African Americans and Hispanic Americans are part of the minority groups that form the vast American multicultural society. The history of African Americans goes back centuries when they were brought to work in the plantations as slaves and it was not until 1866 when the Thirteen Amendment enforced equality for all races, which, consequently, made them free from bondage. On the other hand, Hispanic Americans mark out their ancestry to the time when both the South and North America were still sharing their historical and regional identity. As a result, the interaction between North and South was frequent and free, due to the economic prosperity of the north in comparison to the south. Thus the Hispanic American cultural identity is just a synthesis of the culture of the two continents. This paper will look at the similarities and differences of the two minority groups and their current status in the contemporary world. Moreover, the paper will examine the factors hindering growth of these two cultures in terms of education and other social and cultural aspects and finally how multicultural education can be promoted. (Banks, 60)

The first similarity is that some of the Hispanic citizens from Latin America have physical features comparable to the ones of African Americans while some have a Caucasian appearance. For instance, Puerto Ricans have dark skin similar to African Americans. Others are offspring of Indians and, of course, have physical features of that group. One of the major factors that led to discrimination is bodily appearance, which means that. Discrimination mainly bore its roots to color of the skin. This is one of the fundamental likenesses that place Hispanic and African American in one category, according to Torres, (58) the issue of ‘blackness’ has affected the psycho – social dynamics of both African Americans and Hispanic American alike in that due to segregation the more light-skinned one is the one who is likely to be accepted among the white majority. (Banks, 63)

Secondly, due to discrimination and segregation, both cultures have faced unfairness, prejudice, lack of employment, and lack of an economic base resulting into poverty and low economic status among the two communities (Banks, 75).This segregation has further affected the two groups and marginalized them which led to the appearance of similar social trends like the high literacy levels among the two groups. This was followed by increased cases of other poverty -related behavior such as high crime rate, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, which expounded the problem of poverty and ,more importantly, breeds a society that does not put emphasis on education thus leading to low enrolment and high drop out rates among Hispanic Americans and African American. (Reissman, 69)

On the other hand, there are many differences between the two cultures. The most important point is that African American can possibly trace their culture to one single aspect (which is slavery) and this has relatively made them a homogenous group. This largely influenced African American culture and offered a strong sense of identity as shown in their art, music and literature.