Latinos and the Drug War

During this drug war it isn’t hard to identify the role that latinos/as play in the trafficking world. The article, “Latinas/os and the War on Drugs” takes a look at why Latinos are at the center of the Drug War and how the media helps maintain the stereotypes alive. The media does a great job at keeping the fact that the U.S government has played a large role in the development of the drug industry, by centering their focus on Latinos and how they are responsible for the presence of these drugs in the U.S and the war. They do this, by labeling anyone who transports the drugs, as dangerous and even describe the sentences they face if caught. The groups they target specifically are: immigrants, undocumented workers, non-English speakers, the poor, and those seeking social justice. However, the most recent group added to this list, has been a Latina who lives a “fast life”.

            The section of this article that really caught my attention was the way Latinas are portrayed to be involved in the drug war. I found it interesting how the author made a connection to the fact that since Latinas and other groups of women tend to be the primary care takers of their families, they are sensitive and vulnerable to drug related threats. Latinas have even faced serious charges for not providing information to the authorities on the roles the men in their life play in the drug war. Whether it’s out of fear, or loyalty, if these women do not provide the information being asked for, they usually face worse punishments. I found this to be very shocking because they weren’t doing the labor needed to transport the drugs, however, they were still facing serious time if the authorities suspected dishonesty.

            The time the Latinas face when dealing with trafficking is sometimes worse than an active Latino involved in the drug war. The article stated that once in the criminal justice system, Latinas are often charged with harsh drug crimes, out of White and even African-American women. Also, another thing I found to be mind boggling, were the numbers of Latinas that were currently in jail or Federal prisons. I never thought that the numbers were that high for Latinas and it this really shocked me. The fact that most of these Latinas are in prison for very minor felonies, makes me realize that this is the reason why the stereotypes on Latinas/os still exist. They give serious time to a minor felony, such as not providing the police with information and then the media magnifies these people as “dangerous” and do so by giving them a serious charge.

            The media plays a tremendous role on the reason why Latinos are still viewed as the reason for the drug war. It is so easy for the audience to get carried away by the fear that the media and police instill in American citizens on Latinos/as. However, these people have little or no idea that our own government takes part in this drug war as well. 

-Jackie Vargas

Education: The True Solution

In his essay “The Hyper-Criminalization of Black and Latino Male Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration” Victor M. Rios shares with his readers the stories of three young males of color who have been in and out of juvenile halls since a very young age. All throughout his essay Rios mentions the different sorts of confrontation these young men and those like them have with law enforcement, teachers, guidance counselors and their parents. Rios goes on to say that the reason why those young males have become involved with gang violence and are now on probation is a result of where they have grown up and the way they are portrayed.   Rios argues that because these teenagers come from low income communities where gang violence has a high rate the adults that they are surrounded by treat them as if they were criminals from a very young age and that is the cause for them ending up involved in gangs and criminal acts.

            About 26.6% of all Latinos in the United States live in poverty, children who are born into these families are born with several disadvantages that they cannot change for example, living in low income communities and attending school with low graduation rates and very low test scores. Although these children and teenagers cannot change the families that they are born into and their families economic situation one thing that they can change is how they let those factors influence their lives. The reason why very few Latinos go on to continue a higher level of education after high school is because they allow themselves to be taken out by a system that has always been against them. They blame all those around them for their actions which led them to being involved in gangs, and dropping out of school.  

I do agree with Rios’s argument that being treated as criminals because they come from Barrios and Ghettos is wrong however, the adults cannot be blamed for how the children of those communities turn out. One of the major problems with the those teens who end up involved with gangs and criminal acts is that they start to act as gang members and engage in criminal acts to teach those that see them a lesson yet they don’t stop to realize that all they are doing is hurting themselves. Rios gives the example of Jose who is annoyed at the fact that his mother, teacher and his parole officer are always checking up on him and do not trust that he will make good decisions. The problem with this example is that he is complaining that they do not trust him but the only one who is at fault there is Jose because he made the decision to get involved with a gang and has been in and out of juvenile hall since the age of thirteen, he has proved to the adults around him that he cannot be trusted to make good decision because he continues to make bad decisions.   

Rios defends the teenagers instead of realizing that the only ones who are at fault are the teenagers for acting like children when they are told not to do something and they go and do it anyway because they are curious. The teenagers that Rios interviewed as well as those like them think they are teaching the system a lesson by becoming criminals, if they could only understand that the only lesson that they are giving to them is that they were right and that treating them as criminals was right all along because that is what they ended up to be. In order for the for the teenagers to truly teach the “system” a lesson would be for them to do the complete opposite of what they are doing now which would be for them to finish high school, go on to college and graduate and become something, for them to do something with their lives so that they can one day have a family and that their children do not grow up in the same neighborhood where they did and were treated as criminals.  

- Alejandra     

A Social Chain Reaction

What will you pass on?

Mother Teresa once said, "We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do." In other words, the kindness of a smile passes from one person to the other, and they in turn pass it on to more people. Seeing someone smile at them can make someone forget about the driver who cut them off or it can lighten the load of stress. They in turn pass on that positive feeling to someone else.

 

Sadly, many people go days or even weeks without smiling. They become used to the stress and negativity around them, that it becomes contagious. A boss's bad mood passes on to his or her employees and those employees in turn, come home with that bad mood who then spread it to their family members. It's not only moods and vibes that are going around, but things like power struggle, rules, and forms of communication also spread.

 

For example, a working class parent gets used to taking orders and being told what to do. What do they do when they get home? They tell their children what to do. Children are of course supposed to be told what to do, but the difference is that they get it in the form of an order. And schools know this.

 

According to Jean Anyon's study, "Social Class and School Knowledge." Schools teach different kinds of knowledge and in different ways, depending on the social class. She went to several middle schools, each in a specific social class; then asked the students questions about knowledge. Think of how you (as a reader) would respond to these questions:

What is knowledge?
Where does it come from?
Can you make knowledge or is it already made?

Anyon noted several findings about what the students in each social class responded. For the working class, she explained how "resistance" was a dominant theme.

I have seen this student resistance when I was in middle school. I had ended up in ESL during my sixth and seventh grade year and so I had students in my class who really didn't care about their education. They didn't care about vocabulary or grammar. Despite all of that I was the only one who actually wanted to improve and get out of ESL. Everyone else just wasted time because they didn't want to be there. But there were times where no one responded to the teacher's questions. Sometimes they took a more active resistance where the students would insult the teacher or bring a can of deodorant spray. (My teacher had a delicate Asthma condition.) So my teacher's well-being and safety was at risk, it was common for her to run out of the room gasping for fresh air. She even had to be taken to the hospital a few times.

But most of the knowledge as Anyon said, "[was] fragmented facts, isolated from context and connection," as well as "practical knowledge." But why is this kind of knowledge chosen for working class schools, instead of the middle class's "possibility" or "individuality" theme? Where does the student's resistance come from?

Working or lower class students live with parents or a parent who struggle to get by. Most of the time, these adults have given up on moving to a better class. They settle for order-dominated work environments and that attitude is transferred to the students, who's teachers have given up on them. The students give up like the adults around them and they begin to fight against the rules that bind them to where they are at. Instead of using that desire for change to improve their lives, they use it in a counter-productive way.

I believe that in order for the students of the working class to change, the adults surrounding them need to change. Children learn from the adults in their lives, and that child sees that everyone is giving up. They will inevitably give up themselves. Then what else is left for them to do? Blame the world around them and resist.

Parents need to encourage their children to work hard in school, and teachers should never give up on or give in to their students. They should pass on Mother Teresa's smile and hope. Yes, it may sound corny and unreal; but truth often takes on those characteristics. We need to think of everything else as something that can be passed on, our opinions, our hate, our positive attitudes, our ethics; it is all passed on from person to person, most of the time without realizing it. But it is up to us to be aware and choose the lasting impression that end up giving.

-Abel Mendoza