minority

In Spanish Harlem, they looked at me and asked: ‘What are you?’

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I remember the first time I thought I might not be White.

I was about 8 years old, in my elementary school’s cafeteria. We had been learning about heritage in class that day, and everyone in my Michigan hometown, it seemed, had ancestors who came from Denmark or Holland. They were all blonde-haired and blue-eyed. I remember a classmate turned around and looked at me and said, “What are you?” “I’m a kid,” I answered, confused. “Just like you.”

“No,” was the reply. “I mean, what are you? Are you Italian? Indian?”

I was confused. “I’m an American,” I said, proudly. I knew my mom’s family went back in this country a long time, and had fought in the Revolutionary War. Why would I be Italian?

As I grew older, I became hyper-aware of my dark hair and dark eyes. Everyone in town—and in my family, it seemed—was tall, blonde, and blue- or green-eyed. They all had little ski-jump noses. My nose was big, round, and wide.

But my dad was a tall blonde Dutchman, and my mom always checked “White” or “Caucasian” on my school forms, and—why would I question my parents?—so I grew up White.

Except for the many, many times, White people did not accept me.

It gnawed at me, the question I received more and more the older I got: “What are you?”

By high school, I knew I wanted to go someplace where I didn’t stand out because of my features. Someplace where people looked like me. I chose New York City, where I instinctively knew there were people who looked like me, and where, I thought, no one would ask, “What are you?”

Mas…In Spanish Harlem, they looked at me and asked: ‘What are you?’

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Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

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immigrationscaleChina and India now top Mexico as leading sources of new immigrants to the United Estates, new data reveals.

What are the Pocho Ocho top changes we can expect from these evolving patterns in immigration?

8. Indian actors will replace Puerto Ricans playing Mexicans on TV

7. San Jose, California will be known as Sanjay, California

6. White people will be considered “the model minority”

Mas…Pocho Ocho changes to expect after Indios + Chinos > Mexicanos

Diversity sells, but Hollywood is overwhelmingly white, male (audio)

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hollywoodpromo300b“If you want an accurate picture of ethnic and gender diversity in the United States, don’t look to Hollywood,” says NPR.

That’s the conclusion of the “2015 Hollywood Diversity Report” conducted by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA.

The report quantifies the striking — if not surprising — racial and gender imbalances in film and television, both behind and in front of the camera, by comparing the representation of minorities to their actual proportions of the population.

“At every level, in every arena, women and minorities are under-represented in the industry,” says Darnell Hunt, the study’s co-author and director of the Bunche Center. “And the only question really is how serious, how egregious that level of under-representation is.”

Mas…Diversity sells, but Hollywood is overwhelmingly white, male (audio)

Local Latina mom tired of people suddenly caring about her, Latinos

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(PNS reporting from HOUSTON) María Solis is tired. Specifically, she’s tired of everybody suddenly caring about what she thinks — about anything at all.

Ever since the election and subsequent media obsession with the “Latino voter,” her  life has changed dramatically.

“It’s getting to be a bit much,” she told PNS in a Skype interview Thursday night. “I mean, now everyone is all considerate of my feelings about things. I keep getting asked what my thoughts on immigration reform or gun control are — I’ve had enough!”

Solis, mother of four-year-old fraternal twins Santino and Elise, misses the days when people would crack racist jokes in front of her and her Mexican-born mother as though they didn’t exist.

Mas…Local Latina mom tired of people suddenly caring about her, Latinos

Bain Capital’s Mal*Mart gives back to local communities (video)

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This short educational video from Mal★Mart (a Bain Capital subsidiary) explains how the retail chain is a good neighbor, supporting local communities and creating jobs all across America — with a smile. The case study features Latina entrepreneur Maria Muñoz of Maria’s Flan.

Al Madrigal, Jessica Williams to Jon Stewart: Minorities = lucky (video)

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Mitt Romney wishes he were a Latino because it would bring him advantages he didn’t have as a rich white kid from the suburbs. On The Daily Show, POCHO Migrant Editor Al Madrigal and his minority TDS office-mate Jessica Williams explain to Jon Stewart how that works.

Campus life changes as Latino enrollment hits new levels

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Latinos are now the largest minority group at four-year colleges in the U.S., according to analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, and that means big changes on campuses across the country.

While Latinos have long dominated various educational institutions, especially cosmetology schools and East L.A. College, the influx of brown students has already had an affect on traditional university life.

Some colleges have considered updating the cap and gown, replacing them with sombreros and serapes from Mexico, and the Ivy League has floated a new name, “The Cilantro League,” for use if the Ancient Eight ever starts admitting more than 260 Latinos a year.

Mas…Campus life changes as Latino enrollment hits new levels

American Census Shocker Part II: Interview with a minority baby

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Non-white births now make up a majority of all births in the United States and racist anti-immigrants are pooping mad. The most elder of them, Phyllis Schlafly, an ancient anti-feminist relic, has actually come out of her dusty display case and made a pronouncement through her right-wing conservative group, The Eagle Forum, decrying the surge of unpatriotic minority babies. From their website:

It is not a good thing. The immigrants do not share American values, so it is a good bet that they will not be voting Republican when they start voting in large numbers.

They go on to accuse non-white immigrants and their offspring of having:

…high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps.

To find out if the threat entering this country from non-white birth canals is indeed dangerous, I interviewed a minority baby myself:

Mas…American Census Shocker Part II: Interview with a minority baby

American Census Shocker! Minority babies invading U.S. from Vagistan

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(PNS reporting from WASHINGTON, D.C.) Census figures indicate that minorities make up over half the births of babies in the United States for the first time since the Pilgrims reluctantly started having sex.

These new minority babies will be able to outvote white babies in local and national baby elections, and this has white baby proponents terrified.

White mothers all over the U.S. have been reporting the births of unexplainable brown babies.

“It’s like there a brown horde erupting from inside us,” reported one hysterical white mother, Mrs. while being eyed by her suspicious white husband. Their nearby sexy gardener Julio Ramirez had no comment.

Mas…American Census Shocker! Minority babies invading U.S. from Vagistan