Sean Callebs, CNN, May 22, 2009
U.S. communities are changing complexion as ethnic diversity grows in the American heartland.
Though not new in California, Arizona, Texas or Florida, the change of demographics is a bit more surprising in southwest Kansas.
Finney County, Kansas, is one of six counties across the nation that became majority-minority between 2007 and 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau recently announced. The agency defines majority-minority as a county where more than half the population is made up of a group that is not single-race, non-Hispanic white.
Nearly 10 percent (309) of the nation’s 3,142 counties were majority-minority as of July 1, 2008.
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“It’s just another melting pot you know,” Cruz [Tim Cruz, former mayor of Garden City, largest city in Finney County] says. “It makes it nice to have those different cultures. And sure they’re different—we have to understand what they celebrate and why they do it.”
In the last couple of decades, massive meatpacking plants in Garden City have drawn workers from Southeast Asia and Somalia.
You can smell the major industry of Garden City before you actually reach it and the stockyards that feed the meatpacking plants have their own unmistakable odor.
{snip}
At the Alta Brown Elementary School, the native language of about half of the 409 students is something other than English.
Cruz’s wife of 26 years, Penny Cruz, teaches English as a second language there. In one class, she leads four kids in a card game of “Go Fish” to help them grasp their new language. Five-year-old Robert is from Burma and has only been in the country a few months. His grasp of English at this stage is mostly mimicry. If the teacher says, “Robert,” he’ll smile broadly and repeat his name.
Penny Cruz says the town is getting more and more diverse, adding, “I think we all blend together and get along. There are ups and downs but for the most part I think we’re all pretty accepting of whoever comes into our community and into our classrooms.”
But not all of Finney County’s some 41,000 residents are thrilled by the increasing cultural diversity.
The day before public schools let out for the summer, teenagers of all colors were skateboarding, tossing a football, and kicking around a ball in Finney Park. Teacher Linda Turner admits while she’s cooking hamburgers for the kids that she’s heard some complaints about the area’s newest residents.
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But much of the United States is looking more like Garden City. New census figures show more than one-third of the people in the United States are non-white and a staggering 47 percent of the population under the age of 5 are a minority.
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This Midwest enclave, home to hamburgers and hot dogs, is giving way to Vietnamese pho, or Mexican tacos.
Police Chief James Hawkins admits communication with some residents can be a problem for his officers. Hawkins, a 25-year veteran of the force, has nine Hispanic officers on a staff of 58. Not enough he says, but he’s trying to add more diversity.
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“We catch them trying to tell their kids they don’t need to go to college because this is a good life,” Cruz says. “We have to help educate them saying, ‘No, there is even a better life than doing this and your kids can get to do that.’ “
Cruz seems most pleased that his sleepy small town, is just that, and not rife with racial and ethnic tension and violence.
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Original article
(Posted on May 22, 2009)
Comments
Speaking of Kansas, the Police Chief in Topeka asked that we not call his city a “sanctuary city” simply because his city refuses to cooperate with ICE on immigration issues. His reasoning is that the Feds can still enforce immigration law in Topeka or any similar sanctuary city. Of course the concept of the Feds enforcing immigration law is an oxymoron, so that only leaves sanctuary city.
Is Topeka getting more and more Hispanic? It’s a state capital, so most of its whites are probably big time libs.
To Paul Gottfried and Richard Spencer:White Nationalism is not an abstraction. It is not a debate about political abstractions. It is a politcal movement to halt and reverse the race replacement of Native Born White Americans town by town,county by county state by state..and the nation as whole.
Possibly a large number of non-whites can be conveted to the conservative free market economics of Ron Paul. However, Native Born White Americans will over time be reduced to a very small racial minority within the borders of America,economically marginalized and viciously-violently discriminated against. White Nationalism is a movement that at its core rejectionist against race replacement.
An aracial political strategy for Native Born White Americans is a blueprint for race-replacement. It is manifestly suicidal.
Finney County, Kansas is where the events depicted in the book/movie In Cold Blood (and, hence, Capote ) occurred. Kansas is now 8.8% Hispanic overall.
“I think we all blend together and get along. There are ups and downs but for the most part I think we’re all pretty accepting of whoever comes into our community and into our classrooms.”
How many times have you read this?
Endless self-delusion.
These people are desperate to believe that the reality they see is only a minor obstacle to the greatness that’s to come instead of seeing it as the precursor to the living hell.
It’s not going to get better because they BELIEVE it SHOULD. It’s only going to get worse.
White Nationalism should be thought of in real- world- blood- and guts soil-genes terms. It is a extremly powerfull feeling in the gut against the race-replacement of Native Born White Americans at the hands of post-1965 hispanics,asians,muslims and africans. This is feling is at the wick-of-being of every White Nationalist.
If Paul Gottfried wants to understand White Nationalism,he should start reading the comments on American Renassaince.
And for Richard Spencer:Are you opposed to the race-replacement of Native Born White Americans at the hands of post-1965 hispanics,asians,muslims and africans?If you answer yes to this question…you have entered into to the benthic realm of White Nationalism. You know you are a White Nationalist if….
“New census figures show more than one-third of the people in the United States are non-white and a staggering 47 percent of the population under the age of 5 are a minority.”
And when the so-called “minority” under 5s are 51 percent? Will they use the Orwellian term “Majority minority”? How about “Minority majority”?
White people are less than 15% of the population of the EARTH, so WE are the true minority. When did we decide that we wanted to give up our own countries to the third world? When did we get a vote on any of this?
That is the fundamental question we must all keep asking, over and over, every time some Left wing liberal idiot tries to tell us WE are in the wrong, for wanting to save our countries from certain destruction at the hands of the third world hoardes.
When did we get a vote on any of this?
We have had one all along but not all of us avail ourselves of the right to vote. I hope everyone joins me this election term for Congress and Senate to vote against ALL incumbents and get new, non professional politicians into the various public offices which will be open for election shortly. THIS IS WHY Congress is APPEARING to do what the voters want, if they are re-elected it will be back to business as usual. VOTEMOUT!!!
more than one-third of the people in the United States are non-white and a staggering 47 percent of the population under the age of 5 are a minority.”
Orwellian indeed! That is the perfect description for this idiocy. Sheer double-talk. Anything to make us think that we are still in control (of our own destinies). Any comforting euphemisms to conceal from us the fact that we are rapidly losing control.
“not all of us avail ourselves of the right to vote. I hope everyone joins me this election term for Congress and Senate to vote against ALL incumbents and get new, non professional politicians [into office] “
But, on major issues, most of what is offered will be just more of the same, regardless of incumbency or party. Candidates will not even get onto the ballot if they are not screened and pre-approved.
So, our action has to go deeper than merely voting (once again) for either Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum. Voting, as it exists now, is largely an exercise in futility. It mollifies the electorate by giving them the impression that we have some voice in choosing our representatives. In reality, we have very little. Before we choose candidates for the office, we have to look at WHO chooses the candidates for the ballot.
“I think we all blend together and get along. There are ups and downs but for the most part I think we’re all pretty accepting of whoever comes into our community and into our classrooms.”
How many times have you read this? Endless self-delusion.
These people are desperate to believe that the reality they see is only a minor obstacle to the greatness that’s to come …
Question Diversity.
Yes, it is definitely becoming more Hispanic. I’m a bit of a cheapskate and don’t like to pay tolls, so I take K-10 through Lawrence (yuck!!) and connect with Hwy. 40 which becomes SE 6th in Topeka. SE 6th,for blocks and blocks, looks like east LA. One thing I couldn’t figure out is why Jefferson City is such a Republican bulwark in Missouri. In fact Cole County is only one of just a handful of MO counties that went for Goldwater in 1964.
exkc:
Even though Cole County contains the state capital, it is surprisingly non-liberal. The reason is that liberal state workers tend to cross the river and live in Boone County, which contains Columbia and the University of Missouri, so all the big time lib profs live in Boone County. Boone is reliably blue. The state workers are merely attracted to their own kin.
“New census figures show more than one-third of the people in the United States are non-white and a staggering 47 percent of the population under the age of 5 are a minority.”
This is not true. Mainstream media routinely equates “caucasian” with “white”, but in reality whites are only about 70-75% of the caucasians in USA. This means that USA right now is a bit less than 50% white. If 53% of all kids under 5 in the USA are caucasians, that means that a bit less than ~40% of all kids below 5 in the USA are whites. The caucasian racial category only exists in USA.
‘The caucasian racial category only exists in USA. ‘
say what?
Caucasian is a scientific term. If a person is a non-white caucasian what race are they?
The Hispanic majority in Finney County is caused by the meat packing plants in Garden City. The cheap meats America enjoys comes at a large price- our national ethnic character. Blame Finney’s woes on agribusiness.
Cau·ca·sian (kô-kzhn, -kzhn)
Mayor Cruz is a liar and a hypocrite. I’ve worked in the cattle feeding industry for the last 20 years, been to Garden City numerous times, and there is a LOT of violence, racial tension, etc. A poster above mentioned the “Hispanic” chollo majority, but there are also quite a few Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian workers at the plants, as well as Burmese and Somali’s. Garden City can be a very scary place for small town America. Last time I went, I drove 4 hours up there, did my work, and drove 4 hours home so I wouldn’t have to spent the night.
Question Diversity
I have been noticing that la-la land is creeping,slowly but surely in your old neck of the woods. Specifically, on the Rock Rd. between roughly Cypress and 170. I’ve been seeing more and more bodegas and businesses with Spanish on their signs. Holy Trinity parish in St. Ann has begun offering masses in Spanish and the Wal Mart down the road is beginning to cater to their new “customers.” I don’t know what part of the area where you resided, but have you noticed it? My friends and family in that area seem indifferent because the lion’s share of their leeriness is directed toward blacks and also, I think, because the Mexican presence isn’t at the in-your-face level just yet.
exkc:
This must have been happening recently, b/c I was only aware of that area as being creeping ghetto. That Wal-Mart of which you speak has been right up there with the Ferguson one as the scariest in St. Louis.
I lived in south city. The closest Hispanic conclave to where I used to live was Cherokee Street. St. Louis news websites tonight reported that there was a lot of cheering and pride about one Miss Sotomayor on Cherokee Street, even though that’s mostly Mexican and Central American, while Miss Sotomayor is Puerto Rican.
