VivirLatino

As you watch the Latino in America tonight, I thought you might enjoy this preview/critique of the show from Color Lines.

Take the story of Cindy Garcia. Having once ditched high school classes, Cindy is now trying to avoid becoming one of the 70 percent of students who don’t graduate from her Los Angeles high school. Although the school board president admits that a school meant to handle 1,500 students actually serves 4,800 students, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien focuses on Cindy’s real challenge: her family responsibilities. She has a mom who needs her to translate and help at the family store and a young niece and baby brother to take care of. When she ends up pregnant, we know now presumably what Cindy’s real hardship will be.

What’s going to help Cindy finish high school?

O’Brien could have suggested an overhaul of the education system. She could have analyzed the impact of the more recent and severe budget cuts for students. She could have examined why Cindy’s stepfather is in jail (prison industrial complex anyone?) or what the state of reproductive health education is at Cindy’s school, where a number of Latina girls are facing unplanned pregnancies.

But O’Brien skipped these questions and the real world solutions.

We’re told instead is that what Cindy needs to make it is grit, focus, and hard work. In short: her own bootstraps.