Of multitudes and miscegenation

Miscegenation is a word Guambat's kids probably, hopefully, never heard. But young Guambat heard it often enough in his younger days, from radio talk shows through every-day conversations with church-going oldies and some fellow travelers.

In the times of the major so-called civil rights movement, which coincided with the times of Woodstock and Guambat's youth, there was much anticipation of breaking down the miscegenation generations amid a new age of Aquarius. Then came the seventies and eighties and on and on and it looked like the good fight would never get off the ground.

And then, finally and without the fanfare that would have been blown way back then, along comes Barak Obama, Tiger Woods and, more importantly, the millions of unkown Tigers and Baraks. One by one and without the drama of the sixties, the miscegenated divide is dissolving.

The New Minority-Majority

The US Census Bureau has found that communities across the United States are redefining the meaning of “visible minority".
According to the US Census Bureau, Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas and the District of Columbia have populations with minority-majorities. The concept of minority-majorities may be a syntactical oxy-moron, but it’s a reality for 21.2% of Americans who live in states where visible minorities make up more than 50% of the population. At first glance five out of fifty states with minority-majorities actually seems like a small number until you take into account that California and Texas represent the first and second most populous states in the union.

The idea of having an African-American presidential candidate and subsequently the first African-American president saw media institutions, schools and coffee shop conversations all a twitter about issues of race. CNN, MSNBC and FOX News gave daily reports on voter statistics based on race throughout the election, grouping the voting public into Black, White, Hispanic, Asian or “other”. 1.7 million Indian-Americans and 1.2 million Arab-Americans fit into the “other” classification.

In 2007 6.1 million Americans identified themselves as being a member of two or more races. This trend will continue well into the future as the American population becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, leading to new and more complex issues of race in America.

Young boost diversity as population ages

The population of the United States - and of California - is becoming older on average and also more racially and ethnically diverse. The number of people who identify as multiracial is also growing, and at a faster rate than any other racial or ethnic group.

Multiracial people become fastest-growing US group

And speaking of muddied multitudes, Study Finds Multitude of Bacteria on Human Skin

Scientists at the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute have used the same techniques that enabled them to map the human genetic makeup to identify all the bacteria living on human skin.

There are lots of them, of all sorts. In scientific terms, 19 separate phyla and 205 different genera to be found on the 20 sites sampled by the researchers.

The diversity found as the investigators sequenced bacteria found in moist sites (inside the nose, the armpits, the navel), dry areas (such as the forearm) and oily sites (inside the ear, between the eyebrows, the back of the scalp) was a surprise

Even more unexpected was the similarity of the bacteria living in the same sites on different people. "We found that the site was more determining than the individual," Segre said. "In different people's armpits we found the same bacteria, while different parts of the body had very different bacteria."