Challenges That Face Multiracial Latinos free essay sample

â€Å"The Challenges that face Multiracial Latinos in Society† In a nation that boasts such a diverse and colorful population , it is surprising how quick it’s mono racial inhabitants and government are to discriminate and build walls between themselves and their mixed race counterparts. In light of the mixed race Latino, they are one of the major unaccepted groups known to Man. Basically they carry around the image of being partly involved with the Hispanic stigmatized minority group which therefore later insinuates struggles down the road with personal identification development. In such a long run of years various governments and powerful , elite heads of large corporations have aimed their concerns at keeping the multiracial identity at bay, concealing it if you will. They have respectively kept order in keeping race related subjects on applications , social perceptions , and even media always focused on sole race never mixed which poses the question then â€Å" where do multi-racials belong on the pecking order, if their not even considered? †. We will write a custom essay sample on Challenges That Face Multiracial Latinos or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As one can obviously tell there are plenty of mutating challenges that impede the way of multiracial Latinos from ever advancing in the way that their mono racial counterparts do. Multiracial Latinos suffer constantly not only by the ethnic groups they are a product of but also by their non related mono-racial counterparts which hinders a multiracial individual from having a positive and prideful self perception of his or her identity due to discriminatory actions posed against multiracial Latino individuals and because of unchanging world constructs on race. One of the conflicting challenges that mixed race Latinos struggle with is discrimination. A more prevalent form of discrimination that is dealt with among multi -racial’s is social invalidation and alienation among cultural or ethnic groups that may or may not be related to the multiracial individual. Due to the fact that multiracial individuals â€Å" have less access to multiracial family and friends and thus have less social support or guidance on race related obstacles† (Francis, Kimberly), it makes it difficult for them to closely identify with anyone, share experiences and such. They are somewhat alienated from the mono racial loop and feel pushed to pick a side so that they will have somewhere to belong and not suffer through taunts and criticisms as much as before. It’s also very hard to carry pride in their multiracial identity because so far it’s just a few people standing alone for this cause, they are rejected by their common groups and there’s not really a backbone to support the multiracial identity which entails why there are no unions, no organizations, no categories, no nothing to represent multi racials . It’s as though multiracial people are non existent and are forced to rely on only themselves when it comes to racial issues. Mono racials often have immediate families and friends that they similarly identify with culturally and ethnically. Its just overall easier to feel a part of the gang when your mono racial and when your multiracial it’s kind of the opposite, there is no such thing as an in between group, so your practically stuck on your own. In various situations individuals may be unable to assert their preferred identity (i. e. biracial or multiracial) and, instead, feel forced to use the options provided to them, describing themselves exclusively as Asian, Black, Latino, Native American, or White(Hall,1992)†. Basically they feel a push and pull between groups and tend to lean towards the group that is most similar to them in physical characteristics and of course the group that most welcomes them making them feel the need to dial down an ethnic part of t hemselves. That truly affects ones ability to fully grasp what he or she is because they are drawn and labeled exclusively to one group. Their self perception completely changes because now they are defined by society and are squeezed back in to social constructs of a single race/ethnicity. Peer pressures and family pressures are definitely big influencers on identifying as single race instead of what the person actually is, a full multiracial being. For example for an individual of black and Hispanic heritage , in a school setting of all blacks or all Hispanics , the mixed race individual would find it more preferable to identify with the dominant category to be looked upon in a better light, more normal then disclosing his/her mixed identity. Many mixed race individuals have the privilege of being able to pass for a single race but those who do not, suffer alienation and social invalidity from other groups . That doesn’t mean that multi racials can’t gain a lot of experience and appreciation for an ethnicity or race that is applied to them but they will never be labeled by it in society. Take Barack Obama for example, his environment consisted of mainly whites raising him and he was practically raised with white ideals and morals which enabled him to live the life of a white man even though to society he was labeled as Black and not White. All in all there is a feeling of isolation towards mixed race Latinos and a sort of push for them to choose one race over another even though they may not be welcomed by either. Their constantly pulled in a direction in which to showcase what they really are ethnically, even though they belong to two contrasting racial groups . The next issue in reference to discrimination is immigrant discrimination towards mixed race Latinos. In the last 10 years immigration has become a significant problem in the USA with main targets, Hispanics, due to their close proximity borders and high incoming population here in the states. Many Mono racial Latinos face constant discrimination from either coming from a family of illegal immigrants or they themselves being perceived as undocumented individuals. It’s been proven that â€Å"Current models of Anglos’ (ethnic majority group members’) attitudes toward Latinos and Latino immigrants typically derive directly from models of White–Black relations in the United States(Whaley,2006)† which shows how if attitudes from anglos toward the Latino minority groups emerge from racial perceptions of blacks then those same set ideals could be easily used against mixed race Latinos as well . In a study conducted on the differences of how Anglo Americans and Hispanics were treated during a shopping experience showed that â€Å"Overall, Latino individuals were treated differently than Anglo individuals on both measures of bias. Despite the fact that all of the stores included in the study were offered $10 gift certificates, logistical regression analysis revealed that salespeople quoted a minimum dollar amount higher than $10 more frequently for Latino than for White individuals. Salespeople also asked for identification more frequently from Latinos then Whites (Dovidio and Gartner ,2004). This goes to show how maybe there isn’t blatant discrimination demonstrated by refusing service to latinos or mixed race Latinos but that there is a subtle yet noticeable divide when it comes to preconceived notions about this particular minority group and mixed race individuals who carry a part of that with them. For the mixed race Latino who identifies more with his/her Hispani c side , it poses difficulties in escaping those sorts of perceptions and makes them reevaluate whether or not labeling themselves as Hispanic is such a great idea.