2010 census estimates show Texas poised to be a majority-minority state

From The Odessa American

Texas will officially become a majority-minority state for the first time based on 2010 census estimates. The switch occurred in 2005 and its source includes both Hispanic immigration from Mexico as well as black migration from other parts of the United States.

Texas joins Hawaii, California, New Mexico and the District of Columbia as states and a federal district lacking a majority of whites who are not Hispanic. Eight more states, led by Arizona, Maryland, Nevada and Georgia, have shares of non-Hispanic whites nearing the tipping point of 50 percent.

The Southern U.S. region — primarily metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Charlotte, N.C. — accounted for roughly 75 percent of the population gains among blacks since 2000, up from 65 percent in the 1990s, according to the latest census estimates. The gains came primarily at the expense of Northern metro areas such as New York and Chicago, which posted their first declines in black population since at least 1980.

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President Manny Puga said demographic changes were changing many different aspects of life. “Almost 65 percent of all new businesses are being opened by Hispanics today,” Puga said. Additionally, there has been an increase in talk shows aimed at Hispanics and a new bilingual newspaper set to be opened by Dos Mundos Newspaper in the spring, Puga said.

LULAC representative Carol Uranga said the population increase comes mainly from Mexicans coming legally to Texas from Mexico and participating in the census. However, there are also some Mexicans and Mexican-Americans coming from other states for jobs, Uranga said. “I don’t know that we’ve seen a drastic change,” Uranga said of the population shift’s impact.

Despite the increasing numbers, there has not been a lot of political activism from the Hispanic community, which Puga said was due to a lack of political activism in Mexico. And many first-generation immigrants continued that trend in the United States. “They really don’t believe in that system,” Puga said.Puga said that trend might change with subsequent generations.