http://amaejournal.utsa.edu ISSN: 2377-9187 Volume 11 Issue 2 2017 AMAE Special Issue Latinx and the Community College: Promoting Pathways to Postsecondary Degrees Guest Editors Edna Martinez, Nancy Acevedo-Gil, and Enrique G. Murillo, Jr. California State University, San Bernardino Editors Patricia Sánchez The University of Texas at San Antonio Antonio J. Camacho AMAE, Inc. Associate Editors Julie L. Figueroa Sacramento State Lucila D. Ek The University of Texas at San Antonio Association of Mexican American Educators Journal A peer-reviewed, open access journal http://amaejournal.utsa.edu/ A Real Tragedy Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 183 A Real Tragedy Martha Rivas University of California, Riverside We often assume– (We know what that means, no?) When we continue to name oppressive experiences faced by Latinx community college students, we are shut down as these “are things of the past.” After all, Latinx are the largest growing “minority,” we have studies dating back 10-20-30-40 years. We assume We “know” the challenges. We “know” the barriers. Yet, as an activist-scholar-administrator in this field, shit is still real. Too damn real not to name it. Asi que… When we shame our students for not knowing, not naming, nor having the terminology to name what they aspire to do at the community college– it assumes it assumes it assumes we do a really good job or that we do our job of explaining the purpose of a three-tier college system– that’s a real tragedy. Because some folks working in the “system” are so removed disconnected they’ve forgotten or pretend they don’t know or they don’t know, nor care, don’t care to know, Rivas Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 184 don’t know to care realities experienced in our communities, nor about the historical underpinnings; white supremacist underpinnings that built educational institutions in this country– that’s a real tragedy. Instead, they lash to say how dare we speak? Don’t speak—not us— How dare we speak? How dare we speak about graduate school or medical school or law school or anything to challenge and change the status quo. How dare we speak to community college students about these things; these students aren’t going … aren’t going… to make it that far, right?– that’s a real tragedy. Yet we know, we see we hear we feel– We know the truth. We know our strength. We know their strength. We know their resilience. When 1 of 4 Chicanas/os Ph.D. scholars produced in 1990-2000 for the entire country, started at the community colleges!1 We know our strength, we know the power they be! 1 Rivas, Martha A., Jeanette Pérez, Crystal A. Alvarez, and Daniel G. Solórzano. (2007). An Examination of Latina/o Transfer Students in California’s Postsecondary Institutions. CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief No. 16. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press. Rivas, M.A. (2012). Soulfully Resistant Transferistas: Understanding the Chicana Transfer Experience from Community College and into the Doctorate. Doctoral Dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles. A Real Tragedy Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 185 When you have to convince folks our students are resilient, determined, beautiful, and committed to their education, their families, themselves. We have to convince folks -Hard- because their lenses are fogged tapados with deficit ideologies continuing to brainwash folks to believe and exacerbate the opposite– that’s a real tragedy. When we refuse to call it white supremacy or racism, or classism, or misogyny, or ageism, because well, we may not have the language to name it -or- because we are too.damn.comfortable too.damn.comfortable with our six-figure paychecks– that’s a real tragedy. When our students’ parents may not know what college is about; instead of stepping in to engage them, we stand quick to point fingers and blame them– that’s a real tragedy. Because 60-years in the process we finally realize we’ve been marginalizing, shackling, Rivas Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 186 oppressing and neglecting too many, too many, too many; an overwhelming many of our students in not transferring, in not accessing the right courses, in complicating the process, or misplacing them is mismatch courses, relegating and corralling them in remedial courses– that’s a real tragedy. The new response (or magic wand) is a “holistic approach” to place students through MMAP2, Yet, it doesn’t take into account real accounts– real things, warranted things, systemic things, like the fact MMAP will not replicate the few nor hire critical pedagogues, MMAP will not replicate the few nor hire conscious counselors, MMAP will not replicate the few nor hire radically capable administrators, Because MMAP does not eradicate deficit ideologies, racism, classism, homophobia, xenophobia, or all the ignorance that continue 2 Multiple Measures of Assessment and Placement (MMAP). http://rpgroup.org/All-Projects/ctl/ArticleView/mid/1686/articleId/118/Multiple-Measures-Assessment-Project- MMAP A Real Tragedy Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 187 continue continue to “cool out” marginalize dehumanize silence oppress our students and their aspirations– that’s a real tragedy. See now, Now! now it’s time for student equity. We talk about it. We plan for it. We meet to talk and plan. We plan to talk and meet. But folks bluff to understand Equity. Why would we need a special special initiative? (everyone listen up) …because there’s tons of funding there so listen up! Plan to meet. Meet to plan. But nowhere is there assurance Folks know what equity means– that’s a real tragedy. When we speak of equity we conjure we evoke we recall we remember the legacies of struggle, legacies of exclusion, legacies of sacrifices, generations-after-generations-after-generations before have endured. Rivas Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 188 That is pedagogy of memory. That is pedagogy of hope. You see– Equity does not equate diversity. We do not pause to plan to celebrate who is in the room. We have to pause to see to fight to voice to name to acknowledge who is fighting to be in the room. Legacies of exclusion. Legacies of a three-tiered system. Legacies of continued marginalization. Legacies of corralling Students of Color in the perceived bottom sector of higher education. That’s a real tragedy. But the real tragedy is in knowing folks will read this in disagreement. Because then, they too are part of this tragedy Y si les queda el saco, ya saben! The beauty in this is knowing our students resist! They have, they will. We must, together. There are critical folks that have been there this entire time... voicing, pushing, encouraging, challenging– not often heard often silenced ignored, oppressed, released, killed in their attempt to defend our students. That’s a real tragedy. But just as they’ve collared A Real Tragedy Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2017, Volume 11, Issue 2 189 and relegated to oppress– We will fight back. We will challenge– we will create systemic changes! Rooted in community, nurtured within our own legacies, centered on advocacy y resiliency along with our students, because of our students because of our communities because of the generations-after-generations of teaching and inculcating resilience we are ready. We’ve been ready! To name-confront-challenge all the f’ing–isms ahorita porque no hay de otra! Simply because We cannot afford to accept another tragedy. This is our strategy.