Guest MINDSETTER™Deborah Gonzalez: Hispanics and Income Disparity in MA

Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Deborah Gonzalez, GoLocalWorcester Guest MINDSETTER™

Guest MINDSETTER™Deborah Gonzalez

(Editor’s Note: Last week, GoLocalWorcester published a story, “30% of Hispanic Households in Worcester Earn Less Than $15,000.” The story highlighted the household income disparity Hispanic social groups face in Worcester and in Massachusetts.

According to the story, there’s more than a 50% difference between Hispanics and Whites in Massachusetts in median household income, homeownership, and poverty rate. There’s a 272% percent difference Whites and Hispanics in educational attainment.

The following is a response towards these statistics and the reasons behind the income disparity from Déborah L. González, Ph.D and Director of Community Bridges at Quinsigamond Community College and Chair of the Board of Centro Las Americas.)

My answer to this query entails personal opinions that do not represent those of Quinsigamond Community College or Centro Las Americas. These opinions are mainly based on my experience as a Latina with a Ph.D. earned 12 years ago (2003) at the age of 33 and who came here at 18 years of age (my parents were both educators in Puerto Rico) directly to UMASS, Amherst and who is still owing in student loans and working hard to achieve economic equal footing in Massachusetts.

For me the disparity is due to many reasons but the following are the most relevant:

The definition of Hispanic itself and how the context in which we come from is so diverse: Hispanics are such a diverse conglomerate coming from realities that have nothing to do with each other therefore creating a false sense of unity that is non-existent. Statistics based on this factor alone can be questionable.

The way this society defines Hispanic is overly simplistic and it encompasses so many different groups of people that among themselves are fragmented because their backgrounds and realities before they came here many times have little in common. Therefore, we have no social/networking capital to go from and thrive from like with other ethnic or cultural groups that come here and help each other out right away. The person from Uruguay comes from a completely different background than a Puerto Rican who is burdened by unemployment in the island or an already educated family who fled a hostile regime. We all come from really different realities that separate us as a community.

Language and cultural proficiency: As Hispanics, proficiency in the English Language is as important as our proficiency in English ways of doing things. As a social group we need to learn more about how to navigate the systems that impact our overall financial well-being but we also need to ask, produce and strongly persuade if necessary for that information to be available not necessarily in Spanish per-se but in a way that we can relate to and fully make our own.

Hispanics in the majority of cases are not part of the decision making processes: Since we are down in the power and decision making hierarchy, the decisions that affect our economic and financial progress are not meant to protect or help us thrive. Also, since we do not know how to navigate the systems in place as well as other socio-cultural groups that have specific needs in common, we miss out of the opportunities available. We need to start early on with the communities we define in this country as Hispanics. From investing in culturally sensitive early childhood education, to culturally sensitive education for parents to learn how to navigate the school systems in Massachusetts.

Hispanics tend to be scrutinized under a negative set of lenses: We have rationalized Hispanics not as assets but as burden to this economy; therefore perpetuating the expectations that the society has upon us. Our bilingualism, for instance, is not treated as a plus but as a minus while young and at grammar school, when we all know that we need to acquire a second language preferably before around the age of 12. As a result there is a lack of affection, affirmation and encouragement experienced by the Hispanic community perpetuated by those who make the decisions that impact our economic futures. If all who make pivotal decisions can’t relate to the Hispanic reality, those decisions are likely not to address the needs we really have as a group. When people think Hispanic they think disadvantaged. This has a ripple effect in us as part of the over simplistic category and in others that look at us as “other.” If our identity is scrutinized all the time as disadvantaged and through negative lenses the likelihood of falling into negative vicious cycles of all sorts are bound to happen.

Disparity in earning potential: Based on my own experiences in the workforce of Massachusetts since 1988 I believe there is a disparity in terms of earning potential in our community compared to others. No matter how high in the ranks you are, if you are Hispanic you will be likely paid less than a white American counterpart.

Cycles of poverty repeat themselves: As already established in the main premise to your prior article, Hispanics are already in a disadvantaged position in MA. That cycle is difficult to break given the resources poor Hispanic families have in education. Mothers and fathers working around the clock to make ends meet can’t help their children with homework at home specially if they don’t speak the language in which their children are taught. They can’t be involved in their children’s schools either. Also, common financial transactions such as investing and borrowing money wisely are not options for the reasons already mentioned in the prior bullets.