What will a majority-minority policy agenda look like?
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Much of the post-election chatter concentrated on the impact of America's changing demographics had on the results. Away from electoral politics, what do these realizations mean for America in moving forward with an inclusive agenda, especially under a second Obama adminstration? If minority groups become the majority population, what should the policy agenda look like?
Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, will join The Daily Circuit Friday, Jan. 18 to talk about America's future demographics.
She recently wrote about it for What Works for America's Communities:
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Those of us working to end poverty and racism used to make our case in moral terms: the nation must deliver on the promise of equal opportunity and shared prosperity because it is the right thing to do. But a demographic transformation more rapid and widespread than anyone had predicted has changed the conversation. By the middle of this century, the very same groups who have long been left behind will become America's majority population. By the end of this decade, most youth will be people of color. These shifts already have occurred in California, Texas, New Mexico, and in metropolitan regions across the country. Equity--just and fair inclusion in a society in which all can participate and prosper--has become more than a moral issue. It is now an economic imperative.
Mark Sawyer, professor of African American Studies and political science at the University of California-Los Angeles and the director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics, will also join the discussion.
"If we don't invest in educating and training African-American kids, immigrants and Latino kids, we won't have a middle class," Sawyer told McClatchy Newspapers. "We'll have a very, very poor disposable class that's largely black or brown."
READ MORE ABOUT AMERICA'S MAJORITY-MINORITY:
Has Obama leveled the economic playing field? (NPR)
Whites will be minority group by 2042, Census predicts (McClatchy Newspapers)
America's tomorrow: Race, place, and the equity agenda (What Works for America's Communities)
America's changing demographic landscape: New projections from the Census Bureau (Brookings)
Finding minority owned businesses
Interactive: State high school graduation rates by race, ethnicity (National Journal)
