[Photo: David Kidd]
Readers of a certain age may remember when being recognized as being a Texan was something to be proud of. We were known then to be friendly, honest, and welcoming. Independent, industrious workers. Highly skeptical of our government. We loved our neighbors, our neighborhood schools, our church, trail rides, and eating tamales at Christmas. Although many oldtime Texans are becoming increasingly disappointed to disgust over the political surliness towards newcomers, public displays of corruption, and radical miserliness demonstrated by the unholy
trinity of Abbott, Patrick and Paxton, the rest of the world continues to be drawn here faster than double-struck lightning.
With more than 30 million people, Texas has almost 8.5 million more residents than it did at the beginning of the century. The increase is substantially due to the international oil business
which has always stretched from Texas to around the world. The hourly-paid oil field roughneck who symbolized the state’s explosive wealth born of oil used to be a sunburned white man; today the typical greasestained oil field worker is a Hispanic who was born here.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau about 95% of our population growth is due to people of color, with Hispanics outnumbering whites making them about equal in citizenry, but unequal
in representation. White voters still control elections via deliberate gerrymandering of the new political maps. Houston is one of the most immigrant-diverse cities in the nation with more
than one hundred di fferent native languages. People here celebrate Lunar New Year, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Chavez-Huerta Day, and the Hindu festivals of Holi and Diwali. Asians
account for about 5.4% of us, with that demographic growing faster than whites. In some locales new home construction is being built around the ancient design philosophy concept of Vastu
Shastra.
The number of Texas-born Hispanics surpasses that of Texas-born whites, but they are so much younger than the white population that their impact on Texas politics remains nascent. As
those brown babies reach voting age the Texans the political environment will fluctuate, but perhaps not in expected ways. Most Asians and Indians are socially, fiscally, and religiously
conservative. Latinos are also more traditionalist, family orientated (anti-LGBT), and religious (anti-choice), which may make Republicanism appealing to them.
Black Texans make up about 12% of our residents.
