Posted on 08/15/2006 6:57:28 AM PDT by devane617
The youngest Anglo children in Hillsborough County and across Florida are now a minority, foreshadowing the day when Florida - like four states now - becomes a majority-minority state.
Non-Hispanic whites in Florida accounted for fewer than half of all children younger than 5 last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Slightly more than 47 percent of the state's youngest children were non-Hispanic whites, down from nearly 55 percent five years earlier.
In Hillsborough County, non-Hispanic white children have become a minority also, making up less than 47 percent of the population younger than 5, down from nearly 51 percent in 2000.
In parts of the county, the trend was evident before this report. The Hillsborough County school district reported nonwhite enrollment of 55 percent in 2004. At St. John Presbyterian Learning Center, students move between two worlds, speaking English and Spanish and adjusting based on when their families moved here.
Out of 100 children at the learning center, 75 are nonwhite, many in families that moved here from Colombia, Cuba, Mexico or Puerto Rico, Director Dianne Patterson said. The numbers have been high for five years because the center, at 4120 N. MacDill Ave., attracts low-income families, which are predominantly nonwhite.
"The children learn the language very rapidly," said Patterson, who adapted by hiring staff to reflect the student population. "Having a lot of Spanish-speakers is the trend all over. We have 4- and 5-year-olds interpreting for their parents."
The impact of the population shift will be felt in school and health-care systems that may not be prepared, demographers say.
Children who live in minority neighborhoods and are not exposed to mainstream society - by attending child care or prekindergarten, for example - will struggle with language and assimilation, said Mark Mather, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau.
"It won't be an immediate impact," Mather said. "Once they start going through the school system, there will be more demand for language courses. Some are assimilating more than other certain groups, who are more likely to live in minority enclaves.
"I'm speaking mainly of Hispanics and Asians," Mather added. "There will be more challenges for those groups, the schools and medical systems."
The recent Census estimates come from the American Community Survey, the cornerstone of the government's effort to keep tabs on the nation's changing population. The new survey will provide demographic, socio-economic and housing information about America's communities every year - information that until now was only available once a decade.
Texas, the Census Bureau reported in August 2005, joined Hawaii, New Mexico and California as a majority-minority state. Eight other states with minority populations of about 40 percent today were expected to join them next - Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana and Florida.
Some demographers expect the U.S. population as a whole to reach that plateau by 2050.
Aurea Velazquez, a St. John's parent, is part of the trend.
Velazquez moved from Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, six months ago. Her 4-year-old daughter, Yamilette, is in prekindergarten.
"It's been difficult in Puerto Rico with no work, and the economy is bad," she said. "People are going to continue to move here because of the bad economies. Here, you can at least survive with your family."
Kristi Bennett's two children, Gillian, 4, and Aedean, 3, are among the minority Anglo children at St. John's. Bennett doesn't mind.
"I love it," she said. "I think it's healthy to be around children who don't look like them. It teaches them tolerance and diversity really early on."
Property taxes and wealth distribution have caused us to produce small families.
How about I don't delude myself with reading your post.
Yep, Cuban Republicans, and retired white folks make up a large voting block. The Children many of whom are of mixed blood, as most of us in America are, should be counted how?
If one has some hispanic heritage but looks white and is educated in a conservative home as many are, but are counted as hispanic, are they really represented, by this trash of a report.
I would believe that going back as fars as 50 years we would find that mixed heritage has dominated the American landscape, without having a racial category.
So the fear mongers and racial agitators should get a life.
Ops4 God Bless America
Of course. Stats are only numbers for convenience. They use to mean something, until manipulated to serve a purpose.
Stay ignorant...your choice.
Reporters can either write "non-Hispanic whites" to refer to "non-Hispanic whites" or they can use the shorthand word, "anglo." Don't get caught up on the literal meaning, they're trying to express a concept while saving newsprint.
It was indicated to me recently that my wish to close the borders was a racist idea.
So, I am of the opinion that the desire is very strong to water down our resistance to the influx of legal, or illegal, whether they be red, yellow, black or white, or any shade thereof. And their desire to use our own laws of freedom against us!
So, ;-(.........we are out here in this blessed land and realize our grand-children will never see the free, joy of being American, we once had.
Nope, its just too darned cold up there for people with Latin blood! (I can say this because I am 1/4 Hispanic, and I had to move south from NY! I HATE the cold!)
With so many interracial marriages and non-married births, how are multi=racial children classified? If they're half white, half Spanish, do they count as Spanish?
Within one, maybe two more generations, there will be one race, caramel colored people with brown eyes. IMO, if they're good Americans, it's not such a terrible outcome, even though I, a blue-eyed blonde, face extinction.
"Does this now mean that white kids can get Affirmative Action?"
No.
The purpose of "affirmative action" was to get the USA to this point (white = minority) so the proponents of "affirmative action" are not about to change it now, while it's having its intended effect.
If we can just get rid of the rest of the whites just think how conservative this country would be!
Interestingly, probably the "whitest" state in the Union is Vermont, which is also the most left-wing.
Who cares what "color" the people in Florida are. Who are they voting for? - That's all I want to know. And, as others here have pointed out, Cubans tend to vote GOP.
(Incidentally, I came across this thread because it was tagged "homeschool", though I don't know why).
Time for my family to move to alabama.
LOL. Awww... they're cute!
And Italians weren't considered "white". I have an aunt and uncle old enough to remember the KKK marching through their neighborhood back in the 20's. Of course, they were protesting the Catholics, but even today white supremecists (err, excuse me, "separatists", their new PC name) have told me that Italians are "not quite white." It's interesting how these color-standards change with the times and vary among different people... lol.
In the past, people could only check-off one category. Today, you can check-off as many categories as needed, thanks to the efforts of a group of "multi-racial" families who lobbied hard in Washington for that option. But, who knows how you're really classified in the system? My guess is a person could check-off "white" and "Hispanic", for example, but only be counted as "Hispanic" when it suits the organization or the government.
Within one, maybe two more generations, there will be one race, caramel colored people with brown eyes. IMO, if they're good Americans, it's not such a terrible outcome, even though I, a blue-eyed blonde, face extinction.
Not that eye and hair color are important, but the gene does carry on. Both my parents have brown eyes and dark brown hair, but my eyes were blue and my hair dark blond. (Of course, now it's going grey... but - shhh! - don't tell anyone). :-)
Very, very true.
People always get reclassified for statistical convenience.
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