{"id":8485,"date":"2021-08-21T02:13:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=8485"},"modified":"2021-08-21T02:14:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T12:14:00","slug":"diversity-like-hawaiis-not-yet-but-the-new-america-is-here-plus-diversity-deniers-january-sixing-of-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/08\/21\/diversity-like-hawaiis-not-yet-but-the-new-america-is-here-plus-diversity-deniers-january-sixing-of-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity Like Hawaii\u2019s? Not Yet but The New America Is Here; Plus, Diversity Deniers\u2019 January Sixing\u201d of California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo<\/em>

I know Hawaii is different. The Aloha State has the highest diversity index score in the country at 76%. That\u2019s the probability that two people chosen at random would be of different racial and ethnic groups.\u00a0

The nation as a whole just reached 61.1%. But that\u2019s up from 54.9% in 2010.\u00a0The trend is in.

While White Americans are working on their tans on the beach this summer, the best news last week is that the country is \u201cbrowning\u201d on its own.

I have been waiting for this moment since I first heard of the phrase \u201cdiversity,\u201d or the idea of \u201cminorities becoming the majority\u201d in the 1980s.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And now according to the Census, we are here about eight years sooner than demographers expected.

Our population is up by 24 million people to more than 331 million.Whites are still 58% of the nation\u2019s population. But Whites are in decline by 2.6%, due to aging and low birth rates.

We are at the tipping point as Asians are up 36%; Hispanics, 23%; Blacks 6%.

Meanwhile, the multi-racial category, what I like to call the \u201crace, plus 1\u201d number more than tripled to 33.8 million from 9 million people in 2010, making it the fastest-growing group of all.It really is the browning of America. Or the loving of America.

People are suspicious of the numbers because you are what you say you are on the Census. And maybe there are just more people getting those DNA tests claiming white plus 1.

But it can also indicate increases in mixed-race marriages and children. I know, I contributed three children.

When I first started talking to demographers about this in 2000 on my television show, New California Media (later New America Media), they noted that when young people start showing a love interest in one another, we would, as the song says, \u201ccome together\u201d as a country.

More than 20 years later, I\u2019m astonished at how na\u00efve I was to think that the embrace of diversity would be so loving. Young people have, yes. But the overall picture of a new America to another segment of our country seems to only fan xenophobic fears and create division.

It didn\u2019t have to be this way, but discrimination dies hard in America.

I thought in 2016, the GOP had come to its senses when it published a full blueprint of a big tent diversity strategy. Everyone was on board.

And then Trump came down that escalator and started his campaign. Love turned to fear, and the GOP couldn\u2019t shred that diversity document fast enough as Trump became the figurehead of the party.

That was the Faustian deal the GOP made, and it has forged a resistance to diversity that has led to a not-so-subtle push to roll back the last 50 years of our movement for equality.

As America becomes more diverse, the Republican response has been to shape a society that limits democracy, like the opportunity to vote.

That\u2019s the best the GOP can do \u2013 to resist and deny. Sound familiar?

First climate, then Covid, and now the Census. The three C\u2019s.

Watch for right-wing repudiation of the new Census numbers to become the expression of outright \u201cDiversity Denial.\u201d

While I celebrate the numbers, people like me are being accused of celebrating the \u201cextinction of white people,\u201d as Fox\u2019s Tucker Carlson put it on his show on Friday.

Considering the amount of make-up he wears on his show, he should be more open to the browning of America.No one is celebrating the demise of white people. Or hate. Diversity isn\u2019t about white extinction. It\u2019s merely observing the change in our country. Minorities are younger and having babies.

A 36% increase in Asian Americans is a celebratory milestone in the evolution of diversity in this country.

But I\u2019m dismayed that there are folks who don\u2019t like this natural shift and want to see America go back to the demographics of the 1950s. All-white? How are you going to do that? Sell skin whitening creams? Start white baby farms in the South, pumped up with fertility drugs?

We\u2019ll see whether anti-diversity forces can manipulate the numbers in the gerrymandering to come. We may see new districts resemble new amoebic shapes to get the results pols want.

But there are also other ways folks can wreak havoc on our democracy.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The recall effort on Gavin Newsom in California is a big part of that.

The \u201cJanuary Sixing\u201d of California
<\/strong>Newsom started his \u201cNo on Recall\u201d campaign on August 13. A \u201cno\u201d vote would retain Newsom.

One LA Times poll shows that 47% want the recall vs 50% who say no. That\u2019s way too close with a month to go before the Sept. 14th election. Despite California\u2019s large Democratic base, an off-year election and voter apathy may be enough to sink the governor.

I knew Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco. We\u2019re not \u201cfriends,\u201d but we\u2019re professional acquaintances. I know he\u2019s shown up for the AAPI community in the past. I last saw him in person more than four years ago at the funeral mass of Alice Bulos, whom I call the \u201cgodmother of AAPI politics\u201d in the Bay Area.

This week, Newsom had a special AAPI news conference, where I asked him if he could win without the AAPI vote.

His answer: \u201cNo, I can\u2019t win this without your collective support, the community\u2019s support.\u201d

He talks about going to Chinatown the day after his election as mayor to thank the community. I follow up by asking him about the 30% AAPI vote that is Republican and Trumpy. What would he say to them? Listen\u00a0here<\/a>:\u00a0https:\/\/www.aaldef.org\/uploads\/newsomemilquestionsaapipresser.mp3<\/a>.

Newsom was introduced by Filipino American Rob Bonta, whom Newsom appointed as California\u2019s Attorney General this year. Bonta called the election a \u201ccynical Republican recall effort,\u201d an attempt to install a Trump supporter.

At this point, it\u2019s an ultra-right-wing African American talk show host named Larry Elder, who is leading a roster of candidates to replace Newsom. Elder has spread anti-vaccine disinformation and has been viewed as worse than Trump himself. He doesn\u2019t believe in a minimum wage or a woman\u2019s right to an abortion. He\u2019s a provocateur. He should not be the chief executive of California.

But would it be fair that someone like Elder in a recall election could become governor of the world\u2019s fifth-largest economy with a mere plurality \u2013 and not a majority of the state\u2019s voters?

To replace Newsom, who three years ago won the state with 62% of the vote?

Legal scholars have argued that the recall effort, which in one day could fire and replace Newsom, is anti-democratic and subject to legal challenge.But that gets back to why Republicans want it all done now.

During the news zoom call, Newsom pointed to all the good he\u2019s done leading California to a budget surplus and a thriving economy despite the pandemic.

But when it comes to why the recall is happening, it boils down to one thing: Republicans are bent on what I call the \u201cJanuary Sixing\u201d California.

What if Newsom is doing well by the state or that he was elected in a landslide three years ago?

The GOP\u2019s motivation to undo California is a response to the great diversity of this state, the most Asian American in the nation. Instead of embracing diversity, the GOP wants to embrace division.

Newsom acknowledged that in his\u00a0opening statement<\/a>:

\u201cThe answer to why this recall is on the ballot is connected to the issue of our diversity,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cThis is the state, where 27% of us are foreign-born. We\u2019re a majority\/minority state. We\u2019re the most diverse state in the world\u2019s most diverse democracy, that\u2019s our greatness. That\u2019s our strength. We celebrate, we don\u2019t tolerate that diversity.\u201d

Yes, diversity. And Filipino Americans, more than 4 million of us in the U.S., are all a part of that.

The ballots will be mailed to California voters beginning on Aug. 16th.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>If you voted in the November 2020 election, you are already registered.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Otherwise, you have until August 30th to register.

It should be simple to mark your ballot and mail it in. No stamp necessary.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>I like to drop off my ballot masked up at the registrar\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>However, you like to do it, just do it. This Sept. 14 vote is special.Considering the real consequences, it would not be hyperbolic to say this could be the single most important election for Filipino American voters in California, maybe ever.

It\u2019s not about Newsom so much as it is about the brazen attempt to negate an election won by a landslide in 2018. If the recall wins, the Republicans will have stolen the highest office in California with a mere plurality.

That shouldn\u2019t happen in a strong democracy.

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong>\u00a0is an award-winning journalist and commentator. In Hawaii, he was a columnist for the Star Bulletin, and an editorial board member of the Advertiser. He vlogs at\u00a0<\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>. Watch him on Facebook watch Live @emilguillermo.media @ 2pm Pacific.

Read More Candid Perspectives:<\/strong>
<\/em>American Filipina\u2019s Historic Gold but Are You Feeling The Olympics Yet? Plus: A Covid Conversation<\/a>
Branson\u2019s Trip? Nothing like My Father\u2019s Journey from Ilocos to America<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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