Alexis Topete

B3
We Are All Equal
Todos somos iguales. Translation: we are all equal. I hope my
pronunciation is right. 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, who proudly
say 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. The first time that most young
Americans begin to realize this is when they begin applying for acceptance
to college. When we check our races, genders and ethnicities off- in the
little boxes on the applications for college admissions and standardized testswe have automatically put ourselves in a position where equality will not be
a given, it will be more what shall we say? Flexible.
We quickly learn that we were nave in assuming that colleges would
offer us genuine equal opportunity. 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. Decisions should not be made based
on preferential treatment for any separate group. Instead the individual
circumstances, achievements and even failures, should be taken into
consideration for colleges and for the law too.
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. This 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, which she was very eager to do.
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 cruelly abusive
father, and the tribe didnt speak up at all about the baby being removed
from the tribe and put into foster care. They seemed to recognize that the
child would be better off when removed from its unsafe home life. 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 absolutely 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. But lets look at some of the ways they have tried to do this,
and see whether or not they are succeeding. 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
ostensibly our right. However, when we turn away from the EEOC guidelines
and focus on the Race Boxes or gender boxes for that matter - that we
check off on forms, there is a decided discrepancy between the EEOCs intent
to provide equal opportunity for our futures and the reality of our unequal

access to a college education that will prepare us to become serious

contenders competing in the job market.
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 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. As much as we as Americans claim to
espouse equal rights, our country failed to vote that way. Although most
people seem to agree intellectually that everyone should receive equal pay
and equal treatment under the law, regardless of gender or race, it just
doesnt work 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. We will
have to earn it the hard way, by outstanding work, determination and
holding steadfast to our goals. Unless institutions try to take that option
away from us by focusing only on racial or gender identities and removing
the incentive to gain success by high achievement.
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. Colleges are
supposed to guarantee no biases on races and ethnicities but students are
aware of the potential impact that marking a certain race could give. 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 it has always been one of the great
strengths of our country that its been 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 co-founder of the Dr. Hector E.
Topete Scholarship.
Actually, I havent yet told you Hectors most important
accomplishment: 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- regardless of your minority or majority status. Hector
Edward Topete Sr. is the reason for my motivation to attend college and my

determination to not let any excuse prevent me from reaching my goals.

Hector and countless others like him have set the example that all of us can
follow, in showing us that working hard can get you places that marking off a
certain box on a form shouldnt influence. 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 remind you of this saying: 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. The race
boxes should not be needed to guarantee college admission. 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.

Lexie Topete Oratory Sources:

Indian Child Welfare Act, Native American Foster Care
http://www.nicwa.org/indian_child_welfare_act/
http://www.narf.org/icwa/faq/foster.htm
http://www.nrc4tribes.org/Tribal-Foster-Care-and-Adoption-Findings.cfm

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

http://www1.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf
http://www.eeoc.gov/
http://www.workplacefairness.org/agencies_UT

Checking off Races in forms

https://chroniclevitae.com/news/302-should-you-check-the-race-box
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/us/14admissions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Hector Edward Topete Sr.

http://csus-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10211.9/981/Dissertation,%20Full.pdf?
sequence=1
(above link is his Doctorates paper for West Pointe, more for proof that no, this is not made-up
achievement)
http://www.csus.edu/coe/academics/doctorate/current-students/cohort/cohort-1/topetehector.html
http://www.csus.edu/coe/academics/doctorate/about/newsletter/assets/newsletter-summer2012.pdf

Paycheck Fairness Act

http://nationalpartnership.org/