Friday, April 29, 2011

UNITED STATES - The mixing is needed in the Deep South

Hattiesburg (Mississippi) Here in the Deep South, has been respected for generations the taboo on interracial love. There are fewer than forty-five years, marriage between blacks and whites was illegal and, even after the lifting of the ban, he stayed very long frowned upon. That's why Jeffrey Norwood coach college basketball, hesitated before responding to a tempting job offer.

At the time, Jeffrey Norwood, who is black, was dating a white Métisse Asia. "You will settle in southern Mississippi?" Asked his father in a skeptical tone, remembering the days when just being seen with a woman of another race was run at a Black is deadly. "You're sure?" But after several visits to Hattiesburg, Jeffrey Norwood said he was reassured by what he had seen, namely a growing diversity.

So there it is installed after marrying his girlfriend. Then the couple had a baby, a girl who, at the 2010 census, was declared black, white and Asian. [Since the census of 2000, Americans have the opportunity to declare themselves as belonging to one or more races]. Taylor Rae Norwood, 3 years, is one of thousands of Métis children who were one of the states of Mississippi who recorded one of the fastest growing multiracial population, an increase of 70% between 2000 and 2010, according The latest figures from the Census Bureau.

The general census of 2010, which allowed for the first time an accurate accounting of mixed Americans, shows that this population has increased much faster than had been planned many demographers, particularly in the south and parts Midwest. It has doubled in North Carolina. It grew over 80% in Georgia and almost as many in Kentucky and Tennessee.

In Indiana, Iowa and South Dakota, she jumped about 70%. "All increases above 50% is impressive," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "What states like Mississippi have experienced very strong growth in the number of people considering themselves as both black and white says a lot.

It's something that we never predicted there are still ten or twenty years. "The changes have not been uniform. In states like California, Hawaii and Oklahoma, where the Métis already represented a significant percentage of the population, the increase was slower than in places like Mississippi, where they were far fewer flights.

In Hawaii, for example - where the Métis represent 23% of the population, the largest proportion of the country - the growth of this population since 2000 was only 23.6%. In Hawaii, the combination is predominantly Asian, White and Native / from an island in the Pacific, while in Oklahoma the most common mix is Native American and White.

In Mississippi, the combination is majority Black and White - the two groups who are least likely to marry them in the past as today, because of the persistence of socio-economic (and, until in 1967 of the Act). For much of the last decade, Mississippi State head pranced in the number of mixed marriages, "says Frey.

Still, the Métis still represent a tiny fraction of the population of the state: 34 000 individuals, or about 1.1%. Furthermore, many Mississippi residents complain of persistent racial inequality. In 2010, the Republican governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, has raised an outcry by suggesting that despite some friction sometimes deadly, the time of the fight for civil rights in Mississippi [which lasted from 1955 to 1965 and during segregationist practices that remained in force] was not a terrible period.

However, many people see progress. "Behaviour is changing gradually," said Marvin King, a professor of political science at the University of Mississippi. He is black, married to a white woman and they have a daughter aged 2 years. "The hostility that prevailed years ago is not as conspicuous.

This translates into race relations more frequent, people are less afraid. We no longer need to hide. "Unlike what happens in many other states, Mississippi's population increased only slightly over the past ten years. Researchers have concluded that changing attitudes was not due to the presence of the newcomers.

The population grew by 3.8% in Mississippi since 2000, against 18.46% in North Carolina. "North Carolina has this strong growth for Latinos and blacks, and people from elsewhere who make things happen," said William Frey. In Mississippi, however, the change took place from within. "In this state, the proportion of youth under age 18 is higher among the Métis in the rest of the population, all races This shows that the growth of the mestizo population is the result of recent births.

But here, as in other states, it is probably also attributable to older Americans who previously identified themselves as black or of one race and who now see their identity in a wider angle. "In reality, relations between blacks and whites did not begin yesterday - just once they did not openly manifested," says Matthew Snipp, a professor of demography at the Faculty of Sociology at Stanford University.

About Metis children from these relationships, he said that "since they were given the choice, in 2000, people took a full decade to ponder the question of their identity. Some numbers are less a reflection of changes and corrections. In a sense, they paint a more accurate picture of racial heritage that was once hidden.

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