Why don

1
Why dont ethnic minorities participate more in
the USA?

• Many Blacks Hispanics regard the Federal
  Government with distrust as they think it is a
  Whites-only club, e.g. all 43 presidents have
  been White. In addition, currently in the Senate
  there are only 5 Senators from ethnic minority
  backgrounds (and 2 are Asian American), the other
  95 being White. Since roughly 12 of the USA is
  Black, 13 Hispanic and 4 Asian this is clearly
  unfair.
• There is a lack of ethnic minority role models in
  US politics. People like Barak Obama and
  Condoleezza Rice are well known, but there are
  few.
• Political participation is always linked to
  education, i.e. the more highly educated you are
  the more likely it is youll vote. In the USA,
  Blacks/Hispanics tend to underachieve at school,
  and so are less likely to participate.
• You are also far more likely to take part in your
  democracy if you enjoy a higher standard of
  living. Since many Blacks/Hispanics live in
  poverty this also affects participation.

2
Why dont ethnic minorities participate more in
the USA?

• The language of politics in the USA is English.
  Many Hispanics only speak it as a second language
  (Spanish is the first in many cases) and so find
  it difficult to follow debates and understand the
  whole political process.
• The process of registering to vote is actually
  very difficult and time-consuming, and varies
  from state to state. It is easy to be confused or
  put off by the registration forms, particularly
  if you have underachieved at school or English is
  not your first language (although some states
  have addressed this problem by printing forms in
  Spanish and other languages).
• Since many Blacks Hispanics do not vote
  politicians have an incentive to ignore their
  concerns, which makes their participation even
  less likely, since they assume politicians dont
  care about them.
• Unfortunately many Blacks/Hispanics express anger
  about their plight by destroying themselves
  (through social problems like alcoholism or drug
  abuse).