The New American Palette

Published in Estadao
(Brazil) on 2 May 2010
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Jon Gneezy. Edited by Gheanna Emelia.
Last month, on Apr. 23, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a xenophobic law passed only days earlier by the Arizona State Senate. She made illegal immigration an Arizona State crime, authorized police to demand papers validating immigration status from whomever they want, whenever they want, and summarily arrest those without papers.

For critics, this transforms Arizona into a “police state,” where 30 percent of the 6.5 million inhabitants are Hispanic. It's estimated that those without papers — the majority of which are of Mexican origin — number 460,000. President Barack Obama said that the law was “poorly conceived and not the right way to go.” The Department of Justice will debate the law’s constitutionality.

Outrage towards the law gave new urgency to immigration reform, which has been a topic of discussion in the Capitol since the Bush years, and put off to the side by Obama while he tries to reform the health care system.

The [Arizona] law also drew attention by emerging just weeks before the American Decennial Census, whose results could confirm the acceleration of the “browning” of the country. It is projected that — due to the current demographic upheaval in progress — the United States will no longer be a nation of “white people with blue eyes” majority by the year 2040, as denoted by [Brazilian] President Lula.

Caucasians are no longer the majority in Texas, California, Hawaii and New Mexico. In Texas and California, Latinos account for around 60 percent of population growth over the last two years — and 50 percent in the entire country.

Awaiting census data confirmation, the number of these so-called “minority-majority states” could surpass a dozen. Due to the new demographic balance, some of them — such as Texas, Florida and six others — could win up to four new seats in Congress at the expense of 11 states that have seen a decrease in population, such as Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. It is impossible to underestimate the political effects of this trend — mainly in that it corresponds to a commensurate increase in the Hispanic population.

Latinos represent 15 percent of the population, totaling 307 million Americans (and will increase to 30 percent by 2050), but their electoral participation was only 50 percent in the last presidential race, compared to the 66 percent voter participation by whites.

Politically, there are three principal effects of the census. Besides altering the composition of the U.S. House of Representatives and the electoral college, it serves to restructure the electoral districts in each state — or, as the cynics say, to let Democrats and Republicans consolidate their respective strongholds.

Similar to Brazil, the federal government bases the distribution of resources to states and municipalities based on census figures. In the regions that rival the traditional, non-Hispanic white majority, minorities, by participating more actively in the political process, can push for a growing portion of the resources.

San Antonio, Texas, is the principal American city with a Hispanic majority, and that has previously elected three Hispanic mayors. The State of Texas, on the whole, could elect its first Hispanic governor in 2016 or as early as 2012, despite attitudes that state public institutions “were all created by whites for whites,” notes sociologist Stephen Klineberg of Houston's Rice University [also Co-Director of Rice's Institute for Urban Research and director of the annual "Houston Area Survey"]. This could be the “peaceful reconquest” that Mexican immigrants and their descendants speak of, referring to the annexation of the territory by the United States in 1836.

The results of a survey revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau last week show that, in a period of 27 years ending in 2007, the proportion of the population that speaks Spanish at home rose to 211 percent – six times more than that of English. The thought of the Hispanicization of the United States makes American conservatives bristle, and feeds what is called “hysterical nativism.”

This Hispanicization of the United States has fueled actions that include those of vigilantes — militias that hunt illegal immigrants in the regions on the border with Mexico — to the fierce legislation that was just passed against them in Arizona. Unless all Hispanics disappear, the demographic revolution will continue to change the palette of American society.


No último dia 23, a governadora republicana do Arizona, Jan Brewer, promulgou uma xenófoba lei de iniciativa de seus correligionários. Ela torna a imigração ilegal crime no Estado, autoriza a polícia a exigir de quem quer que seja, a qualquer momento, documentos que atestem a sua condição e determina sumariamente a prisão dos sem-papéis. Para os críticos, o texto transforma em "estado policial" o Arizona, onde 30% dos 6,5 milhões de habitantes são hispânicos e se calcula que os indocumentados, a maioria de origem mexicana, somem 460 mil. O presidente Barack Obama disse que a lei "foi mal concebida e mal encaminhada". O Departamento de Justiça poderá arguir a sua inconstitucionalidade.

O ultraje deu nova urgência à reforma migratória entalada no Capitólio desde os anos Bush e mantida no limbo por Obama enquanto tentava reformar o sistema de saúde pública. O caso também atraiu a atenção por surgir semanas depois da realização do Censo Decenal Americano, cujos resultados devem comprovar que se acelera o "amorenamento" do país. Calcula-se que, por força da revolução demográfica em curso, em 2040 os Estados Unidos deixarão de ser uma nação de maioria "branca de olhos azuis", como diria o presidente Lula. Isso já é realidade no Texas, Califórnia, Havaí e Novo México. Nos dois primeiros, os latinos respondem por cerca de 60% do aumento populacional ao longo dos últimos 10 anos - e 50% no país inteiro.

Ao que se espera do Censo, tais "Estados de minoria-majoritária", como são chamados, poderão ultrapassar uma dezena. Devido ao novo balanço demográfico, alguns deles, como o Texas e talvez a Flórida, além de 6 outros, ganharão até 4 novas cadeiras no Congresso, em detrimento de 11 Estados que perderam população, entre eles Massachusetts, Nova York e New Jersey. Impossível subestimar os efeitos políticos dessa tendência - principalmente se a ela corresponder um aumento comensurável do eleitorado hispânico. Os latinos representam 15% dos atuais 307 milhões de americanos (e serão 30% do total em 2050), mas a sua participação eleitoral nesse país de voto facultativo foi de apenas 50% no último pleito presidencial, ante 66% dos brancos.

Politicamente, são três os principais efeitos dos censos. Além de alterar a composição das bancadas na Câmara dos Representantes e no colegiado que elege o presidente da República, servem para o redesenho dos distritos eleitorais em cada Estado - ou, dizem os cínicos, para que democratas e republicanos conservem os seus respectivos redutos. Por fim, como no Brasil, é com base no Censo que o governo federal redistribui recursos aos Estados e municípios. Nas unidades onde rivalizam com a tradicional maioria branca não-hispânica, as minorias, participando mais ativamente do processo político, poderão pressionar por parcela crescente dos recursos.

No Texas, que até agora só elegeu 3 prefeitos latinos em San Antonio, a principal cidade americana onde são maioria, e que poderá eleger o seu primeiro governador hispânico em 2016, se não em 2012, as instituições públicas estaduais "foram todas criadas por anglos para anglos", diz o sociólogo Stephen Klineberg, da Universidade Rice, em Houston. "Isso terá de mudar." Será a "reconquista pacífica" de que falam os imigrantes mexicanos e seus descendentes, referindo-se à anexação do território, pelos Estados Unidos, em 1836.

A propósito, um levantamento do Escritório do Censo, divulgado esta semana, mostra que, no período de 27 anos terminado em 2007, a parcela da população do país que fala espanhol em casa aumentou 211% - 6 vezes mais do que no caso da língua inglesa. A hispanização dos EUA arrepia a direita americana e insufla o que já se chamou "nativismo histérico". Isso inclui desde as ações dos vigilantes - milícias de caça a imigrantes ilegais nas regiões de fronteira com o México - à feroz legislação que acaba de ser adotada contra eles no Arizona. Ainda que todos se evaporassem, porém, a revolução demográfica prosseguiria, mudando a paleta da sociedade americana.
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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1 COMMENT

  1. You know, Arizona is taking a lot of heat by passing a law, in an attempt to do the U.S. federal government’s job, that the feds refuse to do, regardless of their oaths of office.

    I suggest that the next state (and there will be others) to finally take matters into their own hands, simply adopt Mexico’s illegal alien laws.

    Then illegals will be arrested and jailed if caught working in the country without the proper papers…individuals WILL be stopped on the street randomly, in order to determine their visa or green card status (the Arizona law does not allow this, although that misinformation has been widely circulated)…and when criticized for not erasing their borders and allowing anybody on Earth to waltz laughingly into the country as though it were no country at all (which is what you REALLY want, right?), the State can simply point to Mexico and say, “Hey!…we got our laws from them!”

    We are a sovereign nation, no matter how much that galls the rest of the world. We are struggling right now, with turncoat traitors in our federal government, and a massive movement among the populace to throw every incumbent politician out of power, regardless of party affiliation, is already gaining momentum…the citizens of the U.S. are tired of our interests being subjugated by so-called “representatives” that are only interested in their own self-gain.

    This may get very ugly before it’s over. The Arizona law is a mild and lenient piece of legislation, compared to the laws of countries that criticize it, even though it’s none of their business.

    Remember, this is not over.