A Black CIC, A Supreme Latina w/Borikua Attitude & 2 "Mexicans" Flying The Space Shuttle

What in heaven's name is happening to this country!!!

Think about it...at this very moment in the U.S. of A there's...

a Black family in the White House
a Latina with Borikua attitude in the US Supreme Court
a Madam Speaker of the House
a Black woman billionaire whose preferences make or break businesses
and, there are two "Mexicans" and a White Chick flying the Space Shuttle!

Wrong, right? And soooooo scary!!!!

Seriously, this is a real life horror flick for the birthers, deathers, birchers, hate radio listeners, Beck watchers, Timothy McVeigh wannabes, and other weak-minded critters. All they need now is for Missy to marry Manuel or Mohammed. Ooops...that's already happened?

BTW: Of the 5 Americans on the current NASA Space Mission, two are Latino, and one is female.

Hey Rushbo, "How do you like them manzanas?!!!

U.S. "Minority" Population Surpasses 100MM

Update: See Denise Oliver's "Minorities" now the Majority in key States in the US in which she calls DKos progressives to paint Texas and Florida, Arizona, Mississippi and Nevada blue by 2012. It's a great goal. She also questions the labeling of Americans of color as "minorities" .

According to its latest population projections, the so-called "minority" population in the United States reached 102,529,590 as of July 2007 -- a 2.4% increase from the year before. That's fully one-third (34%) of the total U.S. population of 301.6 million (exclusive of the populations of U.S. territories).

The U.S. population included 45.5 million Latinos (excluding the 4MM residents of Puerto Rico), or 15.1% of the total population; 40.7 million African Americans (13.5%); 15.2 million Asian Americans (5.0%); 4.5 million Native Americans (1.5%); and 1 million Pacific Islanders.

California (20.9 million) and Texas (12.5 million) alone accounted for 32% of all the U.S. minority population.

Hawaii (75.3%), California (57.3%), Texas (52.1%) and New Mexico (57.7), plus the District of Columbia (67.5%), are now majority minority states.

Additionally, minorities comprised 31-42% of the population in sixteen (16) other states.

States with the fatest growing minority populations were Utah (6.1%), Idaho (5.9), Nevada (5.7%), Wyoming (4.9%), Arizona (4.7%) and Oregon (4.2%).

States with the slowest minority growth rates were the District of Columbia (-0.8%), Michigan (0.4%), Hawaii (0.5%), New York (0.9%) and Ohio (1.1%).

Below is the percentage of the minority population for all 50 states.

60%+
_________________________
75.3 Hawaii
67.5 District of Columbia

50-59.9%
_________________________
57.7 New Mexico
57.3 California
52.1 Texas

40-49.9%
_________________________
42.0 Nevada
41.9 Maryland
41.5 Georgia
41.1 Mississippi
40.9 Arizona

30-39.9%
_________________________
39.7 New York
39.2 Florida
37.8 New Jersey
37.7 Louisiana
35.0 Illinois
34.7 South Carolina
34.0 Alabama
33.9 Alaska
32.7 Virginia
32.5 North Carolina
31.3 Delaware
20-29.9%
_________________________
28.7 Colorado
28.2 Oklahoma
25.6 Connecticut
24.0 Arkansas
23.9 Washington
22.8 Tennessee
22.4 Michigan
20.7 Rhode Island
20.3 Massachusetts

10-19.9%
_________________________
19.5 Oregon
19.3 Kansas
18.2 Pennsylvania
17.7 Missouri
17.7 Utah
17.3 Ohio
16.5 Indiana
15.5 Nebraska
14.6 Wisconsin
14.4 Idaho
14.3 Minnesota
13.6 South Dakota
12.7 Wyoming
12.0 Kentucky
11.8 Montana
10.1 North Dakota

under 9.9%
_________________________
9.4 Iowa
6.6 New Hampshire
6.4 West Virginia
4.7 Vermont
4.5 Maine

127MM U.S. Latinos by 2050

The Pew Research Center issued population projections today showing that the U.S. population will reach 438 million by 2050 given current fertility, longevity and immigration trends. Of that population, 127 million, or 1 of 3 Americans will be persons of Latino heritage.

Additionally, the percentage of nonLatino Whites dips below 50% to a projected 47% of the population. People of color will comprise a majority. By comparison, White nonLatinos were 85% of the population as recently as 1960.

My view is that these demographic trends are the result of the Americanization of the United States and Canada. The restrictionists have been doing all they can to slow the process down through anti-immigrant pogroms, Berlin-type walls, black boot scare tactics, anti-Latino harassments, and illegal anti-immigrant worker municipal codes. However, the population trends are natural and irreversible.

50 Best Companies for Latinas to Work for in the U.S.

According to the editors of LATINA Style Magazine, the best major U.S. companies for Latinas to work in are as follows:

Aetna Inc.
Aflac Incorporated
Alcatel-Lucent
Allstate Insurance Company
American Airlines
American Express Company
AT&T
Bank of America
BNSF Railways Company
Citigroup Inc.
Colgate-Palmolive Company
Comcast Corporation
Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.
Credit Suisse
Chrysler Corporation
Darden Restaurants
Fannie Mae
General Mills, Inc.
General Motors Corporation
HSBC-North America
IBM
JPMorgan Chase
Kellogg Company
Kraft Foods, Inc.
Liz Claiborne Inc.
Macy’s Inc
Marriott International, Inc.
MasterCard Worldwide
McDonald’s Corporation
Merrill Lynch
MGM Mirage
Morgan Stanley
New York Life Insurance Company
Northern Trust
PepsiCo, Inc. - Company of the Year 2007
Principal Financial Group
Procter & Gamble
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Qwest Communications Intl., Inc.
SODEXHO, INC.
Southern California Edison
State Farm Mutual Insurance Companies
The Coca-Cola Company
Union Pacific Railroad Company
USAA
Verizon Communications, Inc.
Wachovia
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wells Fargo & Company
Xerox Corporation

Honorable Mention Companies

Bausch & Lomb
Freddie Mac
Sprint Nextel Corporation
UnitedHealthcare, Inc.
United Technologies Corporation

Dr. Louis Gerard Mendoza's Bike Ride to Record the Latinoization of America

Louis Gerard Mendoza is on a journey only a few hardy souls would ever attempt: he's traveling to all four corners American on his bike.

Why?

A scholar and head of Chicano Studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Dr. Mendoza is riding to see and record the "Latinoization" of America.

Here's how he describes his quest:

From July-December 2007 I'll be biking across the U.S. This experience will be the basis for book that follows José Martí’s 1891 call in "Our America" for a distinctively American culture, one that embraces rather than denies, the dynamic and organic relationship between place, language, and experience that shapes the American continent. In the blog I'll document the exchanges I have with people about the Latinoization of the U.S. as well as my own life experiences and thoughts.

Dr. Mendoza has completed the first leg of his trip, traveling 2,750 miles between Santa Cruz, California and his hometown of Minneapolis. The second leg takes him East. Here's the intinerary:

My plan from here is to go south to Iowa City and visit friends who have alerted me to local tensions arising in nearby communities related to immigration. From there I will go towards Milwaukee, down to Chicago and then across to Detroit and into Ontario, Canada where I will cross back into the U.S. at Niagara Falls. From there I will head east through New York, Massachusetts and began a southward trek along the eastern seaboard.

It's a fascinating journey of discovery for Dr. Mendoza and readers of his Journey Across America weblog.

In addition to blog entries, Dr. Mendoza is capturing video of his trip. Here's his up close look at a majestic Buffalo near Yellowstone Park.



Buffalo on road in Yellowstone from Louis Mendoza and Vimeo.

More Than 300 Counties Now "Majority-Minority"

The U.S. Census has reported that more than 300 counties are now "majority-minority". The following are some of the key findings:

The two largest counties passing this threshold between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006, are Denver County, Colo., and East Baton Rouge Parish, La., with total populations of 566,974 and 429,073, respectively. Three other counties were in Texas (Winkler, Waller and Wharton), with one each in Montana (Blaine), New Mexico (Colfax) and Virginia (Manassas Park, an independent city and considered a county equivalent).

Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest minority population in the country in 2006. At 7 million, or 71 percent of its total, Los Angeles County is home to one in every 14 of the nation’s minority residents.

Harris County, Texas, gained 121,400 minority residents between 2005 and 2006, which led the nation. Harris (Houston is its largest city) now has a minority population of 2.5 million, comprising 63 percent of its total. Its minority population ranks third nationally, not far behind second place Cook County, Ill. (Chicago).

Based on total population, Starr County, Texas, located on the Mexican border, had the highest proportion of all counties that was minority, at 98 percent. Among the nation’s 25 most populous counties, Miami-Dade County, Fla., had the highest proportion minority, at 82 percent.

Harvinder S. Anand: Long Island's 1st Indian American Mayor

In recent village elections, Harvinder S. Anand was elected as Mayor Laurel Hollow. An immigrant, Anand is Long Island's first elected official of Indian birth.

Laurel Hollow is a water front community and home to the 107-acre Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an internationally recognized genetic and cancer research center. Three researchers at the center have won Nobel prizes for their genetic work.

Anand was appointed to the position of Trustee in December, 2002 to fill a vacancy. He won a full term in hotly contested election in 2003. Anand has served as the village Police Commissioner.

Anand is a graduate of Nassau County Civilian Police Academy and an active member of the Nassau County Police Reserves. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Nassau County Law Enforcement Explorers.

A Chemical Engineer from Punjab University, Chandigarh, Anand also attended Hofstra University for MBA. He is the President of Royce International; a multi-national corporation involved in manufacture of industrial chemicals for textile, aerospace, electrical, automotive, marine and construction industries. Anand is married to Dr Chandni Anand, a practicing Internist. They have two children, Nikita K. Anand (15) and Angad S. Anand (14).

Clint Bolick: The GOP Must Now Prove Itself to Latinos

In GOP runs a big risk of losing Hispanics (The Arizona Republic - 6.17.07), Clint Bolick of the conservative Goldwater Insititute writes that the Republican risk losing Latinos over the immigration issue.

No kidding!

I've met Mr Bolick and I admire the work that he has done across the country as a lawyer in the fight to give innercity African American and Latino parents the right to choose better schools for their children. Mr. Bolick believes that giving poor parents the same right to choose their children's school is civil right--and I agree.

Mr. Bolick is also right that the GOP is squandering whatever gains they've made with Latino voters by associating the party with the extremism of the likes of Tom Tancredo, Patrick Buchanan and the radical and xenophobic rightwing.

However, Mr. Bolick seems to expect large scale conversions of Latinos simply because of their alignment on social issues. While certainly some of that is ture, but the reality is that Latinos--as is the case with all other Americans--weigh a variety of factors in deciding which party to support.

While the GOP was gaining a steady stream of Latino supporters, the hysteria and bigotry surrounding the immigration issue has been especially demoralizing to Latinos which lean moderate-to-conservative. Many of these people believed they had found a philosophical home within the GOP and that principles and ideas were to always trump any notion of racial or group membership. But the immigration issue-- more so than any other issue in recent memory--has exposed many rightwingers as being deeply hostile to the growing presence of Latinos in American life.

Agitation against people of color crossing the Southern border without official permission, it turns out, is simply a thinly veiled--and politically acceptable--tack for racial/cultural supremacists to demonstrate their hostility towards all Latinos--regardless of immigration status.

Perhaps if the GOP immediately adopts the suggestions Bolick proposes the party could salvage some Latino good will, but I'm not so sure. Below are Bolick's recommendations and my responses:

• Get the immigration issue behind.

How? The conservative radio talkshow alarmists are totally committed to defeating any sensible reform. However, it seems that even if a reform measure could be adopted this year and signed into law, the rightwingers seem hell-bent in continuing the fight against the measure's supporters.

• Get religion.

Again, religion will only go so far. Actually, the loss of Latino support for the GOP in this last cycle came largely from Latino evangelicals--many which are deeped troubled by a form of political conservatism that to them appears to be mean-spirited and unchristian. The same can be said for conservative Latino Catholics.

• Aggressively promote school choice.

This is an issue that has resonated with poor innercity Latinos, but even here it's not clear how Republicans can capitalize on it going forward. The truth is that many urban Democrats now support some form of school choice. Additionally, a party who's most vocal members oppose allowing the Latino children of the undocumented to receive their constitutionally protected right to an education can hardly be trusted on education matters.

• Reach out for real.

Good idea. However, the GOP has been talking about getting serious about Latinos since master strategist Lee Atwater strolled the earth. It's Bolick and all sensible conservatives (yes, I believe that there are such people) that need to get real. Some Latinos embraced the GOP only to find themselves lumped in as undesirable foreigners and trashed. The GOP must now prove that it truly values Latino Americans.

For the good of the country and the political process, I hope the GOP can correct itself and begin building national majorities for constructive reforms. But I'm not holding my breath. As long as the party is infected with Tancredoism, it can only find its way to minority status and defeat.