by Daniel Cubias
I’m sure you’ve heard the news that Hispanics now make up a record percentage of the American population. The U.S. Census says that one out of every six residents is Latino. Furthermore, in a “surprising show of growth, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the US population increase over the last decade.”
Yes, Latinos are the chief reason that America has avoided a population decline. However, not everyone is grateful, or particularly thrilled, about this fact. In fact, quite a few Americans are angry, anxious, or just plain freaked out over the ascendancy of Hispanics in the United States.
For example, a Texas demographer recently made headlines when he analyzed his state’s ethnic makeup and announced, “It’s basically over for Anglos.” Steve Murdock went on to imply that whites would be practically extinct in Texas within a few decades, adding, “It’s a terrible situation that you [Texas] are in. I am worried.”
Murdock later insisted that he was not pushing for ethnic cleansing. He explained that he was concerned about Latinos’ lower income levels, and in fact, he was advocating for improving the state of Hispanic education.
Even if we give Murdock the benefit of the doubt, his words certainly struck a chord with many Americans who don’t know the identity of their original immigrant ancestor. For such individuals, more Latinos is bad news indeed.
Now, some right-wing groups have been very clever about hiding their racial animosity. Being Latino recently ran an article about a network of organizations that have tried to connect rates of immigration (legal or otherwise) with environmental deterioration. And we know which ethnicity is most closely associated with immigration in America.
The message is clear: Americans who care about Mother Earth — and their own quality of life — have to keep the U.S. population as unchanged as possible. In addition to being xenophobic, however, this approach sidesteps reality. According to the Rand Corporation, it is countries that have the strictest immigration and naturalization policies (such as Japan) that may be in the most economic trouble in the future. Even if America magically stopped all immigration today, Hispanics would still drive population growth, by virtue of the fact that Hispanics tend to be younger and have more children than other groups.
Still, that has not stopped many Americans for advocating for taller fences, as if that will keep the Latino population low. These strategies often backfire. Witness the problems in Brownsville, Texas, where a Department of Homeland Security barrier is so twisty and arbitrary that it has left the homes of many US citizens “stranded on the other side of the fence.” Some Americans have seen their property cut off, and several complain that they “have to find a gap” in the fence to access their land.
We see now why it’s going to be over white people in Texas. Their state keeps fencing them out of the country and forcing them to hop a wall to get in.
To learn more about Daniel, visit Hispanic Fanatic.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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