Whilst that request for the ‘ethnic costumes’ was indeed unfortunate, it’s no different than the sort of request routinely made to the white Ukrainian community in Western Canada (where the world’s largest number of classical Ukrainian dancers is produced, as an aside).

Also, it should be noted that the group who produced that video to the tune of ‘beat it’ tends to be filled with left-of-centre/liberal activists, who are largely mirroring the campaign rhetoric of the Liberal party leader, Michael Ignatieff, that ‘a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian’, even as his party seems to be reaching a historic low in support amongst ethnic communities in Canada.

Some of you may be interested in watching the episode of TVOntario’s (provincial public broadcaster) current affairs programme, the Agenda, called Chasing the Ethnic Vote.

a minor, but not trivial, supplementation is that 50% of the american hispanic/latino community identifies white as their race. so it is non-hispanic whites (most of the rest identify as “other”, and some as black). interestingly, this sociological pattern matches the genetics nearly perfectly:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2156/12/28/figure/F1

According to the US census, the overall growth rate for Indians from 1990 to 2000 was 105.87 percent. The average growth rate for the whole of USA was only 7.6 percent.

Indians comprise 16.4 percent of the Asian-American community. They are the third largest in the Asian American population. In 2000, of all the foreign born population in USA, Indians were 1.007 million. From 2000 onwards the growth rate and the per cent rate of Indians amongst all the immigrants has increased by over 100 percent. According to the US Census Bureau, between 1990 and 2000, the Indian population in the US grew 130% — 10 times the national average of 13%.

So if growth rates like this continue, maybe we will see US politicians pandering to Desi folks in a decade or so, who knows? Although by 2050 Whites will only make up about half the population anyway (or so I keep hearing people repeating) and Hispanics will be nearly 30%

Gotta disagree. Yes, the mainstream message is “I am White, or at least White-Washed, like you all and I am Christian, and definitely not a secret Muslim” but on the ground, the kind of pandering that Layla is talking about happens all the time in America, including carefully constructed literature to make it appear as though there are many non-White supporters of GOP. Fact remains, Blacks and Hispanics overwhelmingly vote for democrats. Cubans vote Republican.

Cubans in Florida are pandered to as well with musicians and famous Cuban artists.

In the US Asians make up a mere 3% of the population, and most are East Asians. If and when Asians become a major political force, I am sure we’ll get our share of pandering to.

I love Canada, especially Toronto and Vancouver. Very friendly people, especially the desi immigrants. I get a nice vibe there every time I visit.