THE 20TH MID-ATLANTIC PEOPLE OF COLOR (MAPOC) CONFERENCE
JANUARY 29-31, 2015
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
The Mid-Atlantic People of Color Conference (MAPOC) at the West Virginia University College of Law from January 29-31, 2015, shall explore the legal implications of the projected end of a nationwide white ethnic majority in the United States by 2043.
When looking forward to the dawn of the twentieth century, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. DuBois both famously evoked the problem of the “color line”—the continuing segregation and marginalization of ethnic minorities in the United States. According to recent U.S. Census Bureau demographic projections, new color lines in the United States may emerge in the middle of the twenty-first century.
How might this demographic shift impact what it will mean in the future to be an American? In a 1998 university commencement address, President Bill Clinton commented:
No other nation in history has gone through demographic change of this magnitude in so short a time. What do the changes mean? They can either strengthen and unite us, or they can weaken and divide us. We must decide. . . . I believe [that this change is] renewing our most basic values and reminding us all of what it truly means to be an American.
In response to Clinton’s speech, Pat Buchanan wrote, “Mr. Clinton assured us that it will be a better America when we are all minorities and realize true ‘diversity.’ Well, those students are going to find out, for they will spend their golden years in a Third World America.”
