If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know that the South Bay is pretty ethnically diverse. Well, in cities like Milipitas and Cupertino, Asians make up the majority, as reported the other day in The San Jose Mercury News and the latest census data:
“Cupertino has joined Milpitas as the second city in the South Bay where a majority of residents is now Asian, a rare cultural phenomenon that sets the two communities apart — even in one of the most diverse counties in the country. Its Chinese population was already well established, but Cupertino’s rapidly growing Indian community has pushed its overall Asian population to 56 percent of residents, according new census data released today… Asians already were a narrow majority in Milpitas in 2000, but with a growing population of Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Vietnamese, Asians now make up nearly 60 percent of Milpitas’ population.”
However, what is more typical in the South Bay, and much of California overall, is that no single ethnic group commands a majority – Whites, Latino and Asians make up many communities in California. Of course, if you’ve been a minority living outside of California and have just moved to the area, this can take some getting used to. And there can be some backlash, especially when it comes to high schools and “white flight.” Asian Americans in the South Bay have also flexed their political muscle a little bit more (at least until recently relative to San Francisco)
I guess this shouldn’t be anything too new to those who live in Los Angeles; I remember when I lived in the East Coast, hearing about places like Little Taipei in Monterey Park and more recently, visiting friends in Rowland Heights and going to the shoping plazas and just being shocked to see how Asian everything was – like a city was plucked from Taiwan or China and placed in California. I don’t necessarily get that feeling when I am in Milpitas or Cupertino – but maybe I am just so used to those cities now that I don’t even think twice. I don’t spend much time in the East Bay, so maybe some of you have some thoughts on how the East Bay is changing demographically.
