Many years ago when I was in school, I was taught that America was called the melting pot.
It was a metaphor for the idealized process of immigration and colonization by which different nationalities, cultures and “races” (a term that could encompass nationality, ethnicity and race) were to blend into a new, virtuous community, and it was connected to utopian visions of the emergence of an American “new man“.
People immigrate to other countries for a variety of reasons, and immigrants (legal or illegal) coming to America is no different. So, I have to say that the latest Census Bureaus “projections” are more than inflammatory, spurring on the nativist population that has surged in recent years.
Ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population in a little more than a generation, according to new Census Bureau projections, a transformation that is occurring faster than anticipated just a few years ago.
The census calculates that by 2042, Americans who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander will together outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Four years ago, officials had projected the shift would come in 2050.
The main reason for the accelerating change is significantly higher birthrates among immigrants. Another factor is the influx of foreigners, rising from about 1.3 million annually today to more than 2 million a year by midcentury, according to projections based on current immigration policies.
Note the main reason is not immigration, but higher birthrates.
Now, this is the part that I feel dehumanizes immigrants:
“No other country has experienced such rapid racial and ethnic change,” said Mark Mather, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a research organization in Washington.
Now, keep in mind that this country was not colonized by one culture of people. And part of the influx of different races goes back to the use of slavery and indentured servants. And, then you have those that immigrated during troubled times of their respective countries, and world wars.
But, what the reportage of this “report” neglects to say is that we are all part of one larger demographic — human beings.
