HMPRESENTLY: Too Bad It Was Frozen Foods, Rather Than People

From Cuba, Italy, Greece, Israel, Afghanistan, India, China and Japan; they were all there. But this ethnically-diverse group was… frozen foods in the frozen foods aisle at the grocery store.

There was Cuban citrus salad, grigliata mista, Afghan lamb kabob and Shakshuka, among many interesting ethnic cuisines.

Seeing such diversity got me wondering about everything going on, now, to exclude from our nation many folks from other places. Interesting foods from foreign lands are in abundance, and Americans seem just fine with that.

Could it be that, when it comes to people making their way to America, various politicians are overstating things?

Walling off the country seems rather unrealistic, anyway, considering America’s changing demographics.

It was last Saturday, as the Nevada presidential primary was getting underway, when I stumbled on an article, in Axios, about demographics. That was just a day after I’d noticed all that ethnic diversity in the frozen foods aisle.

“The US is in the midst of a demographic transformation, and the country’s future looks a lot like Nevada’s present,” Axios reported in the article. We’re “on track to become minority white,” and Nevada is there already.

“Hispanic people are expected to make up 25% of the American population by 2045. They’re 29% of Nevada’s population today… Immigration will likely be the backbone of [America’s] future population growth…”

A trend line? Isn’t that how, in business, such demographic stats would be described?

Someone’s always going to be bellyaching, but demographics just keep on changing. That’s life. It’s a small world.

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin

Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.