Lu Limanowski

A Latin School education is, no doubt, one of the best educations a person could receive in this country. A private, small, student-oriented facility is something that we are truly blessed to be a part of. However, there are certain social predispositions in our society where, at the end of the day, no matter your education, you are statistically guaranteed the short end of the stick. The point of this article is to remind us all of only a few of the hundreds of thousands of the social inequalities that exist to set us up for failure. I hope everyone who reads this article can recognize the unfairness of success down to our human nature, so that when Latin sends us off into the world we are not just textbook and philosophically educated, but also in a manner where our success is honest.

A study I read says that by the year 2018, 45% of all jobs are going to require at least an undergraduate degree from college. However, today, only 27% of African Americans, 26% of Latinos born in the United States, and 14% of Latino immigrants actually have that level of education. At Latin, although not the most diverse institution to say the least, we do a fairly unique job of educating our students to be well-rounded in terms of the different backgrounds and makeups of people in the world. That being said, I know in the facts written below I’m leaving out plenty of minority groups; gender, race, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and more individual cases that don’t even compare the hundreds of thousands of individuals that identify with more than one of the categories I have chosen to make examples of.

So why does this even matter to us? Why is this any of your concern? At the Latin School of Chicago, we are being brought up to be the revolutionaries of our generation, being handed opportunities at institutions beyond our school: The best universities and so on. With these social prejudices put before us, we have to understand that going into the world and just maintaining these unfortunate traditions is not going to change the world we were born into. So begin at school. Latin high school students range from 14-18 years, ages that seem so insignificant to the majority of the world and the rest of your lives, but small things in and around the classroom can lead to lifelong habits.

No, of course we aren’t the most diverse school, but we have the opportunity to make diversity a non-issue in terms of classroom interactions, group work, and even hallway and library social dynamics. Thinking about perspectives and upbringings other than our own is something that I see most students disregard, so people place tremendous pressures on themselves for no reason. That being said, please let the following statistics remind you about how in and after Latin, there’s only so much a classroom can change. Only you can create change in your direct relationships and in your futures.

Summary of the facts pulled from a study on work discrimination: “From the year 1999, 947 charges of employment discrimination, race discrimination tops the list with 35.4% (45,395) charges followed by sex that accounted for 28.5% (28,534), age 23.5% (23,465), disability 26% (25,742), national origin 11.8% (11,833), religion 42.% (4,151), color 2.8% (2,832), GINA 0.2% (245), and Equal Pay discrimination that accounted for 0.9% (919) of charges.”

For every dollar a man makes, a caucasian woman makes 79 cents… compared to a man’s earnings, the average percent earnings of a white man’s income for all women is 68%.

Women historically have the stereotype and of staying home and taking care the kids, because, “being a mother is the full-time job.” It definitely is, but that doesn’t mean its the only job we know how to do.

Poverty rates for LGBT adults are as high or higher than rates for heterosexual adults due to hiring-discrimination.

According to the National Survey of Family Growth, among people ages 18-44, 24% of lesbian and bisexual woman are unemployed compared to the 19% heterosexual woman. At 15%, gay and bisexual men compared to the 10% of heterosexual men.

As of 2015, the average combined unemployment rate percent for Hispanic or Latino Americans and African Americans is more than three times that of Caucasian Americans.

According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the percent unemployment rate for each racial identity it 5.1% of Caucasian Americans, 7.3% for Hispanic or Latino, and 10.4% for African Americans because of work discrimination. In 2014, 4 in 10 black families with children under 18 were headed my a single working mother.

In the United States, American Muslims as a majority have lower income, less education, and fewer jobs than the population as a whole because of cultural biases.

Until the year 2001, the income and education rates of Muslim Americans was somewhat familiar to other religious affinities. As a result of the drastic change since then, another study showed that about 60% of Muslim Americans born in the United States lie about their religious affiliation.

15-43% of gay and transgender workers have experienced some form of discrimination at work.

Behind the statistics, most members of the transgender community have commented that being fired was not due to poor work ethic but rather “making fellow workers” feel “uncomfortable”. 90% of transgender individuals have encountered some form of harassment or mistreatment on the job.

Works cited can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.