Census Study Confirms 'Darkening of America'

Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights

I didn't need a study by the United States Census Bureau to tell me what my eyes have watched transpire in my suburban Washington D.C. community of Silver Spring, Maryland and beyond over the past decade -- young people are far more likely to be black and brown than white.

This isn't just a Silver Spring thing. It seems wherever I travel these days, minorities and young Latinos in particular, are a rapidly growing segment of the population.

And demographers at the Census Bureau confirmed that observation recently with a new report stating that the number of white youths dropped by 6 percent between 2000 and 2008.

Meanwhile, blacks, Asians and Hispanics accounted for about 79 percent of the national population growth over the same time period.

Due to a combination of immigration and high birth rates, Hispanics are expected to make up the vast majority of the minority population growth.

Now at about 10 percent of the U.S. population, the number of Hispanics will triple to almost 30 percent of the population by 2050 if current trends continue.

With fewer white youths being born, whites are expected to drop from 67 percent of the population to about 47 by 2050.

Blacks are expected to maintain their 13 percent share of the population and Asian Americans, now at 5 percent, are expected to increase to 9 percent.

Not only will America look very different, but the impact that the "Darkening of America" will have on issues like taxation, school spending, political representation and immigration laws will not be subtle.

Here in the Washington D.C. area, early reactions to the Darkening of America by white folks vary.

White people living just outside the city in liberal communities like Silver Spring and Takoma Park have barely raised a sound over the population shift.

In fact, those communities are softest on illegal immigration and support immigrant "sanctuaries" where police are forbidden to enforce federal immigration laws.

But travel a few miles south to conservative communities like Loudoun and Prince William Counties in Virginia, the reaction to the population shifts is very different. There, lawmakers put out a big "UNWELCOME" mat to Latinos by passing a resolution to limit illegal immigrants' access to county services.

The only thing certain about the Darkening of America is that trembling federal lawmakers, scared to confront the issue, are going to have to come from under their bed covers and deal with illegal immigration.

Otherwise we are going to continue to see a crazy quilt of local laws and greater confusion on the question of exactly who is an American.

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