aging and ethnicity demographics america

Demographics are changing rapidly and dramatically in the United States. People are living longer, but the ethnic composition of the senior age cohort is not the same as it is for the young. While the young generations are becoming more ethnically diverse by the minute, the older generation remains more proportionately white. This demographic shift is being referred to as the “gray and the brown,” with seniors and young brown segments of society having different values, needs, and expectations.
The implications of the grey and the brown phenomenon include changes to public policy, education, healthcare, and political culture in general. Generational differences have perennially affected the different voting patterns among seniors and young people. The differences are not just due to different ideas of how taxpayer funds should be allocated, but also to social norms and institutions. Older age cohorts were raised in a different generation with different values, attitudes, and beliefs about everything from drugs and same-sex marriage, to the structure and function of government. Young people will also have different attitudes and needs in terms of the job market and economic policy versus seniors, who may not understand completely the ramifications of the global market economy on their lives versus that of their grandchildren. Young people may care about retirement savings on an intellectual level but not on a visceral level as with seniors. Therefore, generation alone is a major issue impacting American politics and policy, with ancillary ramifications for human services professionals.
When ethnicity is also a factor thrown into the mix, human services professionals contend with intersectionality. The “brown” part of the gray and brown equation refers to non-white Americans, many of whom are Latin American, but many of whom are from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. As such, the “brown” community is also a diverse group with differential needs depending on culture of origin, socioeconomic class, and gender. Roughly the same can be said for the aging population, which is why human services professionals always need to consider intersections of identity, power, privilege, and affiliation, and to respect individual differences too.
The political institutions and public policies that are in place today impact that younger generation: a generation that is demographically different from the generation that passed many of those laws or supported those institutions. Furthermore, seniors continue to participate in the political process, sometimes with higher voter turnout rates than their younger counterparts. As a result, older people sometimes make the laws that younger people have to live with, and those younger people are more different from their elder counterparts than ever before due to greater diversity. It has always been challenging to align the needs of all Americans under common rubrics in public policy, law, and fiscal practices. Aligning those needs with respect also to ethnicity is even more challenging.
One of the main implications of the grey and the brown phenomenon is for organizations to plan for the future in terms of providing the organizational cultures and climates that meet the needs of the younger generation. State governments may need to play an active role in “attracting and providing opportunity to minority families,” for example, to avoid the economic fallout of a region that caters to a dying demographic (Brownstein, 2015, p. 1). Educators have already responded by changes to their curricula and instructional strategies, recognizing the importance of bilingualism, or culturally diverse and respectful content, of inclusion, and preparing students for living and working in a global economy. As Amos (2010) points out, the browning of the young presents one of the greatest opportunities the nation has had to transform itself and revitalize its culture and its economy “with a young multilingual, well-educated workforce,” (p 1).
Unfortunately, many of the greying whites fear the changes taking place in America and react reflexively against them instead of embracing a certain future with support for change. Social service workers are in a unique position to bridge the gap between the grey and the brown. With the inherent skills set and competencies among human service professionals, including cultural competencies, it may be possible to build bridges between the grey and the brown instead of exacerbate the fissures. Human service professionals are frequently in direct contact with members of multiple groups, and have the potential to listen carefully to what each segment of society is saying, what their needs and fears are, and their vision for the future. Likewise, the human service professional can translate between these two groups and promote understanding to locate shared values. The human service professional can build those bridges directly when working with clients in a therapeutic setting, or can do so at the administrative or political level, advising leaders on administrative or public policy. Even just by viewing the grey and the brown in a positive light instead of seeing it as a culture clash, human service workers can advocate on behalf of both the grey and the brown. Human service workers may also be in a unique position to offer creative, innovative policy solutions or strategies that appeal to both the aging population of whites and the young leaders of tomorrow.
Government spending is going to be one of the key issues in the grey and the black phenomenon. Seniors will continue to support government spending on the services they need most such as pensions and Social Security or Medicare. Young people may not realize how important these features of the budget are, but can understand when they see how those issues impact their loved ones or members of their community. By the same token, young people might support investments into American transportation infrastructure that seniors do not recognize as being valuable, or into social services that help disadvantaged individuals have access to business loans and other opportunities that can help with upward social mobility and community self-empowerment. The human services worker can show seniors how their parents, grandparents, or even they themselves had opportunities that they took for granted as being universal: opportunities that are not necessarily available as readily to young people in America. In fact, attitudes towards immigration are one of the most polarizing of all grey and brown topics. When seniors come to realize that immigration policy impacted their own family histories in meaningful ways, they may see immigration policy in a new light.
Human services professionals have a responsibility to personalize the political issues in this way to help create harmony in the communities they serve. The private sector organizations that were started by whites who are now aging also need to contend with the younger, browner workforce. Organizations that respond by changing their organizational culture will thrive in the new era, adapting and responding to the changing demographic not just among their consumers but also among their employees. Until the young people of today do become leaders of tomorrow’s businesses, it will be critical to apply the tools of cultural sensitivity and cultural awareness, pushing back against backlash movements that stymie social progress and peace. It is possible that seniors feel threatened by young people and that whites feel threatened by people of color for upsetting the balance of power that had become entrenched in the society. It is also possible for seniors to see that the world as a whole has changed, and that collaboration and interdependence are the new normative standards in political culture and in social norms. Embracing the egalitarian norms of the future will resolve the tensions that do exist between various demographic cohorts in America.







References

Amos, J. (2010). The Gray and the Brown: The generational mismatch. https://all4ed.org/the-gray-and-the-brown-the-generational-mismatch/
Brownstein, R. (2015). Brown and grey dynamics. The Atlantic. 9 July, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/brown-and-gray-dynamics/432273/
Kottak, C. & Kozaitis, K. (2012). On Being Different: Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream, 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill.