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Bubba

Aug 13, 2005, 4:25 PM

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The Times They are a'Changin'

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I read an interesting statistic in The Birmingham News online today. It seems that there are about 100,000 Hispanics living in the state of Alabama today, a state with a total population of about 4.5 Million people of which somewhere around 1.2 Million are African Ameriican and 11,000 are counted as Hispanic in the most recent census. The increase in the Hispanic population is over 200% in the last three years. There were about 3.5 Million "Whites" and a bunch of other people but that is not the point.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham which came up with this study was inferring that about 10% of the Hispanic population of that state is legal and admitting to its origin. The rest done snuck in. Furthermore, the Southeast is a region with some of the most rapid migration of Hispanics, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans into the United States.

This is a fascinating and significant demographic shift. I love this. We honkeys are all moving down here to screw off and industrious and adventurous Mexicans are taking our places up there to earn gainful employment. Eventually it will all balance out and everybody wins.

Praise The Lord!

julian3345

Aug 13, 2005, 5:35 PM

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Re: [Bubba] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Check yesterday's online NY Times for an Op-Ed piece by Robert Pear on this changing demographic nationwide! Joan

Carol Schmidt

Aug 13, 2005, 7:13 PM

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Re: [julian3345] The Times They are a'Changin'

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A study released a few days ago said that Texas is now the fourth U.S. state to have more minorities than whites.

Carol Schmidt

julian3345

Aug 13, 2005, 7:32 PM

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Texas just announced that minority populations comprise 50.2% of the population. Other three states you mention are Hawaii (77%), New Mexico (56.5%) and California (55.5%). Coming up are Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona with more than 40%. California still has the largest Hispanic population (12.4 million) and largest Asian population (4.8%)...but I wonder how they figure that number because the population of Hawaii is majority Asian??? The rest of the Times article is very interesting. JEM

Don Moore

Aug 14, 2005, 7:28 AM

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Re: [Bubba] The Times They are a'Changin'

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There are an estimated 60K to 100K Hispanics in the Memphis metropolitan area at present, almost all having come within the past decade. I remember when there was only one Mexican restaurant in Memphis, really a gringo version of a Mexican restaurant. Now there are more Mexican eating establishments than soul food restaurants, I think. There are more Mexicans here (or about as many)than there are in San Miguel or Jerez. I like it. It begins to break down the old Black-White polarization, even though the vast majority of Hispanics are not politically active, since they are not citizens.
Don Moore

Bubba

Aug 14, 2005, 10:53 AM

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Re: [Don Moore] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Don:

You have a good point about the immigration, both legal and illegal into regional cities and towns once isolated that are now becoming more cosmopolitan and thus, in my judgment more interesting. Back in the 1950s when Bubba was a baby, the isolation and racial polarization in the deep south contributed greatly to the inertia in acceptance of social change both in the white and black communities.

Eventually, foreigners from many different lands will become political constituents in parts of the U.S. regenerated by their presence and that fact will enlighten formerly jingoistic politicians who no longer have to serve a traditional base. I saw this happen in France where Arab immigrants were treated like dirt in the 1960s and are now treated with deference.

I guess this is like marrying Cousin Betty Sue. The gene pool improves with diversity.

Carol Schmidt

Aug 14, 2005, 1:01 PM

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Re: [Bubba] The Times They are a'Changin'

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>I saw this happen in France where Arab immigrants were treated like dirt in the 1960s and are now treated with deference. >

They're treated with such deference that a law was passed forbidding Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in schools, as I recall. I think they went from a nearly invisible "dirt" minority to a frightening real political force growing in numbers everyday in France.

Back in Detroit Wayne State University downtown did a study in the mid-'60s reporting on the way Detroit was resegregating from all-white areas to all-black.

The pattern was that an all-white area would panic when the first one or two blacks moved in, the first flurry of those most able to move out quickly did so, and then the area settled down to a gradual acceptance of the slow integration of more and more blacks, until the magical number of one-third black was reached

At that point just about every white still left in the old neighborhood who could, up and moved out fast. It happened on my block. Meanwhile, I had moved more inner city. My foks fled to the suburbs.

Before the 1967 riot, Wayne State was predicting that Detroit would be an almost all black city within 20 years, and lo and behold, that happened.

I think that's kind of the way human groups operate. We tend to form our own enclaves, we can accept a few "others" joining us, and suddenly when enough "others" have joined so that we feel the possibility of being outnumbered, we panic and look for another place where we can feel "comfortable."

"We" does not mean me, or every one, just a kind of general pattern of comfort, and I'm not going to extend the pattern too far or to every instance, just something to think about. Those of us who move to Mexico probably would not fit that pattern.

When some magical number of Mexican immigrants "overloads" a formerly mostly white area, some sort of hackles go up and some people feel threatened and start to react. I think many in the African-American community were less than thrilled when Hispanics became the largest minority in the U.S.

Arizona is a strange state, generally a live and let live conservativism of Barry Goldwater/John McCain, becoming more and more cosmopolitan every day as more Californicating goes on and retirees from all over the country with broader viewpoints move there. But along the border where the vigilante movement arose, I think that magical number was reached and somewhere inside many people came the word, "Enough," and they started to react. I could feel some of that even in Phoenix when I lived there.

I bet there are a lot of white Texans who are not thrilled to suddenly read on their front pages that they are now in the minority in their state and there is some internal reacting going on, churning up some gut feelings. Watch their politics in the near future.

Welcome to the 21st century. The times are indeed changing. About time.

Carol Schmidt

Don Moore

Aug 14, 2005, 1:41 PM

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Re: [Bubba] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Gee, Bubba,

I married everybody but cousin Bettye Sue and none of them took, maybe her and me shoulda hooked up, since I never had no young uns anyhow.
Don Moore

Bubba

Aug 14, 2005, 1:45 PM

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Re: [Carol Schmidt] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Carol:

I do think that it is important to point out that France is a society that diligently defends the notion of the secular state because of its history. Religious symbols have been banned across the board there in state sponsored endeavors such as public schools. As I have family living in Paris at present, I can also state that a lot of this banning of religious symbolism such as head scarves, crucifixes obviously displayed and other religious symbols worn upon one's body was a response to gang violence relating to religious fundamentalism. This has been a serious problem of late in Metropolitan Paris so the banning of headscarves is a complex issue but most assuredly an assertion that France will maintain its secular institutions and not bow to religious fundamentalism during the school day.

A hell of a lot more complex than Billy Bobs in Houston driving around with confederate flag license plates.

Otherwise, we are in total agreement.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Aug 14, 2005, 1:51 PM)

Carron

Aug 14, 2005, 5:41 PM

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Re: [Bubba] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Just before we moved to Mexico in 1998 there was a survey done in Houston which noted that among the pupils of public schools more than 50% had Hispanic surnames. Notice that this politically correct statistic says nothing about the legality of these children or their parents. There is also an observation that Mexico is taking back over its lost US territories one baby at a time. Since two of my own Tex-Mex grand babies are the ultimate result of their other grandparents who slipped across our borders illegally many years ago, I really can't complain.

Marta R

Aug 14, 2005, 9:26 PM

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Re: [Carron] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Let's bear in mind that "Hispanic surname" is a blind, too. Back in college, I was refused a scholarship that was supposed to go to Hispanics. My mother's Mexican, but this made no difference: I did not have a Spanish surname, so no scholarship for little Martita. I'm still steamed about it, lo these many decades later.

Marta

jacpowell

Aug 16, 2005, 7:57 PM

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Re: [Don Moore] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Don, there's a saying around our house: Marriages are like vaccinations -- Keep trying until one takes.

It is interesting to wonder where the "white flight" will take all us whites. Gated same-color, same-age communities? When Little Rock was desegregated in the 1958s, all the whites came to my little town 30 miles away. And they stayed. And they're attracting more and more of themselves.

"White bread" society is so awfully boring! Especially after you've traveled in other countries away from the tourist centers. As everyone on MexicoConnect knows, the coastal Mexico resorts are NOT the same country as the interior.

Jackie Powell (not the famous Ms. Powell)

Marlene

Aug 16, 2005, 9:54 PM

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Re: [jacpowell] The Times They are a'Changin'

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Quote

"White bread" society is so awfully boring! Especially after you've traveled in other countries away from the tourist centers. As everyone on MexicoConnect knows, the coastal Mexico resorts are NOT the same country as the interior.

Actually, using Mazatlan (which is on the coast and is a tourist destination also) as an example, I can tell you that once you get out of the Golden Zone hotel area and get into the nearby neighborhoods, you would never know you weren't in Anyplace, Mexico.

We have the beach instead of the pyramids,yes, but this is a working port city, very much real Mexico and where tourism is not the number one industry. In my immediate neighborhood, which is only a few minutes to the ocean, I am the only foreigner. My husband was raised only a couple of blocks from the ocean and that area, where his mother still lives, also has no foreigners living in it. This is how it is to live here, so to write it off as being boring or not real Mexico because it attracts tourists would be more than a bit unfair.