The Changing Face of the Heartland: Preparing America's Diverse Workforce for Tomorrow by Jennifer Bradley

Author:Jennifer Bradley [Bradley, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Policy, Public Policy, Political Science
ISBN: 9780815726739
Google: o15gBwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Published: 2015-03-17T07:00:36+00:00

So, can the state and the Twin Cities go from worst to best in terms of the gaps between whites and people of color? Most people interviewed for this essay believe that the cultural and practical changes necessary to make this leap are taking root. While they say that the region still has a long way to go, they do believe that things will be better for people of color in the future, that the gaps will start to narrow. Sondra Samuels of NAZ speaks of “my hopefulness … Seven hundred parents are working their achievement plans, they are leading this transformation and … transforming the social bedrock.” Moreover, she says, “The business community is really starting to recognize the power and potential of North Minneapolis.” David Hough of Hennepin County is effusive about the hiring efforts the county is making, calling the new approach “the right thing to do … it’s not reactive, it’s proactive, and it’s fun … because we’re helping people.”

Tawanna Black, who in mid-2014 wondered about the region’s commitment to making the changes necessary to bridge the gaps between whites and people of color, sounded more optimistic several months later. “I see people wanting to stay with the conversation, I see people asking the tougher questions and not running from the tough answers. The champions who are stepping up are not just the traditional or expected folks.” While she doesn’t minimize the difficulty of overcoming a legacy of neglect and insensitivity, she thinks that Minnesota is “a perfect example of a state that says, ‘Uh oh, what we did in the past didn’t work, and now we need to do the tough work to keep our economy going.’”

In terms of sheer numbers, Minnesota may still lag in diversity compared to much of the rest of the country, yet it is a microcosm of the kind of changes taking place all across the nation. As William H. Frey’s Diversity Explosion comprehensively documents, as the baby boom generation ages out of the workforce, the primary working-age population in the United States will experience a net loss of 15 million whites between 2010 and 2030. Meanwhile, the share of people of color that are of labor-force age will steadily grow, especially the youngest segments of the working population. And as immigrants spread out beyond traditional immigrant gateways, and native-born people of color also move to new areas in search of new jobs or a different way of life, more and more communities will face a future that is markedly more ethnically and racially diverse than their past. Between 1990 and 2010, the share of the U.S. population made up of people of color went from 24 percent to 36 percent, and that share is expected to leap to 44.5 percent by 2030. The good news is: The growth of working-age populations of color will enable the United States labor force to grow, albeit modestly, in the 2020s, in contrast to the shrinking workforce populations of much of the developed world, including Japan and many European nations.

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