To commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month 2013, ‘LLERO presents a five-part series commenting on the issues and topics affecting Latino men from all walks of life. In this fifth and final installment one Latino man poses the question – Is the Latino Man Dying?
Like many doting fathers, I want my little girl to be the best at whatever she does. Part of that means beating the best, including those little boys who I believed, also like many doting fathers, will never be quite good enough for her. Yet, I am increasingly worried that as she moves up the academic and socioeconomic ladder, the number of Latino males expected to share her classroom is shrinking. It’s not because I am worried about her prospects of finding a financially stable partner for her to share her life. No, it’s because the quality of her educational and professional journey depends on it. So we must ask ourselves, in the realm of education and by extension career and socioeconomic progress — is the Latino man is dying?
The Numbers Support the Notion
Unfortunately this is more than just an observation. Despite the increasing numbers of Latinos completing high school and entering college, a dangerously large educational gender gap exists between Latino males and females. In 2010, Latina college enrollment outpaced Latino males 57.8% to 42.2%. With less than 40% (38.6%) of all Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees going to Latino men. If this 25-year plus trend continues, the projected difference in attainment of bachelor’s degrees could more than double over the next few decades.
In far too many circles, men and those who love us, have become accustomed to being absent from the conversation, especially in areas like early childhood education or teaching. Though there is a growing movement to reverse course, far too many people have left young male students to fend for themselves in the classroom, content in seeing them excel either on the streets or on the athletic field. Or to paraphrase academic scholars Victor Saenz and Dr. Luis Ponjuan, to let them choose “swagger over scholarship.”
Personal Responsibility & What’s Needed
Now, let’s not get it twisted. Men are largely responsible for that retreat, both on an individual and institutional level. For example, the growth of the school to prison pipeline has increasingly restricted the economic options of a significant number of minority and low-income men. Even talking about “creating mentorship and support networks for men” seems oxymoronic, considering that male privilege exemplified by your classic “old boys network” is still an active force holding back equity and equal opportunity in many institutions of power.
Yet whether you are 14 or 40, at some point you need the perspective of another man or other men. Different parts of your life require different sounding boards. For many, our view of manhood is a solitary definition with profiles in courage rarely including a call for the kind of emotional help that every person craves and needs. Even for those who are quite comfortable serving that role, there still are not enough resources readily available to model that way forward.
Building a network that intertwines emotional and professional support is something that successful people do naturally throughout their lives. It’s something that in my experience, through both community programs and leadership organizations like Prep for Prep or the National Urban Fellows program, women are more comfortable in developing to support them academically. Throughout high school and college, I probably went to a lot more study sessions organized by Latina women than I did men. Thinking back, there was never a doubt about being your brother’s keeper on the streets and on the athletic field, but rarely was the classroom ever mentioned.
Increasingly, classrooms and academic settings are where many leaders, especially of color, are forging the friendships that will later blossom into opportunities for both personal and community success. It’s where the basic building blocks of communication, collaboration and leadership are learned and practiced. From a practical standpoint, it’s also where the stereotypes of children and young adults are either forged or challenged and where the seeds of tolerance and prejudice are both planted and sowed. The more diverse these settings are — by gender, race, ethnicity or income — the greater chance that all of our youth will grow into adults with the perspective that they will need to navigate the multilayered challenges that await them in their future.
Less Talk, More Action
Now those are great words, but “del dicho al hecho hay much estrecho.” Loosely translated it means, “between words and actions lies but a long road.” Surely it involves resisting public policy debates with false choices that pit the educational goals of one group against another, especially along gender. No matter how we deal with the gender achievement gap, we must remember that across the board, Latino students lag behind in a number of key higher education measures. According to Pew Hispanic Center, Latino college students are still 26% less likely (52% to 72%) than their white counterparts to enroll in a four-year college. They are also less likely to attend a selective college or to be enrolled in college full time, and less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree. In fact in 2012, 14.5% of Latinos 25 and older had earned one. By contrast, 51% of Asians, 34.5% of Whites and 21.2% of Blacks had BA’s. The success of our comunidad is dependent on adults ensuring that both little boys and girls reach their full potential. Strategies might be different for each group, but their fates are intertwined.
So as I watch my little girl flip through the pages of Clifford, I also have to be willing to keep an eye on the little boy who is staring at her from across the library. It’s not just because he might be taking her out to the prom. It’s because her journey and experience in the boardroom might just depend on whether he gets there with her.