Ethnic mix will transform city
Hispanic influx is predicted
Monday, May 11, 1998BY LAURA GOLDBERG and TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As Greater Cincinnati heads into the new millennium, Chinese, Indian, Hispanic and other faces will continue to be more common from neighborhood streets to the workplace.
Jamal Al-Henaid, director of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, speaks to a group of educators.
(Michael Snyder photo)
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But shifts in the Tristate's complexion will be slow compared with more dramatic changes some are forecasting for the nation, according to a new Gannett News Service study that projects population trends to 2050.
It's difficult to predict whether increased diversity will make Greater Cincinnati's sometimes strained race and ethnic relations better or worse. Some experts say the change will bring greater understanding, while others think it will take economic equality and better education to avoid conflicts.
"I think the city and the region will be more diverse," said Al Tuchfarber, director of University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research. "These changes happen very slowly here for sure. . . . It's going to be a slow gradual change with plenty of time for society to adjust."
Initiatives aimed at better relations are under way. While some say dialogue is an important part of the process, others call for action.
"We need to talk, that's good," said Rodney Coates, an African-American studies professor at Miami University. "But we need to get to the point of planning."
The nation's white population could drop to about 53 percent in 2050 from 72.5 percent in 1998, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. The percentage of the population that is Hispanic is projected to more than double to 24.5 percent in 2050, up from 11 percent in 1998, which would make it the second-largest group in the country, surpassing blacks.
It's difficult to make such long-term projections on a local level because the smaller the numbers, the larger the potential errors in projections, demographers say.
The region in part seems to be following a national immigration trend: More people with Hispanic and Asian backgrounds are immigrating to the United States. Other minorities are simply relocating to Greater Cincinnati from other parts of the United States.
Woods & Poole Economics Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based company, has made projections on a county level through 2020 for whites, blacks and others. Hispanics are spread among three categories. In Greater Cincinnati's 13-county region:
Whites are expected to make up 84.6 percent of the population in 2020, 5.2 percentage points lower than in 1970. They make up 87.1 percent of the population in 1998.
Blacks are expected to account for 13.4 percent of the population in 2020, up from 10 percent in 1970 and 11.7 percent in 1998.
Others, which includes Asians and American Indians, will reach 2 percent in 2020, up from 0.2 percent in 1970 and 1.2 percent in 1998. Some ethnic and racial groups are already making themselves known by organizing social and advocacy groups. For example, there are 13 Chinese-American organizations in the Tristate, up from just a few a few years ago.
"The past couple of years, I've personally come across more and more people who are Chinese and are involved in business," said Elizabeth Na, president of the Chinese American Business Association of Greater Cincinnati and Dayton.
Last month, a group of Hispanic leaders made a presentation to the National Conference for Community and Justice -- founded as the National Conference of Christians and Jews -- about their growing local community. In the coming months, the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati will open a Hispanic center to deal with spiritual and other needs.
Roberto Peraza of the PanAmerican Society of Greater Cincinnati spoke last month to a national conference about the local hispanic community.
(Craig Ruttle photo)
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Racial and ethnic minorities have always been a part of the Tristate, but it hasn't always been easy for them. "I've lived here my whole life, but getting this city to recognize it's a multicultural city is difficult," said Jeanne Marie Stophlet, president of the Inter-Ethnic Council of Greater Cincinnati and part of an American Indian family. "It's like we've got blinders on.
"We're here, and it's growing in this city," she said of the non-white population.
The number of Hispanics already is growing significantly. More than 12,260 Hispanics called the Tristate home in 1996, a 27.9 percent increase over 1990, according to the Census Bureau. In 2020, Woods & Poole predicts, there will be more than 67,000 Hispanics in Greater Cincinnati. The largest increase is expected in Hamilton and Butler counties.
"I think . . . the people who are coming are contributing to the community and trying to integrate without losing who you are," said Roberto Peraza, president of the PanAmerican Society of Greater Cincinnati.
The society is forming a speakers bureau to educate others on Latin American cultures. The Tri-State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce was created in 1996.
In 1995, an Islamic center and mosque opened in West Chester. It attracts Muslims from many countries; about 300 non-Muslims tour the mosque monthly.
"There is a curiosity. It is a very positive one," said Jamal Al-Henaid, director of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. "I'm very impressed by the way we have been received by the non-Muslims. . . . I believe Cincinnati will be a city to be followed."
Although some groups say Greater Cincinnati has welcomed them, the region has far to go to achieve racial, ethnic harmony.
In just 15 months, there has been a series of high-profile incidents illustrating tensions:
In January -- on Martin Luther King Day -- two Miami University students were attacked while walking on an Oxford street. One student was black, the other white. While the attackers beat the black student, they shouted racial slurs.
In August, the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission held a meeting to quell rising tensions between Hispanic immigrants and longtime residents of Lower Price Hill, a historically Appalachian neighborhood. Tensions have simmered since Hispanics started settling there, lured by low-income housing and jobs.
In February 1997 in Corryville, two officers shot escaped mental patient Lorenzo Collins, an African-American wielding a brick who later died. It set off protests by African-Americans and advocates for the mentally ill.
It's difficult to predict what effect the changing mix of the Tristate's population will have on relations.
"We could have some new kinds of tensions," Mr. Tuchfarber said. "Any time you get diversity, ethnic and racial diversity, there's going to be some cultural tension."
"If the economy were to take a nose dive, I'm sure tensions would go way up," added the Rev. Duane Holm, director of the Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati.
From pulpit exchanges to groups meeting in living rooms to discuss race and ethnic relations, some in the Tristate are talking about the issue. But many say there is still plenty the region and its power brokers need to do to make a difference.
"More minorities will fill city council and be teachers, so more people will be exposed to minorities," said Elea Mihou, 19, president of the newly formed Students Together Against Racism at Northern Kentucky University. "But at the same time, there are people who are tied to their own ways and will backlash against change."
Karla Irvine, executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal, said it'll be a struggle for whites to give up power. "I think it's going to take a real jolt for people to give up the power structure," she said. "White people are going to have to change in their attitudes, their behaviors, their willingness to move over."
Added the Rev. Aaron Greenlea, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater Cincinnati: "The powers that be have to realize they have to share power to bring about unity."
Blacks must be fully accepted into the local economy, said James Clingman, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati African-American Chamber of Commerce.
In 1997, African-Americans accounted for 40.5 percent of the city of Cincinnati's population, according to Claritas Inc.
In 1990, 38.3 percent of the city's blacks lived in poverty, compared with 13.9 percent of the city's whites, according to information from a forthcoming report from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development.
Said Ms. Irvine: "We're leaving behind generations of poor black people clustered in a few neighborhoods with very few opportunities." "If this city is going to move forward it has to understand that 40 percent of the population is just not going to be kicked over into the junk heap," Mr. Clingman said. "It's going to be class," said Mr. Coates, the Miami University professor. "I don't think anyone in Indian Hill is going to be opposed to a black moving into a $1 million home."
But as urban renewal squeezes the poor of all races and ethnicities out of low-income housing and the changing workplace shuts out unskilled workers, race relations could become more tense. This will be particularly true if the economy declines.
"As more poor get displaced by competition, there is more competition for affordable housing, and it will become one race pitted against another," Mr. Coates said.
A solution: improving our education system.
"We need to ask why we're filling up prisons and not our colleges," Mr. Coates said. "How do we make our schools work for all of our population?" Cincinnati Councilman Dwight Tillery said the city's power players, mostly white men, need to open the doors to others.
"There has to be a forum in which everybody is allowed an opportunity to come in and sit at the table of power," he said. "We have not understood that we have to reach out and bring every group under the tent for decision-making and responsibility."
"The point is diversity is going to continue no matter what we do," added Yolaine Armand, a University of Cincinnati associate professor of sociology and head of the UC department of humanities and social sciences. "Whether they like each other or not, they have to live together."
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