En el ano 2050, America, cuando lo sabemos, estara muerta. La mayor’a sera una minor’a y el ingles dejara de ser la mayor parte de lenguaje hablado en la nacion.
En efecto, los tiempos ellos son un cambio y usted no puede saber una lamedura de espanol, pero sus ninos mejor Ñ si ellos quieren ser tomados en serio como americanos que es.
If you can't read the opening paragraphs to this column, don't worry. It's not that important for you to understand Spanish. Your kids and grandkids, however, will need to speak what surely will become America's next official language.
In case you missed it while engrossed in the Beijing Olympics, the U.S. Census Bureau revised an earlier estimate as to when the white majority will become a minority in the United States. The federal headcounters now say that there will be a "minority majority" by 2042 Ñ some eight years sooner than previously projected.
What that means is that in 33 years there will be more combined minorities in America than there will be whites. Hispanics will make up the biggest subgroup, as their numbers are expected to triple by 2042. Asians will make up 9 percent of the population. The number of African-Americans is forecast to grow by just 1 percent over the same time frame.
If you're one of many asking how that is possible, the answer is quite simple. There are more legal immigrants, along with their illegal brethren, arriving in America than the country has seen in a century or more. Those immigrants are taking to heart the Genesis 24:2 command to "Go forth and multiply." For the first time, the number of children born to immigrant families is greater than the number of people immigrating to the United States.
Add to all of this the fact that the country's population as a whole is exploding faster than a kernel of corn in boiling hot oil. America topped the 300 million population mark for the first time in 2006. In 2039, there will be 400 million U.S. citizens.
The math gets tricky, yet infinitely interesting, when you break down the growth by age brackets. Folks over 65 currently make up 12 percent of the population. By 2050, they'll comprise over 20 percent, with the overwhelming majority of the nation's senior citizens being white. Conversely, minority groups currently make up 45 percent of the people under 18. By 2050, that number will grow to 62 percent.
In a little over two months from now, we will elect our first black president or our first female vice president. Both are events many folks thought they'd never see.
The other day I heard someone mutter something I've heard expressed a hundred times before. I was standing in line at a convenience store when a gentleman of Hispanic descent asked a question of the clerk in very fractured English. Behind him stood two forty-something white men. One turned to his friend and said in a lowered voice, "If you're going to live in this country, learn the language. You know what I mean?"
In another generation, his children might hear the same when they attempt to ask a question in broken Spanish.
Last year a billboard appeared on the I-290 for an attorney. The ad was not unlike all others erected by would-be ambulance chasers, save for the fact that it was entirely in Spanish. The billboard was a novelty for Buffalo, but Spanish ads are commonplace in big metropolises like New York, Miami and L.A.
There are a growing number of Spanish television and radio networks. Spanish versions of magazines routinely outsell their English counterparts. And its not just Spanish speakers who are grabbing the spotlight. Two of the biggest shows on network television, "Heroes" and "Lost," have featured scenes spoken between characters in Japanese.
America has always liked to think of itself as a great melting pot of people. In the past that has been true only if the great candle of wax holding us all together was anchored by a giant white base. Soon, we'll be a true melting pot and it will be interesting to see just how brightly a candle made from a myriad of colors burns.
America in the coming decades will be different from the one we've known.
It is possible that soccer will replace football as the most popular sport in the nation. Cinco de Mayo will probably become a more widely celebrated holiday in this country. Your grandkids might be as apt to know about the Battle of Puebla as the Battle of Bunker Hill. Mexican restaurants might supplant Italian ones as the most popular in the land.
Future America might follow Canada's lead and recognize two official languages. Everything that we've taken for granted about the racial makeup of our great nation is about to change. It's a very exciting moment in history to be alive.
The only question is: Esta usted listo para la nueva America?
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Sept. 2 2008 |