In the autobiography Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez the author employs the theme of higher education to defend his views on affirmative action. He shares his views and experiences on the issue as a minority alienated in a majority white American society in the 1960’s-70’s. Although he was a well–educated Mexican American, his ethnicity classified him as a minority. In college, despite being anti-affirmative action, Rodriguez still reaped the benefits of affirmative action. He believed that affirmative action should not be not be determined by race, but student’s intellectual ability to complete college.Affirmative action in his eyes not only discriminated against non-minority, but also gave way for failure due to the lack of proper schooling before post-secondary institutions for minorities. The term minority student means that students were disadvantaged and were underrepresented in America. Richard argues that the people who affirmative action was designed for were not benefiting because affirmative action was not …show more content…
Knowing: I was not disadvantaged like many of the new nonwhite students who were entering college, lacking good early schooling.” (157). He believed that he was solely considered a minority because of he checked the Hispanic box indicating his ethnicity, even though he received a good catholic school education all his life and came from a middle class family in Sacramento California. During this time in his life, Rodriguez realized that he had a strong discomfort at being the beneficiary of affirmative action. His outcry of his true emotions in 1970 resulted in praised by politicians but caused cultural tension between him and the Hispanic community because he pointed out that any lessened ethnicity in college was considered a minority under affirmative action. Richard wanted to point out that not every person associated with an underrepresented race is a
Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to personal identity. An evidence to support Richard Rodriguez’s claim in this section is when he says “ I am chinese, and that is because I live in a chinese city and because i want to be chinese”. (163-165) This evidence reveals, rodriguez point that ethnicity has nothing to do with race . He says that a person can choose their ethnicity based on the way they want to act and on things they want to be value. Rodriguez got used to the differences and actually started to like them.
After reading the book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” written by Beverly Daniel Tatum, I was left wanting more information on process-oriented and goal-oriented equality programs. Tatum quickly visits these two points in roughly two paragraphs, so I sought out other outside resources to better understand the two terms and how they interact with affirmative action. First, affirmative action is described as "any measure, beyond simple termination of a discriminatory practice, adopted to correct or compensate for past or present discrimination or to prevent discrimination from recurring in the future." (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Statement on Affirmative Action, October 1977). In other words, a program
Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States founded primarily for the education of African Americans. Prior to the mid-1960s, HBCUs were virtually the only institutions open to African Americans due to the vast majority of predominantly white institutions prohibiting qualified African Americans from acceptance during the time of segregation. As such, they are institutional products of an era of discrimination and socially constructed racism against African Americans (Joseph, 2013). Successfully, millions of students have been educated in spite of limited resources, public contempt, accreditation violations, and legislative issues. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss
In 2010, the average percentage of students between white and black high school graduates that will enroll in a two year or four-year college are very close, with only about ~1-3% difference between the two. Especially notably, the enrollment rates of blacks are above 60%. Way more than DuBois’s expected “10%.” Du Bois's idea of obtaining secondary and higher level education proved to be correct and
In the article, “UT’s Affirmative Action Policy Is Unconstitutional,” Daniel Hung argues that affirmative action should not be in the college admission process. Hung explains the Supreme Court’s rulings of Gutter v. Bollinger and, more specifically, Fisher v. The University of Texas. He also criticizes the UT’s affirmative action policy and why the Supreme Court should rule against UT. Daniel introduces the article by focusing on Fisher v. The University of Texas.
In section II of chapter two of Hunger of Memory, author Richard Rodriguez speaks in great depth about his love and hate relationship with books and living the life of a scholar. Being that he and his family were middle-class immigrants from Mexico, Rodriguez starts out by expressing the notice he took to his parent’s bilingual abilities in his childhood. Somewhat of a rarity, having both parents from a different country being able to speak at least a small amount of English, young Richard was relentless in the disappointment he showed toward his parent. Often he compared them to his teachers, who seemed to know much more than his mother and father. He knew that “reading was something done out of necessity” for his parents but to his teachers
Critics of affirmative action frequent describe the policy as being unfair, asserting that it contravenes a conserved system of meritocracy in the country by basing selection decisions on demographic characteristics at the expense of ability and achievement (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 1997). Defenders take a different position that can be explained by two facts: racism and sexism are still present in the United States society and affirmative action is the most efficient and effective way of reducing discrimination than the present alternatives. However, affirmative action increases fusion and fairness in employment and in education because it works as a proactive observing system. As Crosby and Smith (2005) consider, “such policies may help ensure that patterns of bias—including selective system bias— are uncovered and
On September 2015, the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, marked its 25th anniversary. With the shift of the nation’s demographics, higher education is concerned with the academic success of Latinos. Not only is the federal government addressing issues of access and equity for underserved minorities’ populations, but higher education is playing a crucial role in reducing the academic achievement gaps for Latinos. Why is this important? Latinos constitute one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States.
“3 Reasons College Still Matters” by Andrew Delbanco 3) “Surely, every American college ought to defend this waning possibility, whatever we call it. And an American college is only true to itself when it opens its doors to all - the rich, the middle, and the poor - who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them. If we are all serious about democracy, that means everyone.” 4) In this part of the writing Andrew Delbanco tries to persuade his audience by using the pattern of logic that agrees with the overall argument but also considers another striking point of view to strengthen the argument (While these arguments are convincing, they must also consider…).
Affirmative Action, a Hurtful Tactic Chosen by Colleges Yearly early, it is brought to public attention the boundaries, exigencies, academic requirements, desirable college admissions test scores, the idea of being involved in extracurricular activities, and the increasing pressure for these students to not only graduate from high school, as well being admitted to their dream college. Thus, it is a constant battle these students have to endure to earn a “fat envelope”.
“I was learning rapidly how to watch white people, to observe their every move, every fleeting expression, how to interpret what we said and what we left unsaid” (Wright 181). Richard uses his observation of whites to guide himself on how to act and react around white people. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. For example he must agree with the whites even if he truly disagrees. “I answered with false heartiness, falling quickly into that nigger-being-a-good-natured-boy-in-the- presence-of-a-white-man pattern, a pattern into which I could now slide easily” (Wright 234).
Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race.
According to the dominant theory the affirmative action was firstly introduced to deal with two types of social disruption in the 1960s as campus protests and urban riots in the North. However, this article is based on different theory as dominant theory's empirical evidence is limited. It examines the initial reason for advent of race-conscious affirmative action in 17 undergraduate institutions in the United States. And according to the research this article concludes that there were two waves that contributed to affirmative action: 1) first wave in the early 1960s introduced by northern college administrators 2) second wave in the late 1960s introduced as a response to the protests of campus-based students. This article will help me to establish the main reasons for introduction of race-conscious affirmative action in undergraduate
Richard Rodriguez’s memoir Hunger of Memory’s illustrates the identity dilemma that many minorities have to endure when they come to the United States of America and how them being a minority affects their chances of success. There are numerous ways that people for a person to lose his or her identity; the main one is when they immigrate to a new nation. Most immigrants suffer from personal disorientation which is common when one is unfamiliar with the environment that surrounds them and how to adapt to this new social atmosphere. Many minorities feel discriminated towards because they are being labeled their race, gender, cultural background, and religion. Most people when they view these traditions that the minorities practice comes to them
Throughout many of the affirmative action legal cases, one of the main arguments from proponents is that it is necessary in order to right the wrongs of past racial discrimination. Some say that affirmative action is justified because even though white applicants may be more qualified, this is only because they did not face the same hardships as their minority counterparts (Rachels, Ethics, 1973). Many argue if we do not integrate disadvantaged minorities into mainstream social institutions, they will continue to suffer the discrimination that has plagued our country for centuries and that this is detrimental to not only the minorities but also society as a whole (Anderson, 2002, 1270–71). However, the debate has recently shifted to the benefits of diversity in the classroom which the Supreme Court has affirmed as being a positive thing