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Guest post by Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University.
Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto
For many, the presidential elections of 2008 held promise beyond a catchy slogan of “Yes we can” (Si Se Puede). Minorities saw in Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, a beacon of hope, a person who knew the firsthand economic and institutional challenges within minority communities. However, a focus on job creation for those most in need is not occurring. The Latino community has been especially hard hit in this recession with unemployment rates consistently above that of the national average. Even in the midst of the immigration debate, jobs still remain the top concern for Latinos as shown in a recent AP-Univision poll.
Within the Latino community the unemployment rate has hit a record high of 13.2%. But more concretely the strains are being felt in the recent state budget reductions that cut deep into programs designed to assist low income and minority communities. As a result, many California minorities are losing hope in the change they were promised.
