It was the beginning of my junior year of high school that I was already feeling the pressure heavily on what college I should attend that would guide in the best way for my chosen career. During a break period, my friends and I were walking into a hallway speaking about the colleges we thought about attending when suddenly a student bumps into me, almost knocking me down completely, turned back and said, “Watch it wetback!” Shocked beyond words of expression that I had just encountered my first experience with racism. My mind was racing, contemplating whether or not to say something back, but I was already speaking by the time I could make a decision in my head yelling back, “How dare you assume and use such a derogatory term to me!” His response?
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And yet, as a person of Hispanic background, all of the above stereotypes are what Hispanics deal with on a daily basis. In college, I am a minority within other minorities. In high school, there were students who lived up to those stereotypes. They were the troublemakers, the uneducated ones,the “beaners”, your stereotypical Hispanics.
I did not grow up in a poor home or an uneducated home. My parents have always wanted better for me. They wanted more from me than the stereotypical Hispanic is expected to get from life, which is not very much. I was an honors student in high school, played the cello, and an active member of the community. I did all the right things, so why is that in all my accomplishments I am only ever asked how my cultural challenges got me where I am today? Why does the fact that I am Hispanic mean I cannot be a normal candidate to be successful?
If I have overcome anything in life so far, it is those Hispanic stereotypes waiting for me to fail and prove them right. These stereotypes are embedded in our lives. Those standardized tests we take that ask to fill our racial group, they carry those stereotypes within them because from that Hispanics are always one that score lowest. People expect us to be dumb, and some Hispanics will let themselves live up to that expectation. I, on the other hand, refuse to live up to that low standard and I will work to raise it up everyday by keeping my grades up and become successful in life so I can proudly say, “ I am not one of your
And yet, as a person of Hispanic background, all of the above stereotypes are what Hispanics deal with on a daily basis. In college, I am a minority within other minorities. In high school, there were students who lived up to those stereotypes. They were the troublemakers, the uneducated ones,the “beaners”, your stereotypical Hispanics.
I did not grow up in a poor home or an uneducated home. My parents have always wanted better for me. They wanted more from me than the stereotypical Hispanic is expected to get from life, which is not very much. I was an honors student in high school, played the cello, and an active member of the community. I did all the right things, so why is that in all my accomplishments I am only ever asked how my cultural challenges got me where I am today? Why does the fact that I am Hispanic mean I cannot be a normal candidate to be successful?
If I have overcome anything in life so far, it is those Hispanic stereotypes waiting for me to fail and prove them right. These stereotypes are embedded in our lives. Those standardized tests we take that ask to fill our racial group, they carry those stereotypes within them because from that Hispanics are always one that score lowest. People expect us to be dumb, and some Hispanics will let themselves live up to that expectation. I, on the other hand, refuse to live up to that low standard and I will work to raise it up everyday by keeping my grades up and become successful in life so I can proudly say, “ I am not one of your