Alexis Topete

B3
We Are All Equal
Todos somos iguales. Translation: we are all equal. Now, maybe this is
really rough Spanish. Being only part Latina and living in a family full of
English-speaking Polish people, I only get to speak it one week a year, when I
go down to see my dads Spanish-speaking side of the family. We are all
equal. At least were all supposed to be equal: with equal opportunities,
equal rights, and equal standing in the community. But in reality, that is not
the way our country works. When we check our races, genders and
ethnicities off for college admissions and standardized tests, we have
automatically put ourselves in a position where equality will not be a given.
In a perfect world, we wouldnt be judged based on our looks, race,
sex, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnicities. In a perfect world, we would
only be judged based on the value that we bring to our community, our
society and our world. But, with those little race and ethnicity boxes to be
marked off, that perfect judgment is thrown out the door. Where the white
male majority was favored in the past, now the minority has gained
preferential status, and that status is often more important than test scores,
grades, or other achievement-based measures in determining who will be
admitted to a school. And while its great that there is more encouragement
for minorities and more opportunity, we cant ignore the fact that sometimes,
trying so hard not to be prejudiced has led to a bias against people who are
NOT minorities.
This issue of race or ethnicity being the sole basis of a legal decision
recently came to my attention when I watched a person that I know become
involved as a foster parent. My aunts friend was asked to care for a Native
American foster baby for more than a year, and the courts had finally
indicated that she could adopt the baby. The foster mother had taken the
baby to her heart from the moment she was brought to her home, after the
babys Indian father had viciously beat this poor tiny child. When the baby
was first brought there, she had extensive bruises all over her body, ones
that obviously werent from falling down stairs or running into a wall. So she
was taken away from her abusive father, and the tribe didnt speak up at all
about the baby being removed from the tribe and put into foster care. When
the time came that the foster mother could apply to adopt the sweet baby
girl that she had grown to love so much, the tribe finally spoke up,
demanding that the child be returned to her rightful father. Because now
there was something different: in the time that the baby was in foster care,
the abusive father had become the leader of his tribe. Under the law outlined

in the Indian Child Welfare Act, all he had to do was say he wanted the baby
back and the baby was once again put under his care.
According to nicwa.org, the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, is a
federal law that seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian
families The intent of Congress under ICWA was to protect the best
interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian
tribes and families. Accordingly, sending the Native American child back to
the extremely abusive father was considered to be in the babys best
interest ---even though she was returning to the same unsafe home shed
been rescued from a year earlier.
Its that kind of biased decision-making based on granting greater
rights to a member of an ethnic group, a race, or a gender that is having
such devastating effects on our country. Yes, there were terrible injustices
perpetrated on the Indian Tribes in this country, as well as on other ethnic
minorities. But making laws that put any ethnic group, any race, or any
gender above the common sense of the law is just the pendulum swinging
too far in the opposite direction and not the most effective way to render a
decision.
Obviously, our lawmakers are trying to correct injustice with the full
might of the law. For example, lets start with the Equal Opportunity Act.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (or EEOCs)
official website, job discrimination is prohibited and you cant stop being
considered for employment based on race, color, religion, sex, national
origin, disability, or veteran status. Its great that we have this act if
anyone feels they have been discriminated against by a company based on
any of the things I listed previously, they can take action for it and have a
say because we now live in a world where equality is our right. However,
when we turn away from the EEOC guidelines and focus on the Race Boxes
or gender boxes for that matter, sometimes the EEOC isnt necessarily
considered.
A common misconception, that I have found many people to share, is
that the existence of the EEOC means that equal rights are the constitutional
law of our land. The problem with this is that the EEOC is a commission, not a
constitutional amendment. When the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, was
passed by the United States Senate, on March 22, 1972, it stated that:
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of sex.
However, in order for the E.R.A. to become a constitutional
amendment, of the states had to vote yes to ratify it as an amendment

within 7 years. They failed to do so. Although most people seem to agree
intellectually that everyone should receive equal pay and equal treatment
under the law, regardless of gender or race, we didnt even vote that way.
According to nationalpartnership.org, in September of 2014, an examination
of the most recent Census Bureau statistics showed that, on average, women
are only paid 78% of what men are paid for the same jobs. The recent
Paycheck Fairness Act was proposed to help rectify that problem, but, like the
Equal Rights Amendment decades earlier, it also was NOT passed into law.
So okay, we are not GUARANTEED fairness.
For instance, when we check our races off for college admissions, and
testing, have you ever really thought of why we have to do this? Colleges
dont see our faces before admissions unless we have college visits or submit
pictures for some reason, so all they have to judge us on, are our test scores,
GPAs, school, a personal essay, and sometimes a recommendation from an
academic counselor or teacher. So why should it be such a big deal that they
have to know our race? Yes, you can mark off that you dont wish to disclose
your race and it is not supposed to lower your chances of being considered
for a school or job. However, not very many people even wish to do this. In
the New York Times article, Should You Check the Race Box? from January
29th of 2014, 324 applicants were chosen to fill out a survey based on
academic job forms. 272 applicants said they checked off which races they
were, which means that 52 did not. The 52 that didnt stated that they
believed race shouldnt matter if an institution was genuinely committed to
inclusion. The other 272 felt that if they did check off their races, they
would have a leg up in the institution and if they didnt, they feared the
institution would not hire them.
Despite the United States claiming a focus on equality, people are still
using the race boxes to have a better shot at landing a job or getting into a
preferred college. In 2011, the New York Times interviewed an AfricanAmerican Asian, Natasha Scott, who had moral issues with whether or not
she should check both being African American and Asian. She admitted that
she only wanted to check African-American because she knew that just
marking African-American could potentially help her get into colleges, while
marking down Asian could potentially hurt her chances. Even as a personal
experience, I am aware that the higher tier schools I have been receiving
emails from could have potentially been from the box labeled
Hispanic/Latino that I can mark down. As much as I want to go to these
higher tier colleges, I dont want to be preferred because I can mark down a
certain ethnicity or race. If the United States really followed its vision for
equality, these boxes wouldnt even exist until after the college admissions
process was done, or after a person got hired for a job.

We have to remember that its possible to be a minority and still

reap the stereotypical white male benefits, and Im going to share an
example. Hector lived in Mexico until he was 8 years old. He had no
electricity, no running water, and one of his favorite pastimes was playing in
the river building clay figures from the mud. He immigrated to Weed,
California after his father was able to obtain a permit to permanently leave
the country. He had a lot to face figuring out how electricity and running
water worked, and how to learn English to go through school without a
translator and still pass. He hated the feeling of being different so much that
by the time he was a year older, he knew English fluently. By the time he
graduated high school, he became the valedictorian for his graduating class,
and was accepted into West Point. He became a commercial pilot, flight
instructor, a qualified military paratrooper, and Army Ranger. He has a
doctorates degree, is the founder of Role Models America, and is the cofounder of the Dr. Hector E. Topete Scholarship.
I havent yet told you the biggest reason behind this story: Hector is
my grandfather, and his life has been a lesson to me and all who know him,
that the important factors in success are hard work, perseverance, and not
letting anyone tell you that you cannot accomplish your goals. I dont want to
get into a school because I can check off a box that judges me by my race. I
intend to get in like Hector did- because my work legitimately earned me an
honest spot at a top notch university.
In conclusion, Id like to repeat: todos somos iguales. We are all equal.
We have reached a point where everyone needs to be equal in consideration.
Not just minorities, but whites as well. If we truly are equal, lets compete for
a spot in a college based on our merits alone. Lets compete for a place in
the work force based on our abilities to perform the job. And most of all, lets
compete for a place in society based on who we are under the skin, and stop
this focus on racial identity as the only important factor. I encourage you to
speak out with me for genuine equality, where success is determined by hard
work and skill. Then, and only then, can United States citizens truly say, We
are all equal. Todos somos iguales.