"majority-minority" country

Link: The New Face of America

The article from upfront scholastic magazine, "The New Face of America", is about how more minorities are being born in America than whites.The article starts off with Jessica Ramirez explaining how since she grew up in a predominantly Latino school she never felt like a minority, even though in the overall US, she is. The article goes on to explain how a recent census of the US presented that minority births now outnumber non-Latino white births. This is happening because high immigration rates from countries such as Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines, and also because of the increasing number of mixed-race marriages. This fast rate of change is unlike any other country's in the world. Never before has there been such a racially different generational gap. It will be interesting to see where it leads in the next decades.

I think that the author wants the reader to be aware of the rapidly changing racial state of our country. In a place where people are sometimes made fun of or stereotyped for their racial differences, race is beginning to not be such an isolating factor. The nation is changing rapidly and leaving no room for racism and bigotry. I think that the author wants the reader to feel a sense of acceptance. The power to accept people and in return, to be accepted by their peers, for their race, no matter what their background.

This article makes me think about the foundation of this country, and how it was founded on ideas on equality and justice for everyone. Right now, I can think of many social divisions that don't have the equality or rights they deserve. For example, women in high power jobs, gays and marriage laws, immigrants and immigration and labor laws, and the list goes on. The only people who seem to have a fair amount of rights are straight white men, and as we can see from predicted polls, they aren't going to be the majority of people in this country anymore. This country was founded as a place for people escaping persecution to come, and the first settlers (besides Native Americans) made a life in a new place as somewhere to get away from being judged on who they were. The fact that America will soon become a "majority-minority" country is a huge step in the same direction our ancestors took when they created a place where people could live in acceptance alongside each other.