Minority Babies Now the Majority

Time to celebrate!

The Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 49.6 percent of all births in the 12-month period that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data made public on Thursday, while minorities — including Hispanics, blacks, Asians and those of mixed race — reached 50.4 percent, representing a majority for the first time in the country’s history.

Cool! Are there any potential downsides to this momentous achievement? Sure - but you know whose fault that is:

The contrast raises important policy questions. The United States has a spotty record educating minority youth; will older Americans balk at paying to educate a younger generation that looks less like themselves?

For older Americans, the obvious solution to the problem of having so many young people who "don't look like us" is to encourage them to start looking like us - stop having Hispanics identified as "minority" and join the majority; encourage mixed-race people to identify with the majority. The only reason for a latino to resist the "white" label is that there are all kinds of goodies to be had with the "Hispanic" label.

Still, there are serious challenges ahead in particular with the low level of college degrees among current Hispanics (13% vs 31% of whites). "But there are bright spots" the article notes. You'd think that statement might lead into a description of, say, efforts by Hispanic business leaders to start pushing education and changing the Latino culture that's so dismissive of education. But then you'd be forgetting whose fault this is.

Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said the immigration debate of recent years has raised the political consciousness of young Latinos and he is hopeful that more will become politically active as a result. “We have an opportunity here with this current generation,” Mr. Vargas said. About 50,000 Latinos turn 18 every month, he said.

I'm feeling better already.