Demography is destiny, goes the old saying. In the United States, a changing and growing population may help spare our society from the workforce shortfalls afflicting many other industrialized countries. Yet the transition to a more diverse America, including the first recorded decline in the country’s white population, is causing palpable anxiety in our politics and reigniting core tensions around race. In the San Francisco Chronicle, Bill Frey explains why America’s growing minority youth population is good news for the nation’s future, building on the second edition of his book, Diversity Explosion.
At the same time, it’s clear that demographic margins alone won’t automatically translate into broadly shared opportunity. Writing in The New York Times from his fast-changing majority-black hometown near Pittsburgh, Andre Perry urges investors and technology companies to bridge the gaps that too often separate diverse communities from the urban tech boom.
The Brookings Institute
by David Lanham and Rachel Barker
August 14, 2018