A nation of mutts

Make no mistake: America is headed towards a multicultural future.

Ivory tower academics and and liberal media columnists like to paint it in terms of white people versus people of color. Other times, the scenario is dumber down to white folks pitted against immigrants, holding the erroneous notion that all current immigrants are somehow limited to non-whites. Such notions are short- sighted. They fail to take an honest look at the dynamics and history of the immigrant experience, in favor of politicizing race for political advantage.

New York Times columnist David Brooks takes a different approach. Instead everyone divided into categories based on color, he suggests we will become "A Nation of Mutts", and challenges the notions of alliances. Future immigrants who lift themselves by their bootstraps will find more in common with past generations of European-American immigrants than the African-American underclass stuck in the cycle of government assistance. Instead of racial alliances, our future generations of American born kids will mixed to the point where they can't pinpoint one color or ethnicity on Census forms.

Our multicultural future is a good thing. It places the US in a favorable position in the modern world. But it's not about furthering political pet projects. Rather it's about creating a country with a uniquely American sensibility that is attuned to its global roots.

The New England Holocaust Memorial

The New England Holocaust Memorial is located in Carmen Park, on Boston's Freedom Trail. It is one of the more interactive Holocaust tributes in the US, and its' design is rich in symbolism.


Six glass towers rise from the memorial. Six million numbers are etched in the glass, representing the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Each tower represents one of the major Nazi extermination camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

Visitors pass through the towers on a black granite path. A steel grate covers a six foot deep chamber at the base of each tower. Smoke rises from charred embers at the bottom of these pits, evoking thoughts of the gas chambers used in the camps.

Kansas' Largest Ethnic Groups

German is the largest ethnicity in Kansas, with almost 29% of residents listing German ancestry.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 Kansas Population	As a Percent of Total Kansas Population
	Total Population	2,859,169	100.00%
1	German	827,129	28.93%
2	Irish	367,281	12.85%
3	English	290,898	10.17%
4	Mexican	253,653	8.87%
5	American	237,043	8.29%
6	African-American*	141,843	4.96%
7	French, except Basque	89,036	3.11%
8	Swedish	66,016	2.31%
9	Italian	63,200	2.21%
10	Dutch	59,116	2.07%
11	Scottish	57,464	2.01%
12	European	44,038	1.54%
13	Polish	37,892	1.33%
14	Scotch-Irish	33,043	1.16%
15	Norwegian	32,198	1.13%
16	Czech	25,527	0.89%
17	Russian	25,039	0.88%
18	Welsh	20,887	0.73%
19	Swiss	15,947	0.56%
20	Danish	15,852	0.55%
21	Chinese, except Taiwanese	14,940	0.52%
22	Vietnamese	13,687	0.48%
23	Asian Indian	12,595	0.44%
24	French Canadian	11,283	0.39%
25	British	10,854	0.38%
26	African	10,212	0.36%
27	Puerto Rican	9,587	0.34%
28	Croatian	8,679	0.30%
29	Salvadoran	7,543	0.26%
30	Filipino	5,549	0.19%
31	Laotian	5,364	0.19%
32	Cherokee	4,990	0.17%
33	Austrian	4,946	0.17%
34	Belgian	4,818	0.17%
35	Greek	4,429	0.15%
36	Korean	4,426	0.15%
37	Scandinavian	3,814	0.13%
38	Spaniard	3,792	0.13%
39	Lebanese	3,782	0.13%
40	Pennsylvania German	3,596	0.13%
41	Czechoslovakian	3,335	0.12%
42	Guatemalan	3,327	0.12%
43	Hungarian	3,015	0.11%
44	Ukrainian	2,965	0.10%
45	Honduran	2,893	0.10%
46	Northern European	2,871	0.10%
47	Spanish	2,592	0.09%
48	Portuguese	2,474	0.09%
49	Finnish	2,456	0.09%
50	Sioux	2,271	0.08%

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

1 year estimates, tables: B02001, C02005, B02006, C02007, B03001, B03002, B04006

* African-American is derived as respondents selecting Black as racial group after removing African, West Indian, and Hispanic ethnicities.