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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 21, 2012 Population turning point: Nonwhite parents account for more than half of recent U.S. births![]() ![]() Look for coverage of a minority group resident, worker or business executive in your community or elsewhere. Is race the main focus or not mentioned?
![]() Now try to find an article reflecting cultural diversity – an example of food, entertainment or art that shows your area or state has people of many backgrounds.
![]() Race and ethnicity can be sensitive topics. Is there a news story that reflects this, such as one about immigration policies or the Florida shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin?
The Census Bureau has eye-opening news: White newborns no longer are a majority in this country. Hispanics, blacks, Asians and mixed-race parents accounted for 50.4 percent of births in the statistical year ending last July -- "a milestone for a nation whose government was founded by white Europeans," as The New York Times said after last week's report. In 1990, births to minority group parents were 37 percent of the total.
Whites remain a large majority overall. The last national Census counted more than 114 million Americans who are racial and ethnic minority group members, or 36.6 percent of the total population in 2010. Those groups currently make up a majority of residents in four states -– Hawaii (77 percent), California (60 percent), New Mexico (60 percent) and Texas (55 percent).
The trend toward greater minority births has been building for years as large numbers of immigrants arrived since the 1980s. Hispanics make up the majority of immigrants, and they tend to be younger -- and to have more children -- than non-Hispanic whites. Experts see the new data as an important turning point for the economy, politics and America's identity. "If the U.S. depended on white births alone, we’d be dead. Without the [income tax and Social Security] contributions from all these other groups, we would become too top-heavy with old people," notes Dowell Myers, a University of Southern California professor.
Front Page Talking Points is written by
Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024
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