We've been hearing about it for
years, and now the time has come. In May, the Census Bureau announced that for
the first time, the birth rate of people of color exceeded that of whites: 50.4
percent to 49.6 percent.
The United States of America is still a
majority white country, with whites comprising 63.4 percent of the total
population.
But the Census Bureau report covering the 12-month period that
ended last July reveals that at a time when the white birth rate is declining,
there are now 114 million people of color in the United States , or 36.6 percent of
the population. Latinos, now America 's
largest minority group, led the way last year with 26 percent of total births.
The African-American percentage was about 15 percent, and for Asians it was
about 4 percent.
The country now has four
majority-minority states: Hawaii , California , New Mexico ,
and Texas .
Non-whites outnumber whites in the District
of Columbia too. By 2042, experts predict that the United States
will become a majority-minority nation.
"This is an important tipping
point," said William Frey, a senior demographer at the nonpartisan
Brookings Institution.
We're seeing "a transformation from a mostly white
baby boomer culture to the more globalized multi-ethnic country that we are
becoming."
This increase in the minority
population is due partly to the influx of Latino immigrants in recent decades.
It also reflects the fact that with a median age of 42, the white population is
aging while younger minorities, especially Latinos, are moving into their peak
child-bearing years.
With African Americans and Latinos
still over-represented among the unemployed and high school dropouts, this
demographic shift should be a wake-up call to policymakers and employers.
The
nation can't move forward if it continues to leave communities of color behind.
We won't be able to grow our economy or compete in the 21st-century global
marketplace if we continue to squander so much of our young human capital.
Even as job creation
continues to pick up, the unemployment rate for African Americans has exceeded
10 percent since 2008. It now stands at 13 percent. The rate for Latinos also
outpaces the national average at 10.3 percent. The high school dropout rate is
also highest in these communities.
It's ironic that the Census Bureau released
this historic data on May 17, exactly 58 years after Thurgood Marshall won the
landmark Supreme Court ruling that decreed an end to "separate but
equal" segregation in our nation's schools.
While the hope was that Brown v. Board of Education would
lead to better schools and a better education for all our children, America 's
public schools are more segregated today than ever. And schools serving
African-American and Latino students remain unequal in terms of resources,
funding, and quality teachers.
Recent political attacks on
affirmative action, immigration, and voting rights also make it clear that
while African Americans and Latinos are growing in numbers, our fight for civil
rights and equality is far from over. It's time to put these old divisions
behind us.
The future is fast approaching. And its color will look a lot
different from the shades of the past.
Marc Morial is the president and
CEO of the National Urban League and the former mayor of New Orleans . www.nul.org Distributed via OtherWords (OtherWords.org)