Cruz Fails the Latino Test?

As the presidential race gears up, so does the blatant liberal bias in the classroom.

My political science class always begins with some light current events chatter. In one particular instance, my professor expressed how “of course” there were only old white men running in the Republican Party primary this go around.

I couldn’t help myself; I laughed out loud. “What about Ted Cruz? Marco Rubio? Ben Carson? Carly Fiorina? Bobby Jindal?” I insisted.

Not missing a beat, my professor informed me that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz isn’t Hispanic enough. I actually gasped. “How can you say someone isn’t Hispanic enough!?”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race. In other words, who’s Hispanic? Anyone who says they are.

Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, was imprisoned in Cuba under Batista’s regime. He fled Cuba speaking no English and traveled to America, a true Cuban migrant. Just one generation away, Ted Cruz is obviously “Hispanic enough.”

How disappointed I was to hear such foolishness force-fed to my impressionable classmates.

It is interactions like this that make me believe speaking up and taking a stand is imperative. For as many professors and liberal students who roll their eyes at me when they see me raise my hand, I have had twice as many students pull me aside after class and thank me.

“I don’t necessarily agree with your opinion, but I’m glad you brought it up. I never thought of it that way before,” is something I get a lot.

“I don’t necessarily agree with your opinion, but I’m glad you brought it up. I never thought of it that way before,” is something I hear a lot. And in many cases, students ask if there is a way to join an organization on campus with people who think more like me.

While some want the government to regulate classroom professors so that they can’t spout purely liberal claptrap, I believe it is on us, the students, to make the fight. The bias is perpetrated by individual professors, so we as individual students must educate ourselves to debate these topics and advocate on the behalf of conservative principles.

Otherwise, everyone will walk around believing that “Ted Cruz is not Hispanic enough”… as if this is even relevant to his leadership and qualifications to be president in the first place.

Kaytee Moyer is a senior at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. This piece is part of a CampusZette series exploring the culture, oddities, and experiences of students on college campuses through their eyes.