Introduction
With the election of Donald Trump as the 2016 presidential winner, the United States experienced a reemergence of anti-Latinx sentiments, revealing ingrained prejudices that have affected the Latinx population all along. However, racism has been an ongoing problem, but these divisive ideologies were resurrected from the ashes of the debate over immigration, mainly. This rise in discriminatory attitudes has filtered into different sectors of society, including education and academic endeavors (Hirsch & Smith, & 2023). As microcosms of societal dynamics, schools are today sites of exclusion that prevent non-white people from accessing education and achieving academic success on account of systemic biases. In this case, it is the Latinx youth who feel the effects of intensified racist perceptions the most, contributing to the existing problems within educational establishments. Such prejudices are institutional and interpersonal, shaped by the environment at hand.
In this regard, Oak Tech High can be a backdrop for discussing the implications of rising anti-Latinx/anti-immigrant discourse. The school is an ideal avenue to assess the probable impact of these societal transformations on the academic outcomes of more than 16 percent of its student population, most Latinx (Hirschl & Smith, 2023). This research is meant to explore whether the spread of these prejudices has begun affecting the academic progress of Latinx students at Oak Tech High, specifically about instances of interpersonal racism.
Literature Review
Racism, which led to more complicated and subtle ways than overt school segregation, has impacted the United States educational system. Although the after-effects of segregation are generally recognized, the current types of racial discrimination are subtle and deadly, and they affect most black young people. Such nuanced discrimination is evident in the American public school system, contributing to glaring disparities, especially among racial groups. Bámaca et al. (2022) and Torres et al. (2022) illustrate the connection between Latinx adolescents and the affective states of Latinx adolescents and their families regarding discrimination. They show that experiencing discrimination daily resulted in increased negative affect and slightly lower positive affect among Latinx adolescents and, paradoxically, higher positive affect among parents. Such findings suggest the depth and personal nature of discrimination towards Latinx youth and their families, which is pervasive to the point that it can be felt in their everyday lives and affects their emotional states.
Besides, discrimination is detected at various stages in the system of education. Torres et al. (2022) proposed the “Multitiered Model of Oppression and Discrimination” (MMOD) that highlights interpersonal discrimination, community-held stereotypes, institutional policies, and structural practices as factors negatively affecting well-being and development. This model illustrates how discrimination seeps within society’s aspects, negatively affecting Latinx children’s development and experiences. Studies by Bámaca et al. (2022) and Torres et al. (2022) continue to reinforce the need to understand the impact of societal shifts, particularly the rise of anti-Latinx sentiment, on the academic experiences and performances within the context of Oak Tech High School.
The creation of an unfriendly environment based on discriminating behavior toward Latinx adolescents has negative effects on their emotional health, as stated in the work of Almeida et al. (2016) and Bámaca et al. (2022). This also involves their family relations, as experiences of discrimination in Latinx adolescents are correlated to both their own and their parents’ affective states (Bámaca et al., 2022).
The teachers and the school staff cannot be blamed for the racial hostilities experienced by students in educational environments. The impact of racial hostility within educational environments goes far beyond the interactions of peers and is very profound in affecting the academic performance of the students. Almeida et al. (2016) emphasize that there exists a significant association between discrimination and Latinos’ well-being. Ferguson’s work (2020) about black boys in schools states that the conditions in the educational setting significantly influence students’ understanding of themselves. However, in most cases, these circumstances are founded on biased policies and discriminatory attitudes, which create an atmosphere that makes Latinx children and youth feel rejected and alienated.
Considering the surrounding context, it is understandable to expect a deterioration in the academic performance of Latinx youth due to rising anti-Latino sentiments. The increase in negative perceptions of being a Latino associates Latinos with outsiders and the increase in discrimination cases, as well as the heightened anxiety among the Latino populations, as confirmed by Cvencek et al. (2017). These experiences are unique to the diverse Latinx population depending on factors such as generation and legal status, shaping their experiences within the educational system. For example, linguistic challenges specific to immigration, like low competence in the language of instruction upon enrollment, could greatly affect the performance in school, leading to the impact of the Latinx community across nationalities, generations, statuses, and immigrant classifications. Studies show that Latinx children report verbal and physical harassment within the American school system constantly, underscoring the prevalence of discrimination against this demographic.
Nonetheless, the extent to which these daily interactions of Latino youth within their school environments are influenced by the proliferation of anti-Latinx and anti-immigration rhetoric is underexplored. Merolla & Jackson (2019) support claims that structural racism fuels educational inequalities and highlight the complex mechanisms of how racial discrimination leads to differential learning outcomes. However, a research gap exists in the lack of an all-encompassing study of how changing discourse altered the impact on Latinx youth within diverse educational settings.
Methodology
Specifically, this study will investigate changes in the racial environment within the high school and possible implications for academic outcomes among the enrolled Latinx students. Two key inquiries guide this study: 1. How has the changing socio-political landscape impacted Latinx students’ experiences of personal racial discrimination? 2) How has the change in attitude affected the academic achievement of Latinx students? The methodology of ethnographies that include immersive observations and interaction analyses helps in capturing the lived experiences of Latinx youth in this school setting.
The school setting will be the main focus of observation. The aim will be to observe the interactions between the students and other teachers without interfering with the student’s daily routines. The observational period lasts over a year and has almost ten months of immersion in the school context (Ploder & Hamann, 2020). To ensure integrity, the researcher’s involvement in different grades 6-12 classes will be staggered to avoid disturbance among the younger students. However, other data acquisition methods will complement the observation at the same time. Additionally, interviews will go down into the perceptions and experiences of students regarding the research issue.
The interviews, ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours, will feature Latinx students from various socio-economic backgrounds across all the grades involved in the study. The interview process shall precede prior informed consent being sought from students and their legal guardians (Dunwoodie et al., 2022). These interviews will look into personal experiences with racism, past and present, emphasizing any perceived alterations—within or outside—induced by changing social attitudes and its effect on their way of studying. This kind of interview is made to capture the immediate effect of felt changes.
Furthermore, a quantitative dimension will strengthen the scope of the study by closely tracking the academic growth of enrolled Latinx students in different years. The research uses quantitative analysis methodology to identify whether there are any apparent variations in performance indices over time. The Excel dataset from Oakland Technical High School, which details ethnicity and admission records, is crucial to this analysis. This dataset is a crucial quantitative reference point for a sophisticated study of academic accomplishments, especially among Latinx students. This quantitative approach entails careful review and comparison of the academic metrics to provide possible clues about changes or trends in Latinx students’ paths and, consequently, enhance understanding of the Latinx students’ experience in Oakland Tech High.
Conclusion
This ethnographic study focuses on examining the tangible impacts of shifting racial prejudices on Latinx youth. This choice of demographic is prompted by the spate of anti-Latinx sentiments expressed by various activists and individuals in recent times. Based on the well-documented effects of racial discrimination upon non-white children’s school experiences, increased bias should be expected to impact such targeted groups disproportionately further. However, Existing literature does not provide insights into transitional periods from different racial climates. This study tries to fill this gap by explaining evolving experiences and academic performance among a population faced with an ever-tougher social terrain compounded by growing anti-immigrant and anti-Latin sentiments within the United States. Also, it strives to reinforce the existing knowledge about the relationship between racist attitudes/behaviors and academic achievements among non-white youth, regardless of the structural impediments. In the end, the results might indicate the need to address racism, which has become one of the common phenomena in society.
References
Almeida, J., Biello, K. B., Pedraza, F., Wintner, S., & Viruell-Fuentes, E. (2016). The association between anti-immigrant policies and perceived discrimination among Latinos in the US: A Multilevel Analysis. SSM – Population Health, 2, 897–903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.11.003
Bámaca, M. Y., Martinez, G., Schroeder, K. M., Lobo, F. M., & Witherspoon, D. P. (2022). Daily discrimination and affect in Latino adolescent‐parent dyads residing in the Northeast United States. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32(2), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12750
Cvencek, D., Fryberg, S. A., Covarrubias, R., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2017). Self‐concepts, self‐esteem, and academic achievement of minority and majority North American Elementary School Children. Child Development, 89(4), 1099–1109. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12802
Dunwoodie, K., Macaulay, L., & Newman, A. (2022). Qualitative interviewing in the field of work and Organisational Psychology: Benefits, challenges, and guidelines for researchers and reviewers. Applied Psychology, 72(2), 863–889. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12414
Ferguson, A. A. (2020). Bad boys: Public schools in the making of black masculinity. The University of Michigan Press.
Hirschl, N., & Smith, C. M. (2023). Advanced placement gatekeeping and racialized tracking. Sociology of Education, 96(3), 190–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380407231161334
Merolla, D. M., & Jackson, O. (2019). Structural racism is the fundamental cause of the Academic Achievement Gap. Sociology Compass, 13(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12696
Ploder, A., & Hamann, J. (2020). Practices of ethnographic research: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 50(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241620979100
Torres, S. A., Sosa, S. S., Flores Toussaint, R. J., Jolie, S., & Bustos, Y. (2022). Systems of oppression: The impact of discrimination on Latinx Immigrant Adolescents’ well‐being and development. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32(2), 501–517. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12751
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