Guest Column
Rising Above the Gathering Storm
- By Jaime Oaxaca
- Response to the results of the UCLA meeting January 17, 2006
Background and Corporate memory concerns that must be addressed as critical issues when the briefings involve the ”Hispanic Community”. Some points to remember as the process goes on:
- This is a National Problem and will require not only State and Local efforts but also the Federal Government, Academia (University, Community Colleges, Private and Public K-12), the Private Sector, Foundations, and the Hispanic Community.
- The Hispanic Community is different than just about all of the other communities. The Hispanic Community is not Monolithic by any stretch. Mexican Americans, Puerto Riquenos, El Salvadoreños, Argentinos, Brazilians, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, to name a few, all have similar but very different customs and mindsets.
- The Hispanic Community has historically not been taken seriously by the rest of the system. Hispanics face the stigma of illegal immigration more than other groups with illegal immigration. Hispanics face the stigma that they are a source of cheap labor and can be exploited due to their potential illegal status while at the same time Hispanics carry the stigma that they are a drain on the system in health costs, crime, non payment of taxes, and everybody is on welfare. But like drugs there is a great demand for hard working people to do jobs others won’t do and because of economic conditions south of the border there is also a great supply. That is the Hispanic Community that gets the most attention and is an easy target for all sorts of Politicians, demagogues, and other communities that are competing for a “piece of the pie” in America.
- There are about 44 Million Hispanics in the United States and are the largest so-called minority group in the United States (The number is even larger if you include Puerto Rico) Americans of Mexican descent make up the largest percentage of this population (some numbers as high as 80%).
- Historically Hispanics have never been represented in any meaningful level in Corporate American, Academia, Policy making positions, Federal, State and Local Governments, Foundations, Boards of Governors/Directors (< 2%), GS16 Senior Executives in the Major Secretary Departments , and powerful councils, business round tables, etc;.
- Hispanics have learned that being represented by the “in organizations” on any critical issue surely means that whatever “spoils, benefits, etc;” accrue will trickle down to Hispanics as a last resort (throw them a bone concept) and they will continue to remain quiet.
In the recent past America has recognized that maybe Hispanics are more than carrying their weight.
- Hispanics are a huge market, fast approaching $1.0 Billion of Hispanic yearly Buying Power.
- In the last two Presidential elections Hispanics were the swing vote that won it for President Bush. Now everybody is “romancing Hispanics”, but only for
the good it does others, Hispanics are still woefully underrepresented in policy making positions as stated above.
- Hispanics, in the wake of 9/11 and the realities of National Security, of global competition, the global economy, the military infrastructure, the aerospace world, and the dire need of STEM , Medical, Bio, agriculture, etc; talent are now being viewed as one of the key communities to draw from.
- If you view Hispanics through the lens of California as the prototype state, a state that is the 5th largest economy in the world, has the largest Hispanic state population in the United States, is a community with such desirable characteristics as two parent families, religious (predominantly Catholic), hard working, long lived, etc; you have to say that is the good news.
- Hispanics have a serious shortfall in performing to their full potential, while great strides have been made in STEM (primarily due to volunteer organizations such as Mesa, Tame, Sacnas, Shpe, Maes, Henaac ) , much more will have to be done to produce the numbers, especially in the post graduate levels.
- Hispanics have performed poorly in the K-12 part of the educational continuum as witness the huge drop out rates in the largest K-12 School system in the United States. (Hispanics student populations well exceed the 50% level). Hispanics have significant problem in the area of “gangs” and “teenage pregnancy” both almost assuring failure to get a quality education. The Hispanic mindset is not one of striving for the Professions. This is a major problem. How do you undo decades of custom?
The United States historically has had a very slow reaction time. In this day of competition driving corporations to be very agile, develop new products with clear recognition of the issue of “perishability” of the competitive position, the need for a continuous stream of fresh and highly educated talent is paramount. Our competition does not have to worry about standards of living, wages, benefits, etc; but they do worry about the short, mid , and long term.
The American corporate mindset rewards the Management on a Quarterly basis on a variety of measurements. Executives then maximize their report card.
This can be seen in the large increase in the “outsourcing “ of high skill jobs. A short term look to say the least. The solution to the “Gathering Storm” has to be a system solution not a subsystem solution. This is the first time in the history of the United States that American workers are having to compete for jobs at all levels with people that do not live in the United States and, by and large, do not enjoy the standard of living that is enjoyed in the United States. This gives them a great competitive advantage in all of the areas that have meaning. When you couple this with the large supply of technical talent being produced . (China produces 600,000 to 800,000 engineers per year, the United
States produces 65,000 to 80,000 engineers per year and wages are at least 10X less for the Chinese Engineer) The significant increase in the production of highly skilled and highly educated American talent is mandatory. This is a long term problem that requires parallel short and mid term solutions.
Before I talk about the approach that might be followed to begin to address the “Major System Problem” that the “Gathering Storm” describes it should be pointed out that the problem is only going to get worse and more critical. The actions taken must be structural, financial, national in scope, have a sense of urgency, and that this will be a long term new way of life in the United States.
- Let me put down some more “bullets”:
- Before you can even start you have to address the system concerns in the restructure. The seven words of implementation of any action must be addressed. If you don’t then these two phrases kick in No 1. “If you keep doing what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten”. No 2. “If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there”.
- The seven words are: Why, Who, What, When, Where and more importantly How and How much. If this is not done it won’t fly.
- The process will entail dealing with all of the pluses and the minuses, ie; politicians, special interest groups, tax incentives, reasons for tax increases, pouring money into the problem ala Katrina, Iraq, The recent election results on the Governors state initiatives and on and on. Cutting budgets here and increasing them there.
- As an example the New York State proposal makes minimal if any mention of the K- 12/Community College pipeline and instead emphasizes the graduate and post graduate increase in resources. It totally neglects the fact that the foreign student supply is a thing of the past. All you have to do is look at the rosters of Academia and see that the “elitist” mentality prevails and, to me it is another power grab by a special interest group that only addresses an increase in their budget.
- Until the problem is addressed starting at the time of birth for American kids and in today’s high tech world, if a child is not exposed to the latest in technology by the time they are 5years of age, by the time the graduate from High School, very few will be into STEM.
I believe that the CCST must have further discussions on how the System Problem is presented to folks that probably don’t have a clue.
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