Posted on 09/30/2004 4:24:23 PM PDT by The Bandit
Twenty-one years ago, voters here chose Federico Peña as the city's first Hispanic mayor. Eight years later, they elected Wellington Webb as their first black mayor. Webb won a contest in which both candidates were African-American - and 68% of voters were white.
Then last year, Denver picked its first white mayor in 20 years.
Today, Census data show that racial and ethnic minorities in Denver now outnumber whites.
No surprise here: Demographic shifts have rolled through Colorado's capital city for decades.
"It's nice to see the demographics are catching up to my appointments," jokes Mayor John Hickenlooper, a brew pub owner and downtown activist who has filled two-thirds of his top posts with blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
The Census Bureau (news - web sites) estimates that Denver has 557,478 people - 49.4% white, 34.8% Hispanic, 10.6% black, 3% Asian and 2.2% other. An infusion of Hispanic and Asian immigrants is only the latest wave of change that has included shifting birth rates, a Sun Belt economic boom and modest "white flight" to Denver's sprawling suburbs. (Related story: Minorities majority in more areas)
Similar changes happened in 25 other U.S. counties since 2000, according to 2003 estimates. In some, the majority-minority scales are tipping because the white population is aging and immigrants are flowing in. That's the case in the 11 rural Texas counties where whites aren't the majority.
In the '90s, Hispanics made up 80% of the net growth in Texas Panhandle counties far from metropolitan areas, state demographer Steve Murdock says.
"Growth, when it does occur, is all Hispanic," Murdock says.
In other states, the "majority" is shrinking because whites are moving to other states in search of jobs and a lower cost of living.
Estimates for July 1, 2003, show Texas had a 49.5% minority population, but other surveys say it has already surpassed 50%. Hawaii's minority population is 77%; New Mexico's, 56%; and California's, 55%. The District of Columbia is 72% minority.
Massachusetts lost as many non-Hispanic whites in the first three years of this decade - about 37,000 - as it did during all of the 1990s, says William Frey of The Brookings Institution.
This demographic upheaval is forcing the nation to rethink its definition of "minorities." The country went through similar cycles in the past century. In the early 1900s, Italians, Poles, Russians and Greeks were not considered white. Now they are.
"A black-and-white country made sense in the '60s," says Roderick Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "It makes much less sense now."
Hispanics, who can be of any race, are now classified as a separate ethnic group. But that could change, too. A large portion of third-generation Hispanics do not speak Spanish, and interracial marriage is growing, boosting the nation's multiracial population.
For more than a generation, Colorado's capital city was becoming much more diverse.
This week, Hickenlooper visited an adult English class whose 46 students came from 36 countries. On Wednesday, he visited an elementary school that four years ago was two-thirds black and now is two-thirds Hispanic.
"It's a good time to be a Latino," says Estevan Flores, executive director of the Latino/a Research Policy Center at the University of Colorado-Denver.
He says Denver's growth is part of the "Latinization of cities, counties and pretty soon, states." But growth of political power will take more time, he says, as Hispanic immigrants first must become citizens.
"In the future, most Americans will be 'minorities,' which is to say they are the new majority," says Robert Lang, head of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech.
Bandito, There are many Latinos and blacks that are Americans too. --- Signed, A fellow Whiteboy
So are you saying only white people are American? That's what your headline and kkkomments suggest to me.
Get a brain transplant. America has always been a land of immigrants beginning with the Indians.
well said friend.. This guy must be a liberal plant.
Clemenza, toss Asians into the mix of those who call themselves Americans.
I'll never forget being in a restaurant with my grandmother, who didn't think the waitress was giving us enough attention. The waitress, who spoke with a generic suburban accent was simply busy. My grandmother stated (loudly) "well being Chinese she probably doesn't speak English." My grandmother, like many of her generation, sees all Asians as "foreign." Grandma, btw, is a second generation American herself who doesn't understand that there are Asian Americans who's families have been in this country longer than her's.
Swedish (paternal grandparents, arrived 1920) - German (maternal grandparents, arrived 1885) here. Nary a pilgrim - or Englishman for that matter - to be found on my family tree. Smart, productive people from anywhere should be welcome in the U.S.
Maternal great-grandparents. Sorry.
You're not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer are you?
We're no longer able to use apostrophes correctly, you mean?
Where else am I gonna get good Thai food ?
And may well lump all Asians together (see my late grandfather). A good friend from college is 3rd generation Japanese-American (and has now produced a 4th generation). He never did take me home to meet Mom & Dad--even though we were never romantically involved, I thought going to Hawaii from Wisconsin in mid-January would be a really really good idea.
The Bandit, since April 4, 2004. You could well be right.
In any case, who says that speaking Spanish changes your race?
I'm with that old black fellow from Liberty City: "Them Hispanics, they ain't nothin' but white people from South America..."
(As quoted in the NYT)
There ain't no such thing.
I love being Hispanic. I also love being American. I also love voting idiots out of office. I also like it when dip sticks are pushed North of Canada.
I have no problem whatsoever with changing demographics..
but I do have problems with those who would use demographics for political gains
example: vote for me cause im of ethnic group x
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