(ThyBlackMan.com) Today Mitt Romney came to my current home state of Florida. In Orlando he addressed the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. He tried to make his pitch for immigration reform but failed short since 44 stole all his thunder and executively ordered a watered down version of the D.R.E.A.M. Act. Still Romney tried in his own Romney way. Not that it really matters.
While Hispanics may be the swing minority voting bloc they may soon lose their pull as the group to cater to to win an election. A new study from the Pew Institute finds a rise in Asian immigration and a decline in immigration of Hispanics. Asians may only make up six percent of a population, but with a third of them living in California come the next Presidential election it may be their voices and their issues pushing for a certain type of ethnicity based immigration change instead of Hispanics. 
Here lies the problem with race and ethnicity based agendas. The dominant minority group will continue to change; placing one group’s issue over another’s will erode the bases in order to win quick swing votes instead of long term backers.
The Black community is hyper critical of President Obama for his lack of a Black Agenda. An agenda he can’t actually have because he unfortunately is Black. While a pro-corporate, pro-plutocrat oligarch government will never be labeled the “White Agenda,” policies heavy on social welfare will be labeled a Black Agenda, policies heavy on immigration reform, English as a second language, and more dreamers looking for D.R.E.A.M. Acts will be labeled the immigrant minority agenda. Which one prevails, Hispanic issues over Asian ones, will only be seen in time.
In the end someone or many someones lose out as another group becomes head minority on the block.
For the last three and a half years the Congressional Black Caucus has begged the White House to push for the funding of community centers and after school care programs in urban (read Black) communities to help get kids off the street and out of the way of gangs and bullets. A provision to do just that was placed into President Obama’s American Jobs Act announced early this year. The bill in all its pieces is stalled. The main provision of the D.R.E.A.M. Act was only made possible through executive order. The other parts of the bill remain stalled
Politicians and voters must stop looking at elections as a time to clean up and get everything wanted while giving nothing in return. That current strategy creates more division than a quadratic equation. Even if a specific group demands a certain thing or a certain piece of legislation does not mean that bill should be sold as policy just for them.
Every piece of legislation needs to be sold to the country as being good for the country as a whole. The D.R.E.A.M. Act isn’t just for undocumented immigrants who had no prior knowledge of their lack of documentation. The D.R.E.A.M. Act is for America. The undocumented immigrants put on a path to citizenship will form a generation of creators, thinkers, doers and makers. These children are American educated, American trained and therefore there future endeavors should benefit America not their home countries that had nothing to do with their upbringing. Call it selfish, unfair but if we raised them we keep them. We’re a country of immigrants.
The same general principle goes for funding for community centers and after school programs for urban (read Black) communities. This isn’t just a Black agenda it’s an American agenda. Getting wayward children off of city streets and into constructive programs lowers crime rates, makes city streets safer, and provides a generation of children who can grow up in the arts, sports, and contribute to their community.
Jobs bills for veterans, for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians and Women are not just for those specific groups it is for all Americans.
If lawmakers continue to legislate along the human divide of the country there will never be harmony. Just one group pitted against another every four years. Gay is the new Black. Asian is the new Hispanic. Mentally Challenged is the new Physically Disabled. Transgendered is the new Woman. None of these groups will ever have a complete voice in the political discourse because it can always be outshouted by the new swing bloc on the block.
Do you think group based legislation will decrease as America becomes more minority?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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