Sometimes, unscientific observations tell us something.
My uncle, Arthur, remarked, sometime in the early 1960's that the greatest secret in America at the time was that whites are in the minority. He laughed when he said that. He was not disturbed by it, more amused than anything. He was simply saying that he rode the subway every day, traveled around New York City, from his home in the Bronx to Manhattan and everywhere he looked, from the subway cars to the streets, Blacks and Hispanics were more numerous than whites.
Of course, what he was seeing was the transition in neighborhoods in the south Bronx, along the Grand Concourse as one group replaced another. But that proved to be a look through a keyhole to a bigger demographic shift.
Now demographers are telling us the time is approaching when whites in America will be a minority and as whites in the rust belt states have looked around and made the same observation my uncle made, they have not reacted with the same bemused attitude. They became surly and voted for Donald Trump.
At the big Endocrine Society meeting in Chicago I looked around and realized the young crop of endocrinologists are anything but white. They are smart, energetic, hard working and I'm happy to see them. But it is a change.
In Essex County, Massachusetts, most of the doctors are foreign born or first generation in America. Local Yankees from Methuen, Haverhill, Lawrence, North Andover find themselves in exam rooms with young doctors born in India, South America, or born in America to parents from Pakistan, China, Korea, or Ukraine.
The professional class of physicians is not derived from Haverhill or Methuen. Kids raised in these towns, for whatever reasons, do not go to medical school.
This may all be just fine, but it is a change. And, like my uncle, I'm impressed by how little noted it is.
My uncle, Arthur, remarked, sometime in the early 1960's that the greatest secret in America at the time was that whites are in the minority. He laughed when he said that. He was not disturbed by it, more amused than anything. He was simply saying that he rode the subway every day, traveled around New York City, from his home in the Bronx to Manhattan and everywhere he looked, from the subway cars to the streets, Blacks and Hispanics were more numerous than whites.
Of course, what he was seeing was the transition in neighborhoods in the south Bronx, along the Grand Concourse as one group replaced another. But that proved to be a look through a keyhole to a bigger demographic shift.
Now demographers are telling us the time is approaching when whites in America will be a minority and as whites in the rust belt states have looked around and made the same observation my uncle made, they have not reacted with the same bemused attitude. They became surly and voted for Donald Trump.
At the big Endocrine Society meeting in Chicago I looked around and realized the young crop of endocrinologists are anything but white. They are smart, energetic, hard working and I'm happy to see them. But it is a change.
In Essex County, Massachusetts, most of the doctors are foreign born or first generation in America. Local Yankees from Methuen, Haverhill, Lawrence, North Andover find themselves in exam rooms with young doctors born in India, South America, or born in America to parents from Pakistan, China, Korea, or Ukraine.
The professional class of physicians is not derived from Haverhill or Methuen. Kids raised in these towns, for whatever reasons, do not go to medical school.
This may all be just fine, but it is a change. And, like my uncle, I'm impressed by how little noted it is.
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