Generation Ech

August 19, 2010 12:04 PM

The Gray And The Brown - why the baby boom generation's concerns about race may mean that it's stabbing itself in the back as it moves into retirement.
posted by Artw (66 comments total)

Fox News' John Gibson:

Do your duty. Make more babies. That's a lesson drawn out of two interesting stories over the last couple of days.

First, a story yesterday that half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities. By far, the greatest number are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic. Why is that? Well, Hispanics are having more kids than others. Notably, the ones Hispanics call "gabachos" -- white people -- are having fewer.

Now, in this country, European ancestry people, white people, are having kids at the rate that does sustain the population. It grows a bit. That compares to Europe where the birth rate is in the negative zone. They are not having enough babies to sustain their population. Consequently, they are inviting in more and more immigrants every year to take care of things and those immigrants are having way more babies than the native population, hence Eurabia.

posted by Rhaomi at 12:14 PM on August 19, 2010

oh god its going to become the Quiverful news Network next or something.
posted by GuyZero at 12:16 PM on August 19, 2010 [5 favorites]

why the baby boom generation's concerns about race may mean that it's stabbing itself in the back as it moves into retirement.

I don't understand what you mean.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:17 PM on August 19, 2010

Seconded.
posted by jokeefe at 12:17 PM on August 19, 2010

Gibson later claimed: "To put it bluntly, we need more babies."

Who is this "we" he's talking about? you sure don't speak for me, you fucking asshole.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:18 PM on August 19, 2010 [11 favorites]

"Having babies: it's not a race."
posted by hermitosis at 12:21 PM on August 19, 2010 [7 favorites]

Who is this "we" he's talking about? you sure don't speak for me, you fucking asshole.

GIBSON IS A BABY-EATING MACHINE!
posted by me & my monkey at 12:23 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

I liked this quote: "The future of America is in this question: Will the Baby Boomers recognize that they have a responsibility and a personal stake in ensuring that this next generation of largely Latino and African-American kids are prepared to succeed?" contends Stephen Klineberg, a sociologist at Rice University in Houston, who has studied the economic and political implications of changing demographics. "This ethnic transformation could be the greatest asset this county will have, with a young multilingual, well-educated workforce [..]"

It would be great if everyone realized that everyone has a vested interest in everyone's success. Life is not a zero-sum game, nor iterated prisoner's dilemma.
posted by doteatop at 12:24 PM on August 19, 2010 [20 favorites]

Can someone actually explain why the public-spending priorities of young, poorer, Hispanic or Black Americans are going to be all that different than those of young, poorer, White Americans?
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:25 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Do your duty. Make more babies. That's a lesson drawn out of two interesting stories over the last couple of days.

Start fulfilling your proper racial destiny, ladies.

First, a story yesterday that half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities. By far, the greatest number are Hispanic. You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic. Why is that? Well, Hispanics are having more kids than others. Notably, the ones Hispanics call "gabachos" -- white people -- are having fewer.

Not to berate the obvious, but this is problem why?
posted by jokeefe at 12:27 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Actually, an iterated prisoners dilemma produces cooperation and altruism as a highly successful strategy as long as there is cheater detection, doteatop.
posted by Maias at 12:28 PM on August 19, 2010 [5 favorites]

I don't understand what you mean.

Read the article. Basically, white seniors tend to support Republican policies that harm minorities and the poor, yet they want and depend upon Social Security and Medicare. By 2040 or so, the senior population will be 2/3rds white, but a majority of the working population will be non-white. So, if these policies are sustained then white seniors may find themselves dependent upon an ill-educated, poorly paid population that can no longer sustain the economic productivity necessary to sustain them. So, the article argues, it's in the long term interest of whites, especially baby boomers, to support programs that help minorities and the poor.

Can someone actually explain why the public-spending priorities of young, poorer, Hispanic or Black Americans are going to be all that different than those of young, poorer, White Americans?

Part of the problem is that seniors and the wealthy are more likely to vote than the young and poor. So even as the white population ages and shrinks, it will probably continue to have disproportionate political clout. The question is whether white seniors will see that it is in their interest to align their priorities with young minorities.
posted by jedicus at 12:29 PM on August 19, 2010 [9 favorites]

jokeefe: Not to berate the obvious, but this is problem why?

This is clearly something you need to a be a racist to understand.
posted by public at 12:30 PM on August 19, 2010 [11 favorites]

Everyone should have less babies, regardless of race.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 12:30 PM on August 19, 2010 [8 favorites]

half of the kids in this country under five years old are minorities

So... half of all kids under the age of five are no longer minorities? Or something?

My son was the only white kid in his first grade class; I think after first grade the balance shifted a bit, but never to the point that he was part of the majority culture within his school. It didn't seem to do him any harm, except for the part where he learned to say "butt" in three different languages.
posted by jokeefe at 12:30 PM on August 19, 2010 [8 favorites]

Gibson later claimed: "To put it bluntly, we need more babies."

....yeah, come talk to me about that after you squeeze a couple out yourself. This watermelon? Oh, it can fit through there. Trust me.

actually, I don't think he'd want my babies. they'd be terror babies!
posted by zennish at 12:31 PM on August 19, 2010

Minorities now make up more than two-fifths of all children under 18, and they will represent a majority of all American children by as soon as 2023...

So, right now a minority of people are in the minority, but they won't be as soon as they become the majority?
posted by swift at 12:31 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

It should be noted that Fox News is the Demographically Oldest major cable channel.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:32 PM on August 19, 2010 [3 favorites]

white seniors may find themselves dependent upon an ill-educated, poorly paid population that can no longer sustain the economic productivity necessary to sustain them

Wait. Is the article saying that all minorities are automatically badly educated and low paid persons? Surely, if half the American population is non-white, there's going to be a lot of highly educated and well paid non-white people filling the (let's assume there still are some) well paid jobs?
posted by jokeefe at 12:32 PM on August 19, 2010

I don't understand what you mean

explanation behind the link.
posted by shmegegge at 12:33 PM on August 19, 2010

Okay, here's the not-frothing-at-the-mouth version:

I'm pretty sure I'd rather my son grow up in a majority Hispanic environment where everyone is just trying to go about their day than in a majority white environment that's kept that way by a phalanx of rapacious bigots.

Things change. Get the over it, old white guys.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:36 PM on August 19, 2010 [12 favorites]

I read the article. The writer keeps insisting that there will be automatic conflict between the generations based on age and race, but doesn't really explain why, or how this is different from conflicts between any other group of people based on age and different health care, etc., needs. The racial aspect of the argument-- omg, like shifting tectonic plates crashing into each other!-- isn't proven, as far as I can tell.
posted by jokeefe at 12:37 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

why the baby boom generation's concerns about race may mean that it's stabbing itself in the back as it moves into retirement.

Well, for one thing, the elderly are much more likely to be republican. But right now, it's mainly the democrats who are interested in protecting social security and medicare. Paul Ryan's "plan" would get rid of medicare, for example, and replace it with vouchers that people could use to buy private health insurance, but that would increase in value at set rate, less then current inflation trends in health care costs.

But if all this hate emanates from the boomers, what motivation would there be for Latino voters to support old age pensions and whatnot?

Can someone actually explain why the public-spending priorities of young, poorer, Hispanic or Black Americans are going to be all that different than those of young, poorer, White Americans?

Well, poor minorities are more likely to live in Cities, while poor whites are more likely to live in suburbs and rural areas. (I think). If you boost spending on things like public transport for cities, that's going to be more beneficial to the urban poor.

I think the education thing is a bit of a red hearing. What old people are going to need is a lot of nurses, nursing home workers, and medical technicians to take care of them. So a large, non-college educated population (with vocational degrees) is what they need. Having a lot of those people might lower costs for health care.

George Carlin had a bit where he talked about why the educational system will never be fixed. Because the people at the top of society need uneducated people. Or at least, they are better off with lots of uneducated people to take service jobs to serve them.

The better educated the population is, the less wealth inequality. So it's actually in the interests of the upper class to keep the lower class down, even if their absolute wealth goes down, they will seem richer.
posted by delmoi at 12:38 PM on August 19, 2010 [4 favorites]

I don't understand what you mean.

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. The first five words of this post--"The Gray And The Brown"--are a hyperlink. Clicking on these words with your left (or only, if you're on a Mac) mouse button with immediately take you to a long, interesting article which will aid your understanding.

And the article is interesting, and worth reading. Kind of a shame this thread started out with some Fox News nonsense.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:38 PM on August 19, 2010 [7 favorites]

The writer keeps insisting that there will be automatic conflict between the generations based on age and race, but doesn't really explain why

Have you been watching the news lately? It seems pretty obvious that a significant portion of older Americans are buying into all kinds of anti-Latino (and now anti Muslim) hysteria pumped by fox news, et al.
posted by delmoi at 12:40 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

Wait. Is the article saying that all minorities are automatically badly educated and low paid persons?

Oh, minorities are as highly educated and paid as well as non-minorities? Success! That's it, folks, the civil rights movement is over.
posted by planet at 12:41 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

tl:dr the whole thing.

but, and correct me if I'm wrong..can we sum this up to:

Problem = old white people

Future = More young non-white people than old white people

problem solved.

next.
posted by HuronBob at 12:41 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

" It seems pretty obvious that a significant portion of older Americans....."

citation on that, please.
posted by HuronBob at 12:42 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

...Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic....

...Now, in this country, European ancestry people, white people, are having kids at the rate that does sustain the population. It grows a bit.

How nice to see a new variation on the one drop rule.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:42 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am having a hard time getting outraged over immigrant babies, especially since all of my ancestors in the US had, were, or descended from immigrant babies.
posted by zippy at 12:42 PM on August 19, 2010 [3 favorites]

It seems pretty obvious that a significant portion of older Americans are buying into all kinds of anti-Latino (and now anti Muslim) hysteria pumped by fox news, et al.

And in twenty years, where will they be? The article addresses generational change over a decade or so; I hope very much that the current hysteria will change over time and, I hope, lose much of its impetus. I know it's idealistic of me, but cultures change continually; the present moment doesn't determine everything.
posted by jokeefe at 12:43 PM on August 19, 2010

Read the article. Basically, white seniors tend to support Republican policies that harm minorities and the poor, yet they want and depend upon Social Security and Medicare. By 2040 or so, the senior population will be 2/3rds white, but a majority of the working population will be non-white. So, if these policies are sustained then white seniors may find themselves dependent upon an ill-educated, poorly paid population that can no longer sustain the economic productivity necessary to sustain them. So, the article argues, it's in the long term interest of whites, especially baby boomers, to support programs that help minorities and the poor.

Oh, I see. Thanks. I'm not from the States, so some of the telegraphing in the OP didn't immediately parse, but I get it now.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:46 PM on August 19, 2010

And the article is interesting, and worth reading. Kind of a shame this thread started out with some Fox News nonsense.

The article is heavily couched in an assumption that immigrants are not really American, and more that their children are not American; that Hispanic and Black Americans and all kinds of other non-white people are not as desirable as citizens as additional babies from white people whose parents were born here (presumably not grandparents, because then all of a sudden you have immigrants again.)

I'm the grandson of Jewish-American immigrants whose value as Americans was questioned. Millions of Americans are of Irish descent; their ancestors were considered undesirable. We used to have quotas to keep the Yellow Threat at bay, and now we have a US Senator of Chinese (and Native Hawaiian) extraction. Every fucking generation we have to go through this shit. There's New People here! They have funny food and their own language! Oh no, they'll never assimilate! They'll destroy our way of life! And then within a generation or two, bam, they're American as anything, and it's those other people who need to be Kept Out.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:46 PM on August 19, 2010 [15 favorites]

I can't wait til the minorities become the majority and then start exhibiting the same disenfranchising tendencies that all majorities do except then this disenfranchised will be the white minority and the exploiters will be the brown people and then some people's heads are gonna assplode.
posted by spicynuts at 12:46 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Honestly, it would also be awesome if the powers-that-be would take seriously making quality education available to anyone besides their own children, regardless of ethnicity or dubious distinctions between lower- and middle-class.
posted by doteatop at 12:47 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

Well, for one thing, the elderly are much more likely to be republican.

Source? Not calling you out, delmoi.
posted by fixedgear at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2010

The logic implicit in the "this is a major problem on the way" viewpoint is this:

I am white. I have enjoyed being in the majority and supporting laws and programs and bigots that have furthered programs to benefit me, a white person. When brown people become the majority, they are gonna pepetuate the same things against me, the white person. I know they will, because I would. Payback's a bitch, don'tcha know.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 12:52 PM on August 19, 2010 [4 favorites]

Is the article saying that all minorities are automatically badly educated and low paid persons?

No, of course not. But minorities do tend to be less educated and poorer than whites.

Surely, if half the American population is non-white, there's going to be a lot of highly educated and well paid non-white people filling the (let's assume there still are some) well paid jobs?

Well, no, not necessarily. For example, schools in disproportionately minority areas are not going to magically improve just because the white population is shrinking. There's every reason to think that the white areas will continue to consolidate funding for themselves.

Another example: if you don't have a well-educated workforce here or if it costs too much to hire well-educated workers because there are so few of them, then it's entirely possible for a company to outsource rather than hire less-educated workers domestically. And even if they do hire less-educated workers, presumably productivity won't be as high than it would be otherwise. The net result is that the economy isn't as productive, taxes are lower, and white seniors suffer.
posted by jedicus at 12:54 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

So my favorite thing about this is that conservatives simultaneously insist (1) Racism isn't a big deal and minorities just complain too much and they just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, this is America, dammit!, there's no such thing as prejudicial systems, and (2) If white people become a minority life is gonna suck big time.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:55 PM on August 19, 2010 [18 favorites]

Yep, 100 years ago, Woodrow Wilson and Teddy were saying the same thing about some of my Irish and German ancestors.

I think the worry is a bit overblown myself. For one thing if history is any indication, American immigrants pass the oppression down to the next group of people on the labor totem pole rather than at the previous generation who usually still are sitting on tons of social and political capital.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:58 PM on August 19, 2010

I think it would be exceedingly difficult to stab yourself in the back.
posted by Combustible Edison Lighthouse at 1:09 PM on August 19, 2010 [3 favorites]

I dunno, if you turn on the TV these days and watch any news channel vox pop you see people doing it with ease.
posted by Artw at 1:18 PM on August 19, 2010

There needs to be another acceptable word for "Non Whites" than "minority". This is getting confusing.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:19 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

but, and correct me if I'm wrong..can we sum this up to:

Problem = old white people

Future = More young non-white people than old white people

problem solved.

next.

Except those old white people are going to eat the crops, burn the fields, and salt the ashes first instead of turn them over to the young non-white people. They are not going gently into that good night.
posted by Legomancer at 1:19 PM on August 19, 2010 [4 favorites]

I'm pretty sure I'd rather my son grow up in a majority Hispanic environment where everyone is just trying to go about their day than in a majority white environment

Huh? That's a goofy stereotype. As if "Hispanic" people all just have a live and let live attitude. Caught any of the news from Mexico lately? Heard of the EZLN or the FARC? Shining Path perhaps? Maybe the Dirty War? How about Los Zetas or MS-13? Where did you come up with the idea that Hispanic people aren't just like every other type of people?

I can't wait til the minorities become the majority and then start exhibiting the same disenfranchising tendencies that all majorities do except then this disenfranchised will be the white minority and the exploiters will be the brown people and then some people's heads are gonna assplode.


Three cheers for oppression amirite? Also you're assuming that all of the minorities would work in concert against white people. Tensions between black and Latino residents in SoCal has been on the rise since black people have gone from the second largest racial group in America to third and "brown" people are beginning to flex their political muscle. To think that people's goals and priorities are automatically in alignment because their skin tone is darker than those people over there is a shallow analysis to say the least.
posted by MikeMc at 1:26 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ok, before we all lose sight of the main point of the article completely, here is the key passage:

The twist is that graying white voters who are skeptical of public spending may have more in common with the young minorities clamoring for it than either side now recognizes. Today's minority students will represent an increasing share of tomorrow's workforce and thus pay more of the payroll taxes that will be required to fund Social Security and Medicare benefits for the mostly white Baby Boomers. Many analysts warn that if the U.S. doesn't improve educational performance among African-American and Hispanic children, who now lag badly behind whites in both high school and college graduation rates, the nation will have difficulty producing enough high-paying jobs to generate the tax revenue to maintain a robust retirement safety net.

posted by shmegegge at 1:26 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

White pride, you're an American

Actually, I'm kind of liking the way things are turning out here in Toronto. I play soccer on weekends with a bunch of old dudes and random kids in the park. As far as the kids are concerned, I would be hard pressed to tell you what most of their backgrounds are (other than the fact that some of the old dudes are their parents). Mixed couples are increasingly becoming the norm, and Toronto seems to be heading in more of a Brasil direction. Our population is growing just fine (although Rob Ford seems to think that this is a problem).
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:31 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

The question is whether white seniors will see that it is in their interest to align their priorities with young minorities.

OK, if that's the question then that's not even a question. And you're a freakin' whippersnapper if you think us coots are going to re-align our priorities over anything. As long as you dusky young layabouts sit around playing negro music on your bongs all election day long, you aren't gettin' doodley-squat!

Doodley-squat! D'y'hear me!

(not quite a geezer but getting close and so practicing)
posted by umberto at 1:31 PM on August 19, 2010 [4 favorites]

I think it would be exceedingly difficult to stab yourself in the back.

I think the idiom of choice these days is "step on your dick."
posted by swift at 1:33 PM on August 19, 2010

I'm pretty sure I'd rather my son grow up in a majority Hispanic environment where everyone is just trying to go about their day than in a majority white environment that's kept that way by a phalanx of rapacious bigots.

Growing up in southern NM, my elementary school was 65% hispanic. And they were really just people trying to go about their day. I didn't even realize there was a "cultural divide" until well into high school, and even then I was sort of raised steeped in the local mexican / native culture enough that I was walking with feet in two worlds most of the time.

I think that being raised in an environment filled with a phalanx of rapacious bigots would be damaging for anyone, regardless of what race is being "defended" by the bigotry.
posted by hippybear at 1:34 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Tomorrowful: "I'm the grandson of Jewish-American immigrants whose value as Americans was questioned. Millions of Americans are of Irish descent; their ancestors were considered undesirable. We used to have quotas to keep the Yellow Threat at bay, and now we have a US Senator of Chinese (and Native Hawaiian) extraction. Every fucking generation we have to go through this shit. There's New People here! They have funny food and their own language! Oh no, they'll never assimilate! They'll destroy our way of life! And then within a generation or two, bam, they're American as anything, and it's those other people who need to be Kept Out."

To be the devil's advocate-- perhaps it is the hostility which caused them to assimilate. They did not feel welcome and worked to neutralize or hide whatever aspects of their culture people found offensive, and thus: "they're as American as anything". Not saying it's good or bad, but I do think it's a factor.
posted by alexei at 1:51 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Everyone should have less babies, regardless of race.

Fewer. Fewer babies.

(I hate me too).
posted by angrycat at 2:07 PM on August 19, 2010 [8 favorites]

Jokeefe: Not to berate the obvious, but this is problem why?

Clearly because the Hispanics are going to take over and turn the USA into an Islamic radical hell-hole like Europe...sorry, "Eurabia". At least, that's what I took from that Fox News quote.
posted by Infinite Jest at 2:08 PM on August 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

the Hispanics are going to take over and turn the USA into an Islamic radical hell-hole like Europe

See? See how neatly this ties into the "Ground Zero Mosque"? It was originally called "Cordoba House" and Cordoba is in Spain. They speak Spanish there. Just like in Mexico. It's all becoming very clear now...
posted by MikeMc at 2:13 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Family circumstances have allowed me to get a LOT more familiar with the issues facing the undocumented in America.

Basically the politicians have a problem: Since older Americans are the reliable voters (and especially in off-season elections) the politicians are afraid to speak up on reasonable immigration reform. However, you can't send 'em all back to Mexico (or wherever). And frankly, you shouldn't want to.

In fact, I would love it if I could play It's a Wonderful Life for all of these anti-immigration reform people and show them just how their lives would change if every undocumented worker suddenly disappeared. All of the landlords that would have empty houses (and the resulting downward pressure on real estate in many neighborhoods, all of the stores that would have lost revenue, all of the States that would have more lost sales tax. I don't see any stores refusing to take their money. I'll bet even in Arizona they don't ask them to show papers if they are paying cash. Economics trumps all.

What we NEED is a State to be the anti-Arizona. To pass laws that become more "undocumented-friendly". Then watch the economic results as that State takes off economically. No politician has the cahones to stand up and actually be a leader on this issue.

The reality is that there ARE undocumented in this country and they are becoming parents and grandparents of legal U.S. Citizens. Those legal U.S. Citizens will be of voting age some day (more are becoming so with each passing day). Those legal U.S. Citizens will vote with Latino interests. At the very least they are going to become THE swing voters in the coming years. The political party that is judged as anti-immigration-reform is going to be out of power for a VERY loooooong time. They may score points with Tea Partiers now, but it is not a sustainable position.

Family Values people also have a problem if they are going to be for separating those brown U.S. citizen children from their parent or parents - or grandparent(s) - by sending them back across the border. You are just going to be creating more broken families that are more likely to be in need of more social services.

Social Security, on the other hand, is being exposed as a Great Ponzi Scheme. It doesn't work if the numbers paying at the bottom don't continue to grow. Right now, a lot of illegals are getting hired with dead people's SSNs and the SS system doesn't care because it means that there is money being taken out of their checks and into the system that they will not be eligible to draw out. Nobody talks about that or the numbers involved.
posted by spock at 2:20 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

Is this something I'd need to own a racism to know about?
posted by Senor Cardgage at 2:21 PM on August 19, 2010 [3 favorites]

It still boggles my mind that the antonym of "Hispanic" is apparently "European" as if the Iberian peninsula broke away from France in the 19th century and has been floating around the map ever since.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 2:33 PM on August 19, 2010 [12 favorites]

Huh? That's a goofy stereotype. As if "Hispanic" people all just have a live and let live attitude. Caught any of the news from Mexico lately? Heard of the EZLN or the FARC? Shining Path perhaps? Maybe the Dirty War? How about Los Zetas or MS-13? Where did you come up with the idea that Hispanic people aren't just like every other type of people?

Yeah, but the thread here is more about birth rates than immigration, (though the xenophobes want us to conflate the two) and while my comment can be seen as mistakenly mis-attributing good will to all Latinos/Hispanics, I don't think it's any more helpful to conflate the socio-economic problems of South and Central America with those of Latino/Hispanic Americans. It's not like the Shining Path is just going to crop up endemically in East L.A. amongst families that have been there for generations. Maoism isn't really genetic.
posted by Devils Rancher at 2:51 PM on August 19, 2010

while my comment can be seen as mistakenly mis-attributing good will to all Latinos/Hispanics,

That's what I took away from it, I was just going for the "people are people wherever you go" kinda thing. Sorry if I misunderstood.
posted by MikeMc at 2:57 PM on August 19, 2010

Ah, I'm just an old hippie. fuggedaboudit.
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:01 PM on August 19, 2010

Only one of these two groups votes.

And actually, as young minority voters grow older and actually start voting, older white voters will start, well, dying.

As far as the implications for an educationally-underprepared majority go... look, the U.S. is already into its Edwardian age. We just haven't wrestled with this yet, and it'll likely be a decade, or longer, before China starts truly asserting itself.
posted by darth_tedious at 3:14 PM on August 19, 2010

correct me if I'm wrong..can we sum this up to:

Problem = old white people

Future = More young non-white people than old white people

problem solved.

You're not wrong. The interesting thing will be the "What's the Matter with Kansas" phenomenon, i.e. will seniors vote against their best interests. My guess is YES.

Mixed couples are increasingly becoming the norm, and Toronto seems to be heading in more of a Brasil direction.

Yep, that's the trend that's really gonna take off. How many "mixed-race" children are there now in the US compared to 1960? We don't even know. In another 50 years, expect that number to explode.

And the Fox News crap is taken out of context. What's his last line?

So far, we are doing our part here in America but Hispanics can't carry the whole load. The rest of you, get busy.

He is commending Hispanics for having children and encouraging the rest of America to do the same. (I agree it's an awfully confusing message.)

It still boggles my mind that the antonym of "Hispanic" is apparently "European" as if the Iberian peninsula broke away from France in the 19th century and has been floating around the map ever since.

It still boggles my mind that "Hispanic" is a different "race" than "Caucasian."
posted by mrgrimm at 3:45 PM on August 19, 2010

It still boggles my mind that "Hispanic" is a different "race" than "Caucasian."

It's actually not a race, it's an ethnicity. Sort of. It's categorized as an ethnicity because Hispanics can be any race, but it's not really an ethnicity either, but we don't care about the complicated ethnic politics of Central and South America.

Even if it's "understood" as a term for people from Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas (we still called them "Spanish" when I was a kid in the 1970s, by the way), it's still useless, because that would exclude the Portuguese-speaking countries and the English-speaking countries in Latin America. Which is also a relatively recent term foisted upon that region of the world by Europe.

Unsurprisingly, the many countries which comprise Latin America have not banded together to come up with a term that US politicians and pundits can use to collectively reference all of "those people down there you know what I mean."
posted by desuetude at 6:10 PM on August 19, 2010

Well, for one thing, the elderly are much more likely to be republican.

Source? Not calling you out, delmoi.

A Google search for "republican senior citizens voting" yielded this as the second link:

Senior citizen vote trending GOP

Here is another result from Google News:
Worried Democrats courting elderly voters as midterm elections near.

Keep in mind that this is all senior citizens. If you refine it further to white senior citizens, the trend towards GOP will be even more pronounced.

Bug this should be obvious to anyone who looks at a tea party gathering.
posted by formless at 7:26 PM on August 19, 2010

The purpose of racism is to support the hoarding of power by the group that has seized the majority of resources. If it wasn't racism, it would be religion, or gender, or any number of other things. In fact, it's already like that. There has to be an ideology to say that they are inferior to us so we can maintain the power that we have. Perhaps a better way to think of majority/minority is in terms of resource distribution and power, as opposed to sheer numbers (this would explain situations like South Africa, for example).
posted by Danila at 11:38 PM on August 19, 2010

Except those old white people are going to eat the crops, burn the fields, and salt the ashes first instead of turn them over to the young non-white people.

Well it's lucky those death panels will be spinning up around then, right?
posted by pompomtom at 11:38 PM on August 19, 2010 [2 favorites]