Inching Toward a Majority of Minorities

A couple of years ago, I blogged about how a U.S. Census Bureau report projected that a rising minority population will become the majority in the United States by the middle of this century.

A new Census report released yesterday shows that such a significant demographic shift is indeed still on track.

According to reporting from the Associated Press, the nation's minority population now comprises 35% of the total. As white baby boomers have aged, younger Hispanic parents are having children, driving population growth by accounting for more than half of total U.S. population gains last year, the report notes.

What effect will this demographic shift have on the need for laws such as the Fair Housing Act (FHA)? Will there be more or fewer fair housing complaints?

What do you think?

Fair Housing Month: Raising Children's Fair Housing Awareness

Each year, many children across the United States experience housing discrimination or witness it occurring in their community.

For example, a child who wants to live in a certain apartment complex but then learns that her parents can't rent there because they have a kid may get upset and even feel guilty. A landlord who steers minority applicants to a certain building in a complex may cause a child to wonder why his friend can't live in one of the vacant apartments on his floor.

To help raise children's awareness and understanding of fair housing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has created Franklin "The Fair Housing Fox," who offers some answers to questions that may be on children's minds.

If you have kids, consider using Fair Housing Month as an opportunity to show them "10 Things Franklin Wants You to Know."

Return tomorrow for the seventeenth part of this special "Fair Housing Month" feature at Fairhousingblog.com.

Are We a 'Nation of Cowards'?

Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African American to be appointed to the office, delivered a somewhat sobering speech to Department of Justice employees yesterday, marking Black History Month.

While praising significant achievements in our country's racial history, Mr. Holder claimed that "in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." He further noted that there is "no significant interaction" between people of different races outside the workplace, and that much in this regard hasn't changed in 50 years ago.

Here's the relevant excerpt from his remarks:

As a nation we have done a pretty good job in melding the races in the workplace. We work with one another, lunch together and, when the event is at the workplace during work hours or shortly thereafter, we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race. And yet even this interaction operates within certain limitations. We know, by "American instinct" and by learned behavior, that certain subjects are off limits and that to explore them risks, at best embarrassment, and, at worst, the questioning of one’s character. And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us. On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some fifty years ago. This is truly sad. Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.

Do you agree with the new Attorney General? Are we a "nation of cowards" in matters of race? Are we much more integrated in the workplace than in the housing and social arena? If so, why do you think this is the case? What can or should be done to foster understanding and end segregation?

What do you think?

Coming Soon: A Majority of Minorities

Some linguists may argue it's impossible, but minorities in the United States are slated to become the majority in this country within just a matter of decades. According to an August 14, 2008 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, this significant demographic shift is projected for 2042.

Here are some highlights of the Bureau's projections:

• After passing the 50% mark in 2042, minorities in the U.S. will make up 54% percent of the population in 2050 (up from roughly 33% today).
• Among children, minorities will become the majority as early as 2023 — and rise to 62% in 2050 (up from roughly 44% today).
• Nearly one in three residents will be Hispanic. The Hispanic population will nearly triple to 132.8 million (up from roughly 46.7 million), and its share of the country's population will double to 30% (from 15%).
• The black population will increase to 65.7 million from roughly 41.1 million today, although this represents only a 1% increase (from 14% to 15%) of the country's total population.
• More than 88.5 million residents will be 65 or older (up twofold from the 38.7 million today) and by 2030, when all baby boomers will be at least 65, roughly 20% of all residents will be 65 or older.

Since the Fair Housing Act, not to mention state and local housing discrimination laws, function in large part to protect minorities, what effect will this demographic shift have on the need for such laws? Will there be fewer fair housing complaints and a lower incidence of government enforcement? What will fair housing be like in a world where minorities are the majority?

What do you think?