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Ethnic minority groups in the U.S. will be playing a larger role in this election than ever before!Making sure that non-Caucasian/non-white Americans have the right to vote has been a big part of our country’s history of civil rights.
In 1870, Congress ratified the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which made it illegal to prevent a citizen from voting based on his or her race, color, or “previous condition of servitude” (as in, slavery). In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Voting Rights Act made that amendment even stronger. Since then, minority ethnic groups in America have played a growing role in elections on the national, state, and local levels.
It’s a common myth that Caucasian, or white, Americans vote much more than non-whites. The truth is that once they’re registered, minorities vote at or near the same rates as whites! In 2004, registered whites voted at a rate of 89%, 87% of registered African-Americans voted, 82% of registered Latinos voted, and 85% of registered Asian-Americans voted. Those numbers are all expected to go up this year.*
But there’s definitely a gap between how many white Americans and how many minority Americans register to vote. For instance, in 2004, 74% of eligible white citizens were registered while only 58% of Latinos were.* You can help close that gap! Do you know someone who’s eligible to vote but hasn’t registered? Encourage them to exercise their right to be heard by going to www.Vote411.org
Remember that the America we know today was founded by immigrants (from Europe) and over the centuries has been shaped by the “melting pot” of people who came to this country from all over the world. As all the different minority groups in the U.S. continue to grow, together they will soon make up a majority of the population…and have the power to decide the outcome of elections! It’s not all that different from the role of women since they got the right to vote in 1920. Women started as a small voting minority, but in the 2004 national election, over 67 million women voted…while just 58 million men did. Women have become the single largest (and most powerful) voting group!
Let’s look at the role three major U.S. ethnic groups -- African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans -- might play in the 2008 elections. |
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