EthnicMajority

(Chicago Sun Times) You’ve heard of the glass ceiling (women) and the bamboo ceiling (Asian Americans). It turns out there’s a blue-collar ceiling for Chicago Latinos.

So says a new study from DePaul University’s New Journalism on Latino Children project and the Latino Policy Forum. They analyzed Hispanic representation in 480 occupations identified by the U.S. Census Bureau and found that both Mexican immigrants and many of their U.S.-born counterparts are overrepresented in low-skilled, low-pay manufacturing, food service, and construction industries.

Considering that Latinos represented three of every five new entrants to the region’s labor force over the past decade and that their dismal high school graduation rates — a mere 59 percent — are colliding with a time when our city is turning toward a knowledge-based economy, this is very bad news.

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(Newser) In eight metropolitan areas including Washington, DC, New York, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Memphis, minorities now make up the majority of the population, according to census data. Over the past decade, non-Hispanic whites have become the minority in 22 of the 100 largest urban areas in the US, the Washington Post reports. In 42 of those 100 regions, the raw number of white people fell, but the percentage of whites fell in every single metro area. A big reason? The white population is aging, while the Hispanic and Asian populations fueling the growth are relatively young.

The shift happened shockingly fast, even to many officials. “What’s happened is pivotal,” says one demographer, noting that these regions will be the testing ground for how to “help minorities assimilate and become part of the labor force.” Another report notes the “literally mind-boggling” situation in Northern Virginia’s schools, where the student population grew by 119,000 over the past 15 years—white students accounted for just shy of 1,000 of those. The demographic shift is even starting to transform traditionally Republican areas to more Democratic ones, one expert notes.

(AOL Latino) Recent U.S. Census data confirms a fact of life for San Diego: Hispanics, once considered a “minority,” now number nearly 30 percent of the population — a “major minority.” Those numbers are growing. As the second-largest city in California, San Diego has seen a 32 percent increase in the numbers of Hispanics since 2000.

The U.S. military today reflects these demographics, especially in San Diego, home to the largest naval fleet on the West Coast. The Pew Hispanic Center reported that the Hispanic military population of more than 122,000 now represents 11 percent of the entire U.S. military.

Hispanic Americans have a proud legacy of U.S. military service, dating to the American Revolution when Gen. Bernardo de Gálvez defeated British forces in Alabama and Florida to ensure safe passage for Gen. George Washington. That legacy of service continues. The highest U.S. military decoration, the Medal of Honor, has been awarded to 43 soldiers of Hispanic heritage, including Capt. Humbert Roque Versace, who was posthumously bestowed this honor in 2002 for his courage during the Vietnam War.

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(Ethnicmajority, Clifford Tong) The new 2010 census shows significant population growth in both the Hispanic and Asian communities, but this is only part of the story. The Hispanic population has reached 50 million, one out of every six Americans. What is interesting is where that growth is occurring – in the rural areas. Hispanics in North Carolina rose 111% over the last decade, for instance. African Americans are also moving in droves out of cities to suburban and rural communities.

And yet Hispanics continue to be under-represented in politics, boardrooms, media, etc. while being hammered on the immigration front. But the challenges aren’t just political. Consumers tend to speak with their wallets. I found it very interesting that all of the best selling baseball jerseys are for white players, despite the fact that the sports’ best players are Latino.

Mainstream America may be diverse in numbers, but not in attitude. The UCLA student’s YouTube video rant against Asian Americans is just the latest example debunking President Obama’s ideal that we are “one America”.

But significant challenges face the Hispanic community today. Less than half earn high school degrees and one in eight graduate from college. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Preganancy, 52 percent of Latina teens get pregnant at least once before age 20.

In the meantime, Hispanics continue to be made a scapegoat for the economic recession by Republicans trying to make illegal immigration a political wedge issue. That can work as long as Hispanics face the aforementioned challenges and lack the political and economic clout to fight back. You have to be encouraged by the battle over union collective bargaining in Wisconsin, which showed that Americans are increasing rejecting political battles to encourage class or race warfare. These are issues for all Americans, not just some Americans.

(AsianWeek) The Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF), a leading authority on Asian American marketing and advertising, in conjunction with LA 18 KSCI-TV (LA 18), announced today some astonishing statistics about the growth of Asians in the United States. The information is based on the 2010 U.S. Census Redistricting Data.

With data reported from 27 states (or a little more than half of the state-level data at the time of reporting), the Asian population is already seeing significant growth that far outpaces the total United States population by huge margins. All 27 states showed double or even triple-digit growth in their Asian populations. The top five states with the highest increases in the Asian population compared to ten years ago are: Nevada, up 116 percent; North Carolina, up 85 percent; Delaware up 78 percent; Arkansas, up 77 percent; and Indiana up 74 percent.

Among the 27 states with their local-level data released so far, the top 10 states with the highest number of Asians (in order from highest to lowest) are California; Texas; New Jersey; Hawaii; Illinois; Washington; Virginia; Maryland; North Carolina, and Nevada.

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(USA Today) Hispanics from states with large and established Latino populations increasingly identified themselves by race — most chose white — rather than the murky “Some Other Race” that many picked a decade before, a USA TODAY analysis of 2010 Census data finds.

The shift is important because having Hispanics pick one of the recognized race categories — white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native — provides a more exact racial breakdown of the nation’s population.

It also is a sign that the fastest-growing and largest minority population in the United States is adjusting to the way Americans categorize race, some demographers say. If anything, it’s an indication that they are at least figuring out that the government doesn’t recognize “Hispanic” as a race, but as an ethnicity.

“I don’t know if it’s assimilation or just learning,” says Jeffrey Passel, a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center.

Census forms ask people who identify themselves as Hispanic to also check what race they are. There are Hispanic whites, Hispanic blacks, Hispanic Asians and so on. Those who don’t identify with existing race categories can pick “Some Other Race.”

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(Mail Online) America’s population centre is edging away from the Midwest to the south west, pulled by shifting Hispanic growth, according to the latest census figures.

The historic movement is changing the nation’s politics and even the traditional notion of the country’s heartland – long the symbol of mainstream American beliefs and culture.

The West is now home to the four fastest-growing states – Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho – and has passed the Midwest in population.

When California and Texas are added to the south-western population shift, these states make up more than a quarter of the nation’s total gains since 2000.
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The Census Bureau is expected to announce a new mean centre of population next month in or around Texas County, Missouri, south-west of where it is now in Phelps County.

According to the 2010 figures, if the trend continues, the centre would leave the state by 2050 for the first time since 1980.

Robert Lang, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, said:’The geography is clearly shifting, with the West beginning to emerge as America’s new heartland.’

Professor Lang, who regularly crunches data to determine the nation’s centre, added: ‘It’s a pace-setting region that is dominant in population growth but also as a swing point in American politics.’

The last time it fell outside the Midwest was1850, in the eastern territory now known as West Virginia.

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(Portada) Jacqueline Hernandez, Chief Operating Officer of Telemundo Communications (photo), gave an interesting presentation this morning at New York’s Paley Center.

Hernandez presented the results of “GenYLA”, a new research study conducted by the Telemundo Communications Group, on the current state of Young Latino Americans (YLAS), ages 18-34, one of the fastest growing and increasingly important segments of the population, especially for marketers.
The study analyzes the State of Young Latino Americans (YLA’s) , defined as 18-34 year olds, whose country of origin is in Latin America and who live in the U.S. Hernandez noted that these three terms can be used interchangeably as they are the basis of the Identity of Young Latino Americans. The results of the study are valuable input to create Telemundo programming, particularly for the Mun2 Cable TV Network, and other content that reflects the Hispanic experience in a language that speaks to YLA’s.

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(Afro) Black residents are increasingly departing large U.S. cities a shift that could affect African-American political power according to data from the first results of the U.S. Census Bureau’s population census.

The population of the nation’s capital now exceeds 600,000 residents, 53 percent of whom are African American, and there has been a gain of nearly 30,000 new Washingtonians since a decade ago. But, according to Census Bureau data released Dec. 21 and cited by The Washington Post, much of the increase is due to an ongoing influx of Hispanics and Whites moving into the city—a change brought on by a gentrification process that has forced many African-Americans out of city neighborhoods.

According to the Post, Blacks in D.C. face the prospect of being a population minority in the city by the time of the next census in 2020.

In New York, the number of Blacks leaving the city has exceeded the departure of Whites since 2000, and as a result, that city has now suffered an overall decline in Black population for the first time in history, according to GBM News.

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(CNN) Each election cycle is dubbed “the year” — a time when Latinos will show up at the polls in droves and transform the political landscape.

President Obama’s renewed push last week for immigration reform has brought with it fresh expectations for the Latino vote in November’s midterm elections.

The issue is considered one of symbolic and substantive importance for the community. Four out of five undocumented immigrants are from Mexico or another part of Latin America, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

While voter turnout among the Latino community has risen in recent years, the adage that there’s “strength in numbers” has yet to manifest itself.

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