By Jennifer Chavira

Those afflicted with a disability often experience a myriad of challenges that can hamper their ability to navigate the world. Many do not have a voice to advocate for themselves and therefore rely on that of an ally willing to speak up for them. Although much has changed since the heyday of the disability rights movement, there is still progress to be made.

Statistics convey a startling trend, a 29% increase in students with disabilities enrolled in the Orange County Unified School District, from 1,799 in the 2019-2020 school year to 2,320 in the 2023-2024 year – resulting in a demand for new materials needed to accommodate the increase, according to Ed-Data, a partnership of several groups including the California Department of Education and education news site EdSource.

There are 70,000 special education students currently enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District but in recent years, the district announced it would shutter special education classrooms at more than one dozen schools, according to CBS News.

Many of the students are now forced to attend other schools that are further in distance, creating additional burdens on these families, according to disability rights advocates. 

Experts say that it’s essential that these students have access to the correct resources as well as support in their communities. Without similar access, students with disabilities can be further isolated, exacerbating the problem.

By Omar Ortiz, Samuel Valencia and Jose Cabrera

Accent and appearance discrimination are elements that can contribute to people experiencing feelings of isolation. These issues of discrimination are present globally, especially in the United States, where immigrants are woven into the country’s history. 

Accent discrimination is the practice of judging a person or group based on their linguistic abilities. This typically affects those whose primary language is not English, particularly immigrants. 

About 70% of California immigrants experienced workplace discrimination based on their skin color and accent, according to a November 2021 UCLA Center for Health and Policy Research survey.

And 58% of the Asians that were surveyed said they faced accent discrimination, while nearly 80% of Latino respondents did. Accent discrimination occurs due to “a dominant sociolinguistic mindset that favors accents socially constructed as standard over others labeled as non-standard,” says writer Pierre W. Orelus in an Excellence in Education Journal article from 2020. 

Similarly, appearance discrimination occurs when someone is judged based on their physical looks, like hair, clothing, or skin color.

Appearance discrimination, which includes colorism or weight discrimination, has been reported in fields such as medicine and law enforcement and can factor into someone’s status. For example, some officers alleged racism when a Los Angeles police lieutenant chastised a black officer for wearing a beard longer than what LAPD allows, according to a December 2023 Los Angeles Times story. 

In the medical field, Black people were 73% more likely to report medical mistrust compared to white people, said researchers Mohsen Bazargan, Sharon Cobb, and Shervin Assari in a 2021 Annals of Family Medicine article. That same study also calculated that Hispanic people were 49% more likely to report medical mistrust when compared to their white peers.

Appearance discrimination can even affect people of similar racial groups. A study from the American Journal of Sociology in 2021 compared the wealth status of people based on attractiveness. The researchers found that “Black females at the 5th percentile of attractiveness ratings are estimated to earn 63 cents to every dollar of Black females at the 95th percentile of attractiveness.” These trends were consistent among Black men and Asian, Hispanic and white people.

America as a country has had a very complicated history with racism and while the overall look has changed, discrimination based on appearance and manner of speaking persists on a fundamental level. 

The state of California is not only the most populous state in the nation, but it is also home to the most diverse population with 40% of Californians reporting they’re Latino, 35% saying they’re white, 15% reporting they’re Asian American or Pacific Islander, 5% saying they are Black, 4% reporting being multiracial, and fewer than 1% identifying as Native American or Alaska Natives.

In another report by the U.S. Census Bureau, 45% of Californians speak a language other than English at home.

Discrimination is a systemic issue that festers on an individual level, also known as implicit bias, according to an article in the Winter 2024 issue of the Dædalus journal. The paper explains implicit bias as the positive or negative images we create in our minds in a larger group setting and the systemic side of discrimination feeds implicit bias in our society by making it commonplace and acceptable subconsciously.

Discrimination based on manner of speaking can be seen most commonly in the workforce, according to a 2019 report by the Society for Human Resource Management. “Research shows that we need to have diversity of opinion to make better workplace decisions. But bias—whether conscious or unconscious—against nonnative English speakers causes ‘the silencing effect.’ They can feel isolated and excluded, and team meetings are less valuable as a result,” according to the report.

Over time, officials have made some Southern California residents feel like outsiders by displacing lower-income people from their homes or neighborhoods to accomplish projects such as the East Los Angeles interchange and Dodger Stadium.

Whether this treatment will continue into the future largely depends on who Angelenos elect to important local offices.

By Jessica Galan

While most of Southern California, especially Los Angeles County has diverse ethnic and racial groups, many of these individuals are left feeling ostracized because they make up a small percentage of the population.

Latinos, Native Americans, Black and Asian individuals can feel like outsiders in their very hometowns. This could potentially lead to feelings of tension and a sense of not belonging which can have a negative impact on mental health.

One example of a group that can be a “minority” within another large minority community is Asian Americans. While L.A. County is home to the biggest demographic of Asian Americans in the U.S. – including Filipino, Thai, Japanese, Korean and South Asian people – API folks only make up 14.6% of the population. 

Because of the small population, some Asian Americans can feel marginalized in society.

“About six in ten Asian adults (58%) say they have ever experienced racial discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity,” according to the Pew Research Center. As seen in recent news like back in 2020, many Asians faced hate crimes because they were being blamed for the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has documented a 77 percent increase from 2019 to 2020 in hate crimes against Asian people living in the US,” according to an article by Health Affairs. 

Additionally, one in five Asian adults say they have experienced a form of workplace inequality, according to Pew Research, with Asian men slightly more likely than Asian women to say they have been denied a promotion because of their race or ethnicity. 

Furthermore, a large number of the Asian community face discrimination in academic settings. According to the American Psychological Association, “11 percent reported being frequently targeted with race-related hate words than was reported by White students 3 percent.” From this percentage, most who were bullied were either first or second-generation students, with many attributing things like their accent to play a large role. The APA also found that, unlike their white counterparts, Asian students who played a sport were more likely to be teased because it was seen as breaking a racial stereotype. 

By Joseph Chavarria & Isaac Melendez

Although the treatment of the LGBTQ community has improved on both national and local levels, members of the community still experience intense marginalization.

There are signs that mental health struggles within the LGBTQ community continue to worsen, despite an increase in representation of the community itself.

The percentage of U.S. adults displaying both symptoms of anxiety and depression by both age and sexual orientation is higher among those of the LGBTQ community, according to the Household Pulse Survey data from June 1 to Aug. 8, 2022. This trend was seen across all age groups, with those between 18-19 and 30-44 being the highest.

The percentage of LGBTQ members with symptoms of anxiety in all age groups decreased – except for people ages 18-29 – between three months in 2021 to three months in 2022 when HPS did the survey. Despite this small decline, the overall percentages were still higher than non-LGBTQ members. In general, young adults are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression than older individuals. However, in comparison to non-LGBTQ members the numbers were still higher for the older age groups.

Data from the California Healthy Kids Survey for the California Department of Education also revealed startling figures. According to the data, LGBTQ students were more likely to be the target of both verbal and physical harassment as well as more likely to experience chronic sadness. 

Another study conducted by the Williams Institute unveiled a similar pattern. Young LGBTQ adults between 18-24 were surveyed and asked to reflect back on their memories of being bullied while in high school. Of that sample pool, 53% reported being harassed or assaulted while at school.

This is imperative research since it exemplifies just how this sense of marginalization can arise at such an early and crucial period of development.

Intersectionality with race also plays a role when it comes to LGBTQ community. Over 1,000 people took the survey, including 39% who are Latinx, 37% who are white, 13% who are Asian and 8% who are Black.

One example of intersectionality in the survey is from a nonbinary Latinx person in their 20s who said, “While in a predominantly white area, I was called a dyke and a beaner. It felt bad and made me avoid going near there again.”

Regardless of origin, being a member of the LGBTQ community has long been a journey of both tragedy and triumph. Though the experiences of the queer community can feel secularized, the experience of a queer person in rural Texas can vary greatly from that in California. The modern fight for queer rights and marriage equality can be traced to the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, which followed decades of LGBT suppression.

Legal fights abound

The crusade for marriage equality and queer rights has been not solely fought societally but also judicially. 

Los Angeles is now widely considered a safe haven for queer individuals, yet it was also the site of a lawsuit against an exclusionary tactic on behalf of the United States Postal Service that aided the community locally. According to a 2021 article on California.com, just prior to the Stonewall Uprising, the United States Post Office was ordered to resume delivering ONE Magazine, a queer publication the government service opposed. 

Ultimately, the case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court where a ruling was made in favor of the magazine. The Supreme Court would continue to rule on cases affecting the LGBTQ community including the landmark marriage equality in 2015.  Despite the progress in the legal protection of LGBTQ rights, there is still more that could be done.  A recent 2023 case that ruled that religious web designers can turn away queer people lawfully.

Aside from their societal oppression, queer people also battle familial and cohort issues deriving from traditions that do not look kindly upon them. A 2009 study focusing on the experiences of South Asian Americans was published  by Journal of Gay & Lesbian Services which revealed a grim reality.  Many of those from these communities believe that being queer is a western ‘disease’ and unnatural.  The paper also expresses how queer people from these marginalized communities often find it difficult to reach out for mental health aid.

When a cry for help goes unheard

When queer people do actively seek assistance for health issues that are impacting their community, their pleas often fall on deaf ears. Historical and continuing medical trauma felt by the LGBTQ  community was a significant barrier in getting queer individuals the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a 2022 article published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study conveyed that there are many in the community who feel disrespected by the medical industry as a result of adverse experiences. 

The crusade for LGBTQ rights remains a pressing issue that is imperative for the welfare of this population. Even in a purported safe haven, there is still a recurrence of exclusionary practices that continue to deny members of this community basic rights. While much headway has been paved since the Stonewall riots, the path is still one which needs progress.

A simple smile or kind greeting can turn someone’s day around. Spreading acceptance and kindness is sorely needed so that all people — regardless of race, gender, class, ability, appearance, weight, accent, age, religion or anything in between — can thrive and be the best people.

Beyond that, on a personal level, we can acknowledge and attempt to deconstruct our own personal biases, or biases we have without conscious awareness or intention. They can still affect how to view and treat people and decisions we make.

You can take a test on your own implicit biases through a tool developed by Project Implicit, a nonprofit organized by an international collaborative of researchers interested in implicit social cognition.

On an institutional level, employers, legislators and government agencies can also make meaningful changes. Here are some suggestions that come from several reports produced by the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute:

• Eliminate all employer exemptions for anti-discrimination laws.
• Dismantle all exclusions from federal labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Wagner Act.
• Remove gender-biased dress codes and other subjective disciplinary measures that perpetuate bias and fuel hostility towards LGBTQ youth.
• Have federal agencies coordinate with appropriate parties to collect LGBTQ data to properly understand the queer community and develop needed policies
• Have employers do a compensation audit examining racial, ethnic and gender pay differences.
• Have employers require all staff to participate in diversity training sessions on an annual basis.