A recent study of the census data reveals some interesting facts. Going back to 1970, there were 150,338 white residents, 10,677 black and African American residents, and 1,513 Asian residents.  The census data did not report any number of Hispanic residents at the time.

Now looking in 2010, the numbers reported were 147,600 whites, 24,946 African Americans, 24,174 Asians, and 10,607 Hispanics. To fully represent the numbers reported properly, each race category saw a huge increase from 2000 to 2010. Still, the Asian and Hispanic populations saw the most growth, each seeing a 100% growth in the last 10 years.

It's interesting to see how Champaign County has developped over the last 40 years. It will be more interesting to see how these changes are represented in our political makeup, our government, our businesses, our development plans, our schools, our contracts, our social spaces, our ideas, our Identity.  Diversity has evolved beyond an idea, a company goal, or a political catch phrase -diversity is here.

The question now is how does diversity prosper as apart of our identity? How do conversations evolve because physical numbers demand evolution? Will we abandon phrases such as "those people" or "that neighborhood" when we refer to other ethnicities? How will our knowledge alter behavior? Halfway Interesting, on this topic see you in 2050.......more to come.