Demographer William H. Frey is convinced that if we can just get our acts together when it comes to race, America will thrive.
Frey, best known for his 2014 book, Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America , has an essay in a new anthology published by the Princeton Press that paints an optimistic view of how the country’s rapidly changing piechart of race and culture has the potential to usher in a new era of innovation and growth, one far surpassing the impact of the Baby Boomers of an earlier time.
“I am convinced that the United States is in the midst of a pivotal period ushering in extraordinary shifts in the nation’s racial demographic makeup. If planned for properly, these demographic changes will allow the country to face the future with growth and vitality as it reinvents the classic American melting pot for a new era.”
But, Frey notes, only if we get it right.
The big shift began in 2011, when, for the first time, more minority babies than whites were born in the U.S. From now on, Frey says, expect an increasingly black, brown, Asian, and immigrant population to continue to change the way the country thinks and operates. He cites, with evidence, four major demographic shifts:
- The rapid growth of “minority” groups;
- The diminished growth—and steady aging—of the white population;
- Black economic advances and a reverse Great Migration that brings black people back to the South;
- The coming reality of a country where no one ethnic group is a majority.
In this, there are real opportunities—and opportunity costs—to consider. For example, there’s the existing education gap between white and non-majority students, one that he says costs the U.S. economy some $278 billion in annual benefit.
As with education, what remains to be sorted are the ways in which previously marginalized groups will be able to develop the political and professional power they need to become full participants in this new, diverse reality. Some of these issues will be addressed, he believes, by the natural shifts in attitudes that occur when diverse populations become accustomed to one another.
It’s clear that we all have work to do. But what really strikes me about Frey’s work is his pervasive faith that everyone from the highest echelons of power to the rank and file will be up to the challenge.”Racial change has never been easy; more often than not, it has been fraught with fear and conflict,” he writes. “As [minority groups] become integral to the nation’s success, their concerns will be taken seriously.” And these days, a little faith goes a long way.
Click through for an excerpt.
On Point
| Asian American advocacy groups meet with Fox news over racist segment |
| At issue was the now famous Oct. 3 segment with correspondent Jesse Waters in series of man-on-the-street interviews in New York’s Chinatown. "The segment was billed as a report on Chinese Americans’ views on the U.S. presidential election, but it was rife with racist stereotypes, drew on thoughtless tropes, and openly ridiculed Asian Americans,’’ said The Asian American Journalists Association, demanding an apology. The meeting did not go well. |
| Boston Globe |
| The Presidential race has been a nightmare in the workplace |
| This story from the Wall Street Journal will make you want to avoid the water cooler for the next year: bosses and HR managers are struggling to mediate increasingly tense exchanges between employees who have become deeply divided on the issues raised during the campaign. With productivity plummeting, many bosses are just “white-knuckling it” through Election Day. It’s bad out there. |
| WSJ |
| Strike ends, Harvard workers declare victory |
| According to the union representing the workers, Harvard has agreed to meet most of their demands, ending a three-week strike which had “turned into a struggle for the soul of this institution,” said the local union president. The school has agreed to cover the increased health care costs for all of the workers. |
| Buzzfeed |
| Michael Moore’s “Trumpland” documentary is a hit with conservatives |
| Well, part of it anyway. A particularly heartfelt and expletive-filled clip that was designed to be an empathetic statement on the plight of the working class—explaining why it would feel so good to vote for Trump—has now gone viral, making it sound like the documentarian issued a rallying cry for the Republican candidate. What was left off: “Because you used the ballot as an anger management tool and now you’re f**ked.” |
| Fortune |
| Woman behind most iconic National Geographic photo arrested in Pakistan |
| She may be the most famous refugee in the world. Sharbat Gula or “Afghan Girl,” the girl with the arresting green eyes who was on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic, has been arrested in Pakistan on charges of being in the country illegally and with falsified documents. She was only 12 years old when the now famous picture was shot in a refugee camp in Pakistan; she became a symbol of social unrest in the region. Now she's a symbol of undocumented refugees. She faces up to 12 years in prison. |
| National Geographic |
The Woke Leader
| A largely white media covers black music and that’s a problem |
| And Kanye agrees. Writer Andre Gee offers a searing analysis of the state of culture coverage today, specifically the media that reports on entertainment and music, which are largely staffed by white men with little grasp of hip hop, emerging artists or the world at large. Qualified writers of color are unable to compete with media insiders, he says, without legacy support, tony resumes or the ability to manage long, unpaid internships. |
| Medium |
| Clarence Thomas’s odd Supreme Court legacy |
| Writer Jeffrey Toobin asks: What’s the most important opinion Clarence Thomas has written during his twenty-five-year run on the Supreme Court? There isn’t one. Why? Because both chief justices he served under never trusted him to write an opinion that could command a majority of even his own colleagues. The reason is fascinating: “Thomas is not a conservative but, rather, a radical—one whose entire career on the Court has been devoted to undermining the rules of precedent in favor of his own idiosyncratic interpretation of the Constitution." |
| New Yorker |
| The NBA has a long history of civil rights activism |
| Some were surprised when the NBA decided to relocate its 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte to New Orleans because of North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB2), which restricts bathroom usage to the sex on one’s birth certificate. But the NBA has real experience with civil rights activism at the state level, explains author and historian Derrick E. White, including high-profile support for the reinstatement of the Martin Luther King Day holiday in Arizona in 1987. “[T]he NBA’s opposition of HB2 suggests that the relocation of the NBA All-Star Game is just the opening foray of athletics and LGBT rights.” |
| African American Intellectual History Society |
Quote
|
|---|
| —Carmelo Anthony |
