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."
"Try getting a city contract in Detroit as the true minority and you will find out what racism is all about. It is currently something like 85-90% black."
It's very sad. I know people in the trades, and they have set up fronts to get business. They get a "minority", (black, which is a majority), to front a company and submit the bid. The government favors the "minority owned" business and awards him the contract. The front subs the job out to the real business. The real business makes as much as they would have had they submitted the bid straight up. The minority owner simply collects a check. The government over pays for the work.
We all lose.
>>>>I don't think property taxes or wealth distribution have the ability to interfere with conception.
Yes it does.
"Does this now mean that white kids can get Affirmative Action?"
Just because they're in the minority doesn't mean they ARE a minority. If you know what I mean.
Here is a website you all should check out. Its the first one I have seen of its kind.
http://www.adversity.net/
Anyone knows of any others let me know.
"Just for the record, I am one of the "browns", or whatever it is they call me. Born and raised in the USA, love football, hotdogs, and apple pie. I speak perfect english, people that I meet online or over the phone are often shocked to see that I am hispanic, because I come across as so "American" otherwise. I like it that way."
Funny you'd call yourself a brown. ;)
Actually, that is what America is about. Come here. Come here legally, and assimilate. Keep elements of your own culture, preserve it at home, but mix with society. In that way, you ADD to the melting pot. I'm a "white". Frankly, I don't care if I'm in the minority or majority. What I do care about is that my country and my way of life are preserved. Simple as that.
So minorities can fight over the remaining 22%.
There will be NO money left for Defense, FBI, Justice etc.
BUMP
Wow, thats cool! I recently learned a bit about the Seminoles, went to a cultural thing at the local Seminole Hard Rock. Fascinating culture, strong and proud too! Not the whiny, whimpering victims that the PC crowd wants to portray all natives as. Heck, they're PROUD to have the Florida State University use them as a mascot. Kick ass!
And who's fault is that? Whites aren't having as many children. It isn't just related to immigration.
I was reading the other day that public school enrollment is defying predictions and has actually declined in Florida this year even though the State's population is growing like crazy.
They really did not have a very good theory for why. Part of it was that more of us are sending our kids to private schools, but they said that did not account for the discrepancy.
Maybe it's due to white flight.
WTF is a "majority-minority"?
"What size drink would you like with that sir?"
"I'll take a large-small, thanks..."
ping
>>White is not, apparently, a color..........
Though, oddly, Spanish is.
I always get a laugh on these types of threads, because it brings the reactionaries out on FR(usually people who don't or have never lived in the state the article is talking about).
They get very very, quiet when the fact that FL has become a more conservative state despite the old white bubba democrats losing a % of the overall population.
Because "non-Hispanic whites" takes up too much newsprint.
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