A perfect storm is brewing! The browning of America is here, but the country is unprepared morally, socially, or spiritually. By contrast, it fears demography, fighting it tooth and nail. Rather than integrate and accommodate, the nation is rapidly splitting into apartheid. Demographic shifts are overwhelming White America. Reversion to the past is shaping into present policy.
Amid the conflict, disparities facing nonwhites are increasing. This is evident in housing, and in public health, educational achievement, and rising wealth gaps. Access to equity is being thwarted, now evident in voting, redlining, public vigilance, and human rights.
Year 2011 marked the first time in U.S. history where more nonwhite babies were born than white babies, with public schools now representing a majority nonwhite student population, and where the country will be assuredly nonwhite midcentury. Anglo-Americans are not replacing their numbers, representing a decades-old decline in population. Racially, this century will be quite different from any other. Bold leadership and more effective approaches are imperative to redress racism while striving toward equity. To attain greater heights, policymakers must shed former vestiges to ensure that higher levels of equity, educational excellence, and social justice are achieved.