed during times of
As of 2012, only fourteen percent of judges were Latino and what is even more disturbing is that only two percent are African American. Nevertheless, the percentage is small, and that has raised concern within minority groups that feel the "larger partisan judicial races make it difficult for minorities to get elected to judgeships, and that Texas judges do not reflect the diversity of the state." (Champagne & Harpham, 2013, p. 292) Ultimately, this will change over decades more and more, as minorities in Texas become the
I’ve completed my move to Houston. I traded in my Maryland license for a Texas one. With that said, I’ve found a new church home. I joined Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church on January 13th. The church is very similar to STCF.
I believe that if there is too much of a difference in race, education, and gender between the general public and the people they choose to represent them, the legislature could not have the public best interest at heart. How could a White male with a graduate degree who owns his own business possible understand the needs of a Latino woman with only a high school diploma who works as a maid? The majority of the Texas Hous and Senate are White males who have a degree of some sort, and the only view that he could possibly understand is how to help better people with his same stature. This reflected now with debates and issues at hand now, they have good intention trying to make Texas a better state to be apart of but, is ultimately unable to see how the decision they make affect general public as a
By developing a new kind of party activist and supporting strong candidates willing to reach across the political divide, we could move past politics as usual. It was this understanding which attracted me to my first post-college job as a Houston field organizer for Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign. I was inspired by Governor Abbott’s personal story as a man able to overcome his circumstances to become the state’s first wheelchair aided governor. I believed fundamentally in the campaign mission of building a stronger Republican Party through improved engagement with historically neglected minority communities. The campaign shared my belief that a successful political party in the 21st Century requires elected officials who reflect the diversity of its people, and that Republicans have a special obligation to show that our values are universal ideals applicable to people of all faiths, races, abilities and sexual
I often think that we could band together as a population to solve race based issues but I’m not sure how, and neither are many politicians (so they just steer clear of the whole subject). I feel like the political state of the country has shaped me to be determined to survive, to take care of myself and my loved ones, and to make sure I’m properly educated because with knowledge I know I’ll have the power to change something’s for the
O-Oklahoma Oklahoma is the place I was born yet the only time I was ever there was maybe the first two to three months of my life I don’t remember obviously. I’ve always wondered what it’s like there. One day I hope to go there because I fell in love with a lot of their sports teams and I want to meet my biological brother. My favorite sports teams in Oklahoma are the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA, and the colleges of Oklahoma State (The Cowboys), Oklahoma (The Sooners), and Tulsa (The Golden Hurricanes). I started paying attention to the NBA when my brother Scott bought NBA 2k11 I played with every team and found myself playing with the Thunder the most, because I loved playing with Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook.
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.
The community I grew up in central Texas celebrated my heritage, honored differences in culture, and fostered personal growth and self-discovery. My parents, with the strong work ethic they developed on their family’s farms in Ghana, encouraged my brother and me to work hard and find ways to use our skills to be of service to others, which wasn’t hard to do growing up in Austin with its many avenues to become involved and take care of the community, whether it was helping to direct families through the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park during the winter or raise money for educational programs for underprivileged kids in the area through working the concession stands at the University of Texas at Austin. It was this collaborative mindset that Austin
According to Juan Gonzalez, in 2009 Latinos “represented slightly more than 1 percent of all elected officials in the country at the time when Latinos were 15 percent of the population.” Latino issues may be raised right now, but their needs
Civic engagement will become incredibly important for the Latino population in America as we seek to enhance our political representation at the local, state, and federal levels. It is no secret that a Latino majority is coming to our great nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 there were more than 20 million children under 5 years old living in the U.S., and 50.2 percent of them were minorities, mostly Latino. Given these numbers, it is especially troubling that research indicates a low level of civic engagement for Latinos across the nation. Because the number of Latinos in the United States is relatively large and growing, the extent to which Latinos remain less engaged in civic life represents a serious gap in America’s public
Author Robert Dahl; make a great point about effective participation. All members must have equal and effective opportunities for making their view known. PEW Hispanic Center reported that Hispanic household wealth fell by 66% from 2005 to 2009. If we look at elections during the year 2005 and 2009, it will show that there was lower voter turnout than in previous years. I want to make the connection that at the time income fell for minorities; this is the same time that republican Rick Perry was elected Governor of Texas (is the head of the executive branch of Texas government) in 2006.
When I was 14 I had to move to San Clemente, California. I had already recently moved temporarily to Texas while a house was made ready for us on the military base. “The house is ready!” my mother had said excitedly, after being on the phone for a few minutes. “It’s time to go back?”
A Bumpy Ride on the Even Road: Still Separate and Unequal with Pluralistic and Two-tiered Pluralistic Society in the United States In order to illustrate the U.S. politics, especially in terms of racial and ethnic minority issues, many political models used as analytical tools to understand the political resources and opportunities of U.S. racial and ethnic groups in contemporary U.S. society had been proposed. Among these politically important models, two of the most fundamentally important are Pluralism and Two-tiered Pluralism (DeSipio, 2015: Week 2 Lectures; Shaw et. al., 2015).
