August 15, 2008 9:05 AM
Census projections that non-Hispanic Whites will be a minority in 2042 have set off some hand wringing among the more race conscious parts of the American polity. Of course, this development will only be a problem for White Americans if the last two years of heightened anti-Latino bigotry is porjected forward into the mid-21st Century.
My experience is that younger people just don't see race as the sharp distinction that those of my generation have ingrained. They are well equipped, whether they are White, Latino, African American, or otherwise to thrive in a multi-racial America. In fact, given the willingness of many young people to form families across traditional racial lines, the whole concept of race itself is likely to be blurred by 2042.
My mom liked to remind me that in her day a "mixed marriage" was one in which an Irish Catholic married an Italian Catholic. Half a century later the whole notion that such a union could set tongues a waggin' draws bemused head shakes from anyone under fifty. Younger people, of all races, live in a world pointing to a breakdown of racial walls.
Now what could derail this is the sort of momentary racial opportunism of politicians like Steve Levy who stir up anti-Latino sentiment for political gain. These pols inflict psychological damage on the very Latinos who will help forge the emerging minority-majority thirty four years from now. The Levyites constantly remind Latino young people that they are not part of the current majority and that they are unwelcome here at the very moment that wise leaders would be working to de-emphasize the divisiveness of race.
Long Island's future lies not in sharpening the racial divide, but in eradicating it. That is what today's immigrants want and that is what our leaders need to realize.