Tuesday, April 19, 2016
California Foreshadows Nation's Change
Recent years when we celebrate our various national holidays such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, I've often reflected on our nation's changes, especially those occurring during my lifetime. This country has experienced numerous domestic challenges including some associated with demographic changes. Now we are encountering one of the most profound in our nation's history which is slowly expanding. California officially became the third state following Hawaii and New Mexico where another ethnicity has surpassed Caucasians as a majority, U.S. census records reveal.
Latinos are now the majority ethnicity group in the State of California. Whites became a minority in the Los Angeles area just a few years ago when our population changed to the degree that no clear majority group existed among whites, African-Americans and Latinos. Now Latinos have emerged as California's new majority ethnic group.
I am a member of an ethnic minority for the first time in my life as there are now more Latinos than whites in California. A population ethnic change is a trend across our nation. Some may wonder what, if any, implications this may have for our lives? I offer my experience as reassurance that this ethnic change has been a gradual, though increasingly rapid evolution, which has been non-disruptive in my life. This California white person's life continues much as usual, but is enriched. I have never expected it to be otherwise. Perhaps how we think about such changes has some influence on their outcome. I can only hope residents in the rest of the nation where such change occurs adapt as well in the years ahead.
We live in an ever-expanding world as are many nations composed of increasing multiple ethnic groups with varying beliefs and languages. Newcomers to our United States generally learn our American English language. We native English speakers by honing our skills in other languages can only benefit us all. In this digital social media world I read recently about needing to learn even another specialty language, too -- how to write some computer programming code language -- as this is becoming an expected skill needed in the future by all, but that's another topic for a future discussion.
In the years to come, though maybe not in my lifetime, there are going to be other categories in addition to ethnicity, such as religion, where a once considered minority group in this nation may increase in numbers greater than the majority group we've known throughout our lifetime, even since the beginning of our nation's history.
We can only strive to see that any type of new majority groups will be more understanding, accepting, compassionate, tolerant, and fair to existing minority groups than some, once in the majority, have been since the founding of our great nation. In the meantime, we would be wise to put our best foot forward, as the saying goes, toward how we treat others in order to reflect favorably on our minority group. I'm sure we will want others to treat us well.-- perhaps better than some of us have treated them.
I think we need to think carefully about these matters when we consider who we would want as the next President of our country and representing us around the world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Excellent post. I do wish conservatives could read your post. I liked your point that it's all been happening over a period of time, gradually, not a sudden change. I think conservatives have failed to grasp that. I also notice I associate with the same economic and education level of minorities as I do in the white community. I don't hang around with white gangs and thugs the same as I don't hang around with Latino or Black gangs and thugs. It's so easy to settle in to life as we've always known it and become narrow and shallow in our thinking.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate your visit here. I agree that our economic and educational levels give us more in common with others than those factors some focus on to discriminate.
DeleteVery thoughtful piece. It does take a long time to change a culture, but it is wise to recognize the changes taking place and be prepared for adjustments. And, as you point out, applying the "Golden Rule" is a good idea in preparing for the future.
ReplyDeleteYes, it will be interesting to see how our culture evolves. I wonder how much change will occur during what remains of my lifetime?
DeleteI think we need to think carefully about these matters when we consider who we would want as the next President of our country and representing us around the world.
ReplyDeleteYes! So important. And yet, such a novel concept.
Well, I hate to argue with you but the newspapers are a tad mistaken. Yes, I know it makes great hype, but a few things to consider.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Hispanic is not a race and most Hispanics are White, hence the unfortunate label a"White, Not Hispanic."
Second, self-identity determines a person's race, thus you are what you say you are, i.e., my oldest grandson insist he's Hispanic although he is as white as I am (his mother is Spanish descent).
Thirdly, all this begs the question of what race is. Race is a chimera, a human construct. This is the first lesson you learn when you obtain a background like mine. And yes, as you know, before I retired, I was a demographer with the Census Bureau and worked with Race and Ethnic statistics for many years. I wrote many reports on the foreign born and Hispanic populations.
Today, most US Hispanics are born in the US.
My family is filled with Black, Hispanic, White, Indian, Asian, and Native American people...married into the family like my DIL or, born of, like my grandsons. The list is rediculously long.
Re some of the other points, yesterday, I saw a "good ole Thai boy" outside his dad's restaurant, and today I saw a "good old something else (not "pure white") on the back of a truck. The lowest classes have integrated in case anyone is looking. They also mostly sport US Marine and NRA stckers on their vehicles and have big dogs. As for the racists in this country. Well, there must be some somewhere, but not in my neighborhood which is Black and Hispanic and White and the Bluest in the U.S. of A.
Conservatives are well aware of what's happening demographically, just watch FOX TV or not.
Great post...got me awake.......
What worries me more thn anything is the big split across the US where some people absolutely hate the "other guy" without knowing him or her.
I appreciate the information you've provided and the matters you raise for consideration. The sources of information influencing what I wrote here included the links that follow:
DeleteUnited States Census - California Quick Facts
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045215/06
This research organization:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/24/in-2014-latinos-will-surpass-whites-as-largest-racialethnic-group-in-california/
I hadn't referenced newspaper articles, but since you mentioned them I was curious to see what had been written. Here's a link to the Los Angles Times article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-census-latinos-20150708-story.html
OF SPECIAL INTEREST is this link (not previously accessed) from which I'm providing a few pertinent quotes UPDATING DATA and PROJECTIONS:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/04/will-california-ever-become-a-majority-latino-state-maybe-not/
"California reached a milestone in 2014 when it became only the third U.S. state where white non-Hispanics were outnumbered by another racial or ethnic group. At about 15 million, Hispanics for the first time constituted California’s largest racial or ethnic group, according to the state’s Department of Finance.
However, it could be a half-century (or longer) before Hispanics become a full majority in California, if that demographic milestone is reached at all, according to scaled-back state population projections published by the state Finance Department.
California’s lowered Hispanic population projections mirror national projections. The U.S. Census Bureau has reduced Latino population projections by nearly 30 million by 2050 compared with those published in 2008. The bureau has also lowered the overall U.S. population projection for 2050 by about 40 million compared with 2008."
As for family and friends heritage, I think more and more of us have such mixes similar to yours. I know I certainly have found that to be true.
I couldn't agree more that we have a worrisome split in the U.S. -- stemming from individuals and groups who seem to want everyone to be just like them and don't value or respect the differences in people.
The problem for me always has been "the differences". What differences? Whenever I tried to operationally define and measure differences between groups I could find almost nothing. Differences seem to lie in people's heads and apparently the media is quite willing to blow t up. I worked on those state fact sheets for years and know them to be speculative at best.
DeleteThe reality is the SW has always been Hispanic. Most of the words we consider "western" are Spanish. Last I me I checked Spain is in Europe. However, the Spanish language is not the only thing that makes someone Hispanic. Saying you are an ethnicity makes you that ethnicity in census questionnaires. Believe me, I know these things.
Being Hispanic in CA or TX is like being Italian in NY or NJ. Even there, I met a woman who told me her family was Italian Hillbilly.....the best way to think about Hipanic people is to remember they are not a homogeneous group. No one is we are truly the result of a huge mixing pot. BTW, my "Hispanic" DIL is Republican. My son told me this the last time we spoke. Wendy was a pharmaceutical sales person when she met Richard. All I said to Richard, who works for the Avy and is an Independent (wasDemocrat) was...just tell me you are not voting for Trump!
Appreciate having your input here as someone who has worked on the U.S. census information. I've always considered many statistical figures as broad overall indicators but there can be so many exceptions in the specifics. Perhaps we should just ignore them, but I guess governments --federal, state and local -- and others, use them as guidelines for future planning, but you would know more about that than I do. Certainly the figures are subject to misinterpretation or even abuse by the media and we lay people -- unintentional or intentional. There's so much more we could examine on these issues.
DeleteWhen I mention "differences" I think of all the matters in which people vary -- not just heritage -- can be social issues, physical characteristics, belief systems. We are, indeed, a multi-cultural population, each of us with many shared but also differing opinions -- as you say, "...differences seem to lie in peoples heads" and I wrote: "Perhaps how we think...has some influence..."
To me,living in a "minority majority" state,Hawaii is nothing but an enrichment of my existence.
ReplyDeleteThis has been my family members experience living there, too.
DeleteWonderful post, my dear. Who our President will be will make a big difference right here and as the United States is seen throughout the world. Many many changes in my lifetime and yours, as you said. May we handle these changes with grace and a caring heart.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for checking in on me. Health Issues keep me from doing many things I used to do, including blogging. Just not up to it these days.....I really do appreciate your visit and your words here today.
Thanks so much for your comments. Ah-h-h, the changes we've seen!
DeleteSo glad to hear from you and do hope your health issues allow you to do more in the future, even if less than what you've been accustomed to doing.
Well written post. An eye opening one for me. But not surprised. There are some who view our nation's people as well as the world's as one race--the human race. Too idealistic? Perhaps but it's worth the effort of seeing our diversity as an enrichment.
ReplyDeleteThat's not too idealistic, Bob. Though likely not in our lifetime, but perhaps the day will come when everyone in every nation of the world views one another "as one race -- the human race." We'll likely literally become that by default sometime in the future as we continue to move in that direction.
DeleteI have always believed that, if we are to survive, we all need to make acceptance a priority. Other ethnicities, colors, age and sexuality have so much to offer if we could forget our self-centered prejudices and accept that/ We might even find we enjoy it !
ReplyDeleteSo true, Ginnie. Now, if voters will just give consideration to which Presidential candidates have similar ideals they actually practice and don't just say they have.
DeleteI don't worry about a person's ethnicity as much as I "worry" about one's professed religion since so much civic unrest and armed strife proceeds from differences therein.
ReplyDeleteI agree and think religion will become more of an issue in the years to come then it already is.
Delete