Hi paul_philp; Re: "I was in California a bit more than a year ago when the news broke that English is no longer the number one language in the state."
Jesus weeps! I wonder which part of California you visited. I've been there and the place is absolutely flooded with standard American white bread. It's knee deep in Anglos. Here's some facts:
In 2000, one in four California students had limited ability to speak English, nearly double the proportion in 1985.
eurekalert.org
Therefore, 3/4 of California students have "unlimited" ability to speak English.
There are only 35.3 million Latinos in the whole United States, (compare to a total California population of about that size) and a hell of a lot of those 35.3 million are indistinguishable from the rest of the population:
laopinion.com
Total foreign born in California is 25.9%, but only about 55% of those are Latino, the rest are white asian or black. Also, note the poverty rate trajectories by time spent in the US on page 36, which demonstrate the fairly quick Americanization of these immigrants:
usc.edu
According to the 2000 Census, no racial or ethnic group forms a majority in Califoria: white (47 percent), Hispanic (29), Asian (11), multi-racial (5), and African American (6). Diversity is more marked in California schools. Based on 1999-00 enrollment, Hispanic students comprise 42.2 of the school population. White students make up 36.9 percent, Asian and Pacific Islander 11, African American 8.6, and American Indian .9.
In California's 1999 Language Census, 1.48 million students were identified as English learners (limited-English proficient), approximately 41 percent of the English learners reported in the U.S. in 1996 (NCBE). Together with the 791,283 fluent-English proficient students identified, schools enroll 2,271,283 students with a native language other than English, 38 percent of California's students.
cde.ca.gov
I'm going to guess that the report you saw was the one that indicated that California is no longer over 50% white, and you translated "white" into "first language is English". This was in error because huge numbers of people who are not white, nevertheless use English as their native language.
The history of the United States is as a melting pot, and there is nothing in the current situation to indicate that the pot has ceased to function. Yes, I know that various groups exaggerate the numbers of foreigners for various (political) reasons, but that doesn't make it true.
What is really at stake is the question of whether the fundamental US ethnic group is losing a battle to an invader. But there are two problems with the statistics that would, on their face, support such a (racist) concept.
The first problem is that "white" is defined by a notion of purity that I personally find ridiculous. If a Latino marries a White, their children are labeled as "Latino" rather than "White" or "1/2 Latin, 1/2 White". This is a disgusting remnant of the genetics of the slaveholders, where even the tiniest fraction of black blood made you suitable material for a slave.
The second problem is that the US is fundamentally a nation of immigrants, and its ethnic makeup has always changed due to that immigration. Every new ethnic group that comes in spends a few generations undissolved, but the facts of genetics eventually melts them all. Groups that are now classified as "white", like the Irish or Eastern Europeans, were once thought hopelessly unable to contribute positively to the culture of the country. Then a few years go by, and the new immigrants are accepted, or more precisely, the definition of the standard ethnic group is expanded to fit them.
For example, early in the 19th century, instead of talking about "whites", the people worried about the genetic / ethnic makeup of the country instead counted the "anglo saxons" as compared to the other European tribes. The very fact that the racists are now crying over decreasing percentages of "whites" is an indication of the past success of the melting pot. All those Slavic, Italian and even most of the Jewish ethnic groups are now melted into the designation "white".
Already the asians are so closely acting white that cultural analyses frequently lump them in with the whites. Eventually they will have to invent some new ethnic classification, one that describes the melting pot better, and whatever that classification is, immigration will probably make it look like it is fast disappearing.
The US culture is brutally strong, and I doubt that any reasonably level of immigration could make a dent in it. That's why Osama and friends are so worried about us. Devout Moslems move here, and their children grow up f'ing with the locals, destroying their ethnic and cultural identities.
-- Carl
P.S. Even the blacks, despite the residues of racism and slavery, are being melted now. The rates of what would once be called "miscegenation" are around 50%, at least among the young:
Let's look at the ratio of both-black marriages to mixed-black marriages in 1990: For those over 65 years of age, the ratio is over 6:1, for those under 35 years old it drops to 3:2, and for those under 25 it approaches 1:1. In 1990, 84% of all married black people over the age of 65 were in both-black marriages, but only 53% of married blacks under 25 were.
stats.org
Also see this fascinating page from the Christians:
christiananswers.net |
