Detroit Automakers A Relic Of The Past
Celebrity Fires Consume the Media
To Battle Stations
Failure To Blow Election Stuns Democratic Party Faithful Mourn End To Losing Tradition
Looking Past Palin
The Earth’s Not Flat and It’s Not Warming
A Force For Good -- But Not At State
Palin Saboteurs Want to Kill Her Career Now
As GM Goes, So Goes The GOP
A Kinder Gentler DC
Quantum Of Nonsense
Obama's School Choice
And They're Off
They Shilled For Obama
The Tricky Obamas-Clintons Relationship
Leaving Home
From Victim To Victor In Black America
They Gave All, For . . . This?
'No' To Obama'S Experimental Government
The Same Old Change
New Books
Palin's Next Career Move
Leaders Duck And Hide While Wall Street Steals From Us
Can Obama Pull Off A Historic Presidential Double Play?
A Bridge We Need
Trusting Paulson
The Secret Of Happiness
Hope And Vision
'Keynsian Moment' Needed To Fight 'Great Recession'
A Lemon Of A Bailout
For Obama, A Game Of High-Stakes Fiscal Poker
No One Should Be Railin' Or Bailin' On Palin
Believing Your Own ... Um, Propaganda
Post-Election Potpourri
The Insane Rage Of The Same-Sex Marriage Mob
Sarah Palin Is Not The Future Of The GOP
Walking On Sunshine
Hillary Appointment: The Audacity Of Broken Promises
GOP Needs Night Of The Long Knives
Obama's Washington
The New World Financial Order
A Bomb Thrower Vs. Obama Bashers
Let'S Hope Gop Will Give Us SomeThing To Vote For Rather Than Against
Is Gay The New Black?
DiscriminaTion Still Lives
The Truth about Government
The Republican Party is a Grass-Roots Party
Welcome To The Wired White House
Note To Gop: Get Serious About Women Candidates
Revenge Of The Boxes
Cold War Hawks Nesting With Obama
Let Them Eat Spam
Choices Have Consequences -- Unless You're Joe Lieberman
Dean: Dems 'Big Tent' Party Now
Don't Bail Out the Big 3 -- Interview With Dan Ikenson
Business Unusual
Blind Defense of Koran Abrogates Reality
Some Of My Best Friends Are…
In Detroit, Failure's a Done Deal
Evil Concealed By Money
The Clinton Gamble



Linda Chavez
A Majority Minority Nation
Linda Chavez 8/18/2008
Digg This Story!
Del.icio.us Reddit StumbleUpon Yahoo! MyWeb Technorati Google Bookmarks Furl Ma.gnolia Newsvine Bloglines Rojo Facebook
A majority minority nation: that's what the U.S. Census Bureau is projecting by the year 2042, according to new figures released this week. By mid-century, according to the government's projections, Hispanics, Asians and blacks will outnumber non-Hispanic whites by about 32 million. The statistics make for interesting headlines — and, no doubt, cause heartburn in certain circles — but the fact is: they are more or less meaningless. The problem in all such predictions is that they don't take sufficient account of intermarriage and assimilation.

From our founding as a nation, there have been those who worried that "foreigners" would overwhelm us and change our national character. Benjamin Franklin warned in 1751: "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them?"

It's true, Germans are our largest ethnic group today — numbering 43 million in the last decennial Census — but so what? Despite German language schools — which enrolled as many as 600,000 students in 1900 — and even some efforts by German emigres to form a German
ethnic state in Texas or Wisconsin in the 19th century, Americans of German ancestry all speak English today and are entirely integrated into the American mainstream.

Similar worries emerged in the early 20th century, when millions of southern and eastern Europeans flooded our shores. Madison Grant, a Yale-educated lawyer and leader in the eugenics movement, predicted, "… in large sections of the country the native American will entirely disappear. He will not inter-marry with inferior races and he cannot compete in the sweat shop and in the street trench with the newcomers."

But Grant turned out to be spectacularly wrong. The progeny of those Italian, Polish, and other immigrants succeeded in learning English, improving not only their own economic standing but that of all Americans.

They also intermarried to an astonishing degree. Nearly three-quarters of young Americans of Italian ancestry were married to spouses of non-Italian ancestry in 1990 and the figures for Americans of Polish descent were even higher, according to sociologists Richard Alba and Victor Nee in their book, "Remaking the American Mainstream."

Add Feed to ZapTXT Add Feed to Bloglines Add Feed to Technorati Add Feed to LibWorm! Add Feed to My Yahoo! Add Feed to Google Add Feed to Newsgator Add Feed to Rojo Add Feed to Windows Live Add Feed to My MSN
Which Hispanics
By Parker - Florida Today * Posted 1/31/2003 12:00:00 AM
Post to MySpace!
Comment
Email
Which Hispanics
© Copyright 2003  Parker - All Rights Reserved.

Posted By: John Handforth  on Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A lady from Louisiana that I once knew was paler than I am, and I don't tan very well due to my fair skin.  She was black.  What, you say?

Her passport said that she was black.  Why?  Because, in Louisiana, you are black if one of your 64 great-great-great-great grandparents is black.

I couldn't tell you anything about all of my great grandparents and forget going back further.  I know that my paternal line goes back to the Norman Conquest, but don't ask me to get off the dad begat son line.

They obviously keep great racist records in Louisiana.

You are perfectly correct, Linda.  We are a nation of mongrels and should be proud of it.  Physically, it improves the health and bloodlines.  Culturally, it improves us all because we learn from each other and increase the best parts for everyone.

May GOD grant us peace and the ability to live together.

Make A Comment
We appreciate your feedback. Post a comment using the form below.
Your Name (required)
Your Comments
Type the characters you see in the image:
 
Please contact your local newspaper editor if you would like to see the Linda Chavez column in your hometown paper.





© Cagle Cartoons, Inc., All Rights Reserved; Artwork and Columns © each respective artist and writer.