O Tempora, O Mores! (March, 2011)

Naval Diversity

Rear Admiral Anthony Winns, who is black, is inspector general of the US Navy. In a recent interview, Admiral Winns talked about how to improve the service:

Diversity is a strategic imperative for the United States Navy. We defend the greatest nation in the world . . . [G]iven the changing demographics, if an organization like the United States Navy wants to be relevant and wants to tap the most talented and the best and brightest — who are our most precious resources — then you have to go where the talent is.

Diversity is critical to mission accomplishment. We’ve got to access, mentor and retain the best talent available. New ideas and diversity of thought are vital to getting your goals accomplished in any organization, and it’s no different in the United States Navy. [Luke Visconti, The Future of the Navy Lies in Diversity, DiversityInc, com, Jan. 19, 2011.]

Illegally Expensive

According to Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, welfare payments to the children of illegal aliens cost county taxpayers $600 million in 2010. Add law enforcement and medical costs, and the total comes to more than $1.6 billion, “not including the hundreds of millions of dollars for education,” he says.

Isabel Alegria, communications director at the California Immigrant Policy Center, says it’s unfair to lump together the costs of illegal immigrants and their US-born offspring. “Those children are US citizens, children eligible for those programs,” she says.

Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell points out that it is illegal alien parents who collect the money on behalf of their children, and that they are a “burden” on all taxpayers, including legal immigrants. “The problem is illegal immigration. Their parents evidently immigrated here in order to get on social services. We can no longer afford to be HMO to the world.”

A study released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform last summer put the total cost of illegals to US taxpayers at $113 billion, with California’s share coming to $21.8 billion. [Welfare Tab for Children of Illegal Immigrants Estimated at $600M in LA County, Fox News, Jan. 19, 2011.]

Smart and Serious

Older readers will remember the 1970s television program, Charlie’s Angels, which was about three beautiful, resourceful, and tough female private detectives who worked for a mysterious, unseen employer. The show starred white actresses Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith, and most notably, Farrah Fawcett, in the role that made her famous.

ABC is bringing “Charlie’s Angels” back to television this year, and while the premise is the same, some things have changed. The location is Miami rather than Southern California, and the role of Kate, the leader, will be played by black soap opera actress Annie Ilonzeh. She is “a smart and athletic ex-policewoman who is a master of martial arts.” She’s also “the most serious [of the angels] but also knows how to let her hair down and have a great time.” The other two roles have yet to be cast, but the Miami setting and name of one, Marissa, suggests a Hispanic. [General Hospital Star Annie Ilonzeh is First to be Cast in New Charlie’s Angels TV Series, Daily Mail (London), Jan. 21, 2011.]

Mandatory Arabic Hits a Snag

The US Department of Education considers Arabic a “language of the future.” Last summer it awarded five school districts five-year, $1.3 million grants for classes in Arabic language and culture. One of the districts was the Mansfield Independent School District in Mansfield, Texas. Arabic classes would be optional at most schools, but mandatory at two: Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School.

Most parents weren’t happy when they heard about the plans. Some didn’t want the classes to be mandatory, while others thought they would promote Islam. Superintendent Bob Morrison says the classes will not teach religion. According to the grant, however, the curriculum covers government, art, traditions, and history, and will almost certainly touch on Islam. “The school doesn’t teach Christianity, so I don’t want them teaching Islam,” says parent Baron Kane.

Middle Eastern immigrant Kheirieh Hannun welcomes the classes, believing they will help her son learn more about his culture and “broaden the minds” of others. Parent Trisha Savage agrees. “I think it’s a great opportunity that will open doors. We need to think globally and act locally.”

Twenty-four hours after news of the mandatory Arabic classes broke in the Dallas media, the Mansfield district announced it was putting the program on hold until it heard more from parents, and hinted it may decide to return the grant. [Mansfield Arabic Program On Hold, KTVT -TV (Dallas), Feb. 8, 2010.]

White Decline

Whites are getting closer to becoming a minority. Several states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas, along with the District of Columbia — are already “majority minority.” Nationwide, more than half of children three and under are non-white. White children are a minority in nursery schools, preschools and kindergartens in eight states — the four above, plus Mississippi, Arizona, Florida and Nevada — and will soon be in Georgia, Louisiana and Maryland.

As recently as 2000, whites made up 64.6 percent of all school enrollments, from preschool to graduate school. In 2009, that number had fallen to 58.8 percent. Brookings Institution demographer William Frey notes that the country is experiencing the biggest surge in immigration since the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, and that nearly all of the population growth is non-white, primarily Hispanic. Hispanics, for example, now account for 23 percent of US kindergartners, up from just 10 percent in 1989, and are nearly a fifth of all school enrollments from nursery school to college. [Sabrina Tavernise, Among Nation’s Youngest, Analysis Finds Fewer Whites, New York Times, Feb. 7, 2011.]

A recent study from the Pew Hispanic Center found that eight percent (350,000) of US newborns from March 2009 to March 2010 had at least one illegal alien parent. Of the illegal aliens giving birth during that period, nine percent had arrived in the US in 2008 or later, 30 percent had arrived between 2004 and 2007, with the rest before 2004. The study also found that 17 percent of newborns had parents who are legal immigrants, which means that 25 percent of US births were to foreigners, but all the babies were granted US citizenship. [Pew Hispanic Center: Eight Percent of U.S. Newborns are to Illegal Aliens, Foundation for Immigration Reform Legislative Update, Feb. 7, 2011.]

Diplomatic Quotas

Although Brazil is majority-black, it’s diplomatic corps is overwhelmingly white. In order to diversify the corps, in 2002 the Foreign Ministry began awarding scholarships to black students applying to the diplomatic academy. The scholarships haven’t helped — only 16 of the 200 recipients have actually entered the foreign service — so the Foreign Ministry will now try quotas. Beginning this year, at least 10 percent of the 300 applicants who pass the initial testing stage for admission into the academy must be black. [Brazil Sets Quota for Black Diplomatic Students, AP, Dec. 29, 2010.]