Posted on 08/15/2006 6:57:28 AM PDT by devane617
The youngest Anglo children in Hillsborough County and across Florida are now a minority, foreshadowing the day when Florida - like four states now - becomes a majority-minority state.
Non-Hispanic whites in Florida accounted for fewer than half of all children younger than 5 last year, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. Slightly more than 47 percent of the state's youngest children were non-Hispanic whites, down from nearly 55 percent five years earlier.
In Hillsborough County, non-Hispanic white children have become a minority also, making up less than 47 percent of the population younger than 5, down from nearly 51 percent in 2000.
In parts of the county, the trend was evident before this report. The Hillsborough County school district reported nonwhite enrollment of 55 percent in 2004. At St. John Presbyterian Learning Center, students move between two worlds, speaking English and Spanish and adjusting based on when their families moved here.
Out of 100 children at the learning center, 75 are nonwhite, many in families that moved here from Colombia, Cuba, Mexico or Puerto Rico, Director Dianne Patterson said. The numbers have been high for five years because the center, at 4120 N. MacDill Ave., attracts low-income families, which are predominantly nonwhite.
"The children learn the language very rapidly," said Patterson, who adapted by hiring staff to reflect the student population. "Having a lot of Spanish-speakers is the trend all over. We have 4- and 5-year-olds interpreting for their parents."
The impact of the population shift will be felt in school and health-care systems that may not be prepared, demographers say.
Children who live in minority neighborhoods and are not exposed to mainstream society - by attending child care or prekindergarten, for example - will struggle with language and assimilation, said Mark Mather, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau.
"It won't be an immediate impact," Mather said. "Once they start going through the school system, there will be more demand for language courses. Some are assimilating more than other certain groups, who are more likely to live in minority enclaves.
"I'm speaking mainly of Hispanics and Asians," Mather added. "There will be more challenges for those groups, the schools and medical systems."
The recent Census estimates come from the American Community Survey, the cornerstone of the government's effort to keep tabs on the nation's changing population. The new survey will provide demographic, socio-economic and housing information about America's communities every year - information that until now was only available once a decade.
Texas, the Census Bureau reported in August 2005, joined Hawaii, New Mexico and California as a majority-minority state. Eight other states with minority populations of about 40 percent today were expected to join them next - Maryland, Mississippi, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana and Florida.
Some demographers expect the U.S. population as a whole to reach that plateau by 2050.
Aurea Velazquez, a St. John's parent, is part of the trend.
Velazquez moved from Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, six months ago. Her 4-year-old daughter, Yamilette, is in prekindergarten.
"It's been difficult in Puerto Rico with no work, and the economy is bad," she said. "People are going to continue to move here because of the bad economies. Here, you can at least survive with your family."
Kristi Bennett's two children, Gillian, 4, and Aedean, 3, are among the minority Anglo children at St. John's. Bennett doesn't mind.
"I love it," she said. "I think it's healthy to be around children who don't look like them. It teaches them tolerance and diversity really early on."
I have always found the dichotomy of 'white' or 'Hispanic' (or indeed 'Latino') to be rather silly.
"All that's necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to sit and do nothing." But, what can we do that we aren't already doing??
I have written to every representative (not just my own), sent the Nada Pesos to the RNC, sent bricks to my representatives, given money to build the damn fence, written letters to the editor, boycott Mexican products, demonstrated against illegal immigration, and did more than my share of purchasing on the Militant May Day Boycott.
What would tom tacredo's reaction be? Afterall his surname ends in an english vowel and could be considered "latin".
I guess he would change his surname to "Tancred".
Huh? What are you trying to say?
Small wonder property taxes have been skyrocketing.
Latin use to include Italians and French.
Are the anglos in California in the minority yet?
You may have the best of intentions, but your post is utter racist nonsense. Minorities don't love their children? Are you insane?
>>>>They get very very, quiet when the fact that FL has become a more conservative state despite the old white bubba democrats losing a % of the overall population.
FL also had a voter fraud purge though. A lot of states can use a serious audit.
French? Portugese, yes. The most spoken Romance language is Spanish, followed by Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan..........
I am a white minority member in my neighborhood! Have been for years.
I'm oppressed!
"The real business makes as much as they would have had they submitted the bid straight up. The minority owner simply collects a check. The government over pays for the work."
Yep, reperations hidden in the cloak of diversity.
Yes, it is. And the woman in the article is just one of millions of useful idiots who never had to really work to get where she is.
Don't bother bringing facts into this discussion. This if Free Republic where it is all about perceptions.
I don't know what this author is speaking about - in South Florida 3/4 of the Cuban-Americans I know are white and of European ancestry with no inter marriage - some even with blond or red hair and kind of Irish looking because of their Galician blood which is of Celtic heritage - many are even descendents of the original conquistadors who came to cuba 500 yeras ago or founded St. Augustine the oldest "European" settlement in the United States.
http://www.babalublog.com/archives/piggyback.jpg
These are what typical white cubans-americans in Miami look like.
But you don't know how to speak French. Here's what you were really trying to say, not that it makes any more sense to me when grammatical:
Tous les Blancs savent parler anglais.
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