Thursday, August 11, 2005

The Browning Of America

Fox News reports today that White Anglos in Texas are now officially the racial minority in the state. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165395,00.html. The cowboys must be shaking in their boots (the boots they copied from their Mexican gaucho predecessors).

Texas now joins California, New Mexico and Hawaii on the list of states that have been baked and browned much to the consternation of the cowboy class. And it's not just the nutty left coast and southwest. According to the story, Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona are not too far behind, with browned and baked people making up 40 percent of those states.

What this means for America is unclear at this stage. It is without dispute that it is the growing Latino population everywhere from New York to Florida to California that accounts for the baking and browning of America. The 2004 presidential election brought Latinos into the political forefront as Republicans ralied to maintain their traditional appeal to the culturally conservative community. Los Angelinos just elected the first Latino mayor the city has seen in a bazillion years and the numbers of Latinos in higher education is steadily increasing. With that, issues of importance to the Latino community will become important to all of us, including immigration, healthcare and bilingual education.

Expect to hear more from White America about the horrors of immigration and exaggerated burdens immigrants place on America. Because, fundamentally, this demographic shift is scaring the sh*& out of the good 'ol cowboys of America. And understandably so. American history and culture has defined Whites as the majority and all the irrelevant others as the minority. But, times are changing.

Who's the minority now?

9 comments:

  1. While I do celebrate this demographic event with you, the Texan in me can't help but take exception to your pejorative use of the word cowboy. In Texas, the image of the cowboy is a strong, faithful, courageous, and dutiful worker on the range. Some members of my family who still participate in trail rides take great pride in the cowboy title and there horsemanship. As you probably already know, many of the greatest cowboys were persons of color. Perhaps this is a pedantic quibble, but I prefer the more standard lexicon for fearful ignorant racists such as: good ole boys, hicks, hillbillys, bubbas, and my personal favorite, rednecks. As always however, reading your blog is one of the highlights of my day.

    A brown brother from Texas,
    chad

    Stolen from Africa, brought to America,fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.
    ~Bob Marley (from Buffalo Soldier)

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  2. Fair enough Chad. I'll use redneck next time. :-)

    However, do you think the black community would be as troubled by the rise in the Latino populations as Whites are?

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