3:10 to Yuma: Redux

It was a gritty film that one. Bearded and haggard white guys pulling six-shooters and Lee-Enfields all to prevent one man from getting on a train.

How times have changed. Not the guns part, but the white guys part.

According the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States now produces more non-white babies than white. The problem, it seems, comes down to demographics - us white folk are just too damn old and didn't produce enough young uns during the last fifty years. The result is that the median age for whites is 42 - for the vast majority of women, past the age of fertility. The median age for non-whites - 27, smack dab in the middle of the peak fertility years. And Yuma? Yuma county in Arizona is the place with the largest gap between white and non-white - only 18% of under-20s are white.

Add to this the scolarity rates for non-whites - 13 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of blacks obtain a University degree. For whites, the rate is 31 percent. If the key to success in the modern economy is possession of a degree, and access to higher paying jobs, then the United States has a problem: how to continue growing its economy and remaining globally competitive with less and less well-educated workers.

The ramifications for our neighbour to the south are staggering. I already overheard at a conference I attended in Chicago the fact that, in many parts of the South, Spanish is overtaking English as the main language. Will we see laws passed to protect English? Or will the U.S. adopt Spanish and English as official languages? Might not be a bad idea, given that, even with the increasing participation rates of Hispanics at voting time, more will need to get involved and the way to do that is to make them feel more welcome in the U.S.

Or will we see reactionary movements sprout up out of the vestiges of the militias and neo-Nazi groups, seeking some kind of demographic 'firewall' between whites and non-whites? It's happening in Greece and there are early signs with English-only groups sprouting up in places like Florida.

Only time will tell. If the gunplay in Yuma were to repeat itself now, I think Hollywood would have to dig deep to find the right mix of non-white actors to play the leads. Sorry, Russel Crowe.