Univision anchor Jorge Ramos' latest column evokes the past and pines for a desired future. But it's mostly repetitive, and a clear picture of the future that Ramos imagines for America.
Ramos spent a couple of days in Los Angeles, California last week, as he and colleague Ilia Calderón co-moderated Univision's showcase coverage of the California gubernatorial forum. As tends to happen when Ramos leaves the comfy confines of Univision's Miami citadel, a column follows. Last week was no exception.
In a column titled "Two Days In Los Angeles", which first ran on Mexico City's Reforma, Ramos lays out his case for utopia:
Infuriating Washington's government, several Californian cities have become a sanctuary for the undocumented. That same generous and protective spirit is the same spirit I knew from my days as a student.
And as California goes, so does the rest of the country. Here, no ethnic group is a majority. There are more Hispanics here than in any other state, and more Asians except Hawaii. And in a multiethnic, multiracial state such as California, the only way to live in a civilized manner is with a great deal of tolerance, respect, and acceptance of those who are different and those who come from elsewhere.
We'd better learn from California. The Census Bureau calculates that no ethnic group will be a majority in the United States by 2044. Non-Hispanic whites will be less than half (of the population) and our identity will be mostly mixed. How does Puerto-Cuban-Mexican-American sound? Or what about Chinese-Irish-Salvadoran-American?
Ethnic salads aside, we've heard all this before. Witness our coverage from a little over a year and a half ago, when Ramos was making similar noise, again, in California:
PATT MORRISON, REPORTER, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: As we approach the primary, we know that California is a majority-minority state; talk a little bit about the demographic changes in California and in the country.
JORGE RAMOS, UNIVISION ANCHOR: I call it the Latino wave, and it’s changing absolutely everything. 2055 is going to be a great year for me, because if I’m still alive I’ll be 97, and in 2055, the country will look like California. In 2055, non-Hispanic whites will be another minority. In 2055, every single group in this country – Latinos, African Americans and non-Hispanic whites -- will be a minority. That’s the trend.
Now, having said that, I would assume that values like tolerance, like the acceptance of immigrants, generosity and solidarity, would be relevant and important nowadays. And what I’m hearing in the presidential election is exactly the opposite. But that change, that enormous demographic change is well underway, and we Latinos, I think, we are changing everything. For instance, the new rule in politics is that no one can make it to the White House without the Latino vote. And that’s new.
While there is nothing wrong with a demographic shift, there is a huge problem with a national anchor who cut his teeth in California openly pining for the rest of the nation to follow suit. As we said back then:
Ramos' willful inability to see matters beyond the lens of race is nothing new, so no one should be shocked at his gleeful anticipation of the day that America becomes a majority-minority country (not that there's anything inherently wrong with that). However, his wish that America resemble California should be a cause of concern to reasonable people from all walks of life.
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When Ramos claims to want the rest of the country to resemble California, there's more to that than simple racial and ethnic diversity. In word and deed, Ramos (and, by extension, Univision) also pines for an America that resembles California in terms of partisan ideology and enacted policies.
Fast forward to 2018, and little has changed. Jorge Ramos is still openly pining for the Californication of America. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
