New Hampshire, at 94%, is the third ‘whitest’ state demographically in the country. We’re one percent more diverse, according to the people who define such things, than Maine and the People’s Republic of Vermont. The Granite State’s ‘experts’ are gathering to confer on how to fix that. Why?
According to this July 22nd article from the Union Leader, one reason is that children of color have no adults of color with whom to relate.
MANCHESTER — At the Beech Street School, situated in the most racially diverse census tract of the state’s largest city, principal Christine Martin has been unable to find any African-American teachers or support staff to hire.
“Do I have a person of color who our children can look at and see themselves? No,” she said. “It’s an enormous challenge.”
How is that not racist?
In a truly diverse world, we look up to actions and ideas with an eye toward that old saw “judge them by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”
The Diversity movement doesn’t work that way. The colorblind world is all about color. It’s about numbers. Butts in seats, or in front of classrooms, or at our workplaces.
What about Live Free or Die?
In a genuinely free society, people go where they want for reasons that are their own.
And in a truly diverse world personal preference would drive demographics and that would be good enough. Sorry, say the “experts,” it’s not.
Super-white New Hampshire (with it’s White State-Potato) needs to get more people of color to come and live here.
“In New Hampshire, and actually all of northern New England, the number of whites in the state is only growing through migration” because the white residents are dying and leaving the state at a faster rate than they’re giving birth, said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH. “In the long term, it will be an issue, especially in these very white states. If the white population isn’t producing enough children to offset the deaths, then the only way to grow is through minority populations.”
Experts are in motion…
On Thursday, representatives from dozens of organizations — ranging from large employers and state agencies to nonprofits and the NAACP — will convene at Eversource Energy’s Manchester office to jumpstart what some participants believe will be the first large-scale effort to consciously diversify a state in New England, and perhaps the country.
I don’t suppose ending abortion is the answer, so what is it? They don’t know, but we have a clue about their plans.
“Prior to now, there has not been any specific driving force for people of color, doesn’t matter which color, to move to New Hampshire. There has not been a reason to do so,” said Rogers Johnson, a former state representative and the president of the Seacoast NAACP. “The reasons (for migration) in the past have been economic development, centered on large cities … nobody of color thinks of Manchester, Burlington, and Portland as a large city. There’s not a social infrastructure in any of those states.”
Social infrastructure?
What the hell is social infrastructure? I had to look it up.
Social infrastructure can be broadly defined as the construction and maintenance of facilities that support social services. Types of social infrastructure include healthcare (hospitals), education (schools and universities), public facilities (community housing and prisons) and transportation (railways and roads).
New Hampshire has more public school capacity than students to fill them. Our hospitals are not turning people away for lack of beds. We’ve got a growing community college system, state university system and some very well regarded universities.
Year after year New Hampshire is one of the safest states in the country. Our residents enjoy one of the highest average incomes, standards of living, and some of the best overall health outcomes in the United States. We consistently have one of the lowest poverty levels in America. We also have very low unemployment and at the moment an employees market thanks to a labor shortage.
Amidst all of this a coalition of ‘experts’ is wondering why more people of color don’t come here and our first hint is that people of color are drawn to sprawling heat islands with a spiderweb of poured asphalt, concrete sidewalks, and public transportation? Well, no. There’s more to it than that.
Many of the details have yet to be sorted out — the group has not even chosen a name yet — but some of the early organizers like Parnagian and Will Arvelo, director of the state’s Division of Economic Development, envision a nonprofit with diverse funding sources that will organize both on-the-ground recruitment drives in other states and coordinate programs in New Hampshire to help minorities settle and feel welcome.
Got White Guilt?
I don’t have a name but I’ve got a tagline. ‘Got White Guilt?’ Wait! There’s More!
While the effort will likely also be geared toward attracting people who have been marginalized based on their gender, sexual orientation, religion, and physical disabilities, the data backing up the racial disparity, and opportunity for growth, in New Hampshire is particularly stark.
If all the excellent social, economic, and lifestyle indicators we enjoy are not enough to attract the bullet list of “marginalized persons” then what will? Democrat-run government? Higher – broader – taxes, more government, bigger budgets, and more regulation to support social programs and sprawling cityscapes?
This sounds like a get out the democrat vote scheme? Is that the real goal?
No one knows or is saying, but if the idea is to create some semblance of “urban attractiveness” or “social infrastructure” favored by people of color, then I think that any pilot program should begin in our diversity and equity capitals of Portsmouth and Hanover. The weight of costs related to such “changes” should be borne by the prissy self-important gentrified white locals who live there – for at least ten years. They’ve got money and it would be racist to claim otherwise.
If these bastions of right-minded folks can’t attract people of color and marginalized persons based on whatever laundry list the experts can concoct, what hope do the rest of us have? After all, there is one other “factor” they seem to have ignored. With very little exception these “whitest states” by population are some of the whitest states during winter.
What if a majority of “people of color” don’t care how safe or prosperous or job or family-friendly a state is because they hate the cold?
You know what the cure for that is? Global Warming.
