Chapter 4: Latino Males and Exclusionary Practices

Latino communities continue to significantly impact the overall population profile within the United States, becoming the fastest-growing population in the nation, increasing 23% between the 2010 and 2020 Census (Jones et al., 2021). While this fact reflects a dynamic shift within our society, the swiftness of this change has yet to be shown in institutions of higher education. According to the United States Census Bureau (2019), there were 4.5 million individuals that earned a doctorate, with Latinos comprising a little over 14,000 of those reaching this level of education (Duffin, 2021). With the total population of the United States being over 328 million, this means that roughly 13% of the U.S. populace has earned a doctorate, and Latinos make up around 3% of that total number. When calculated, Latinos with earned doctorate degrees account for little over 0.00004 of America’s total population. When figuring in additional demographics such as gender, the number of Latino males with a doctorate degree within the total population of the United States gets conspicuously smaller. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics ([NCES], 2018), the number of doctorates conferred to males in 2018-2019 was 85,769, with Latino male doctorates representing 8.4% of these graduates. While reports state that improvements in the number of Latino males reaching this highest level of education have occurred, we are still heavily underrepresented and are vanishing in faculty who teach in university and college settings.