Race and Ethnicity Upon American

¶ … Race and Ethnicity Upon American Society

The impact of race and ethnicity upon American society is a much-debated topic. The one fact that cannot be denied is that the rapidly increasing minority populations will have a cumulative effect in changing the broad demographic patterns manifest in the United States today. Projecting to the year 2015, the United States Census Bureau suggests that America will still remain predominantly 'white' but that other groups will continue to "increase disproportionately," creating a more diverse and multiethnic and racial 'face' of the 'typical' American. (O'Neil, 2006)

The greater influx of Asian and particularly Latino immigrants means that even traditional conceptions of understanding racial conflicts must come into question. "Perhaps the most dramatic result of these changing population trends during the last few years has been that African-Americans were replaced by Hispanics as the largest minority group. This change is a result of large numbers of immigrants entering the country from Latin America and high birth rates among Hispanics." (O'Neil, 2006) America is not simply more populated by non-whites; it is also growing more diverse in its nonwhite populations.

The growing statistical prominence of American minority group is not always reflected in greater political or economic power for historically disenfranchised groups. True, African-Americans, for example, have rose to prominence in the persons of the Secretary of State and amongst leading presidential candidates. But of the 1.7 million people living below the poverty line in 2002, according to one report by the Children's Defense Fund, the percentage of poor Black Americans rose from 22.7% to 24.1% in one year, and of the 400,000 children who crossed the line into poverty in the year 2000, more than half were Latino. (Darden, 2003) The contributions of minorities to creating a more rich and multifaceted cultural fabric, evidenced in everything from salsa music to jazz to the proliferation of Thai take-out in the Midwest is testimony to the lasting and continuing positive impact of immigrant groups upon American life, but America has not always rewarded minority groups with equal access to civil rights, housing, education, and other critical aspects of life necessary to secure the American dream.

Indeed, Affirmative Action is becoming more questioned, rather than accepted, in modern America, given recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the issue, such as its judgment upon the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions policy. Even stereotypes such as the idea that "Blacks are strongly associated with criminality," still have a pervasive hold as was denoted in one recent study where "when exposed to crime-relevant objects," perceivers visually attended more "to Black faces more so than White faces. Alternatively, the mere presence of a Black face enhances perceivers' ability to detect degraded images of crime-relevant objects." (Eberhardt, 2006)