I live in Montgomery County, Maryland, a county which has been ranked among the most affluent in the nation for a long time. With the latest Census figures, it has jumped into the top ranks of another list: affluent majority-minority counties.

Gringos remain the largest group within the county, but their share of the pie is now only forty-nine percent. Somewhat more interesting, Maryland's gringo population stands at only fifty-five percent of the whole, which means that it will likely join the ranks of majority-minority states in 2020. As of 2000, only California, Hawaii and New Mexico were majority-minority, though Texas will join that list when official 2010 figures are published. In addition, the (not a state) District of Columbia, which sits on MoCo's southern border, has been majority-minority for decades. The news that Montgomery County isn't the bastion of white wealth it used to be did come as a surprise to some, though not as severe a surprise as some might imagine.

In the not-so-distant past, such an announcement would have created cries of panic (or, at the very least, indignation). And the Washington Post story about this news did have a few astonishingly ignorant comments tacked on at the end. Many of these comments had weird racial taxation themes. Apparently, only white people pay taxes. Or something like that. I couldn't quite get my head around what these folks were saying. Oh well.

Slowly but surely, the very concept of race is becoming less important to more and more people. I remember when my alma mater (the University of Missouri) hired Mike Anderson as head basketball coach. He was the first African-American hired by the school to coach a major sport, a fact that basically went unreported. Everybody knew, of course, but the fact itself didn't seem all that pertinent to the news of his hiring. The important questions were "Will he win?" and "Will he cheat?" So far he has won and he hasn't cheated, and he remains the coach. When he stops winning or starts cheating, he won't be the coach anymore. That's how coaching should work, and more and more, race doesn't enter into it.

Of course, race does matter to a lot of people. Many white people are uncomfortable in situations when surrounded by lots of non-gringo folks. Some minority kids who do well at school are accused of "acting white." I have anecdotal evidence that tells me these attitudes are slowly changing, largely because the people perpetuating them are dying. People my age (forty) and younger have fewer hangups about race and sexual orientation than our parents, but that's still a relative statement.

On a more personal note, this news does make me more comfortable. Before moving inside the Beltway, I lived in Durham, N.C. Durham has long been about half-and-half black and white, and the latest figures peg this at approximately 44 percent for each group. Hispanics and a small Asian population make up most of the rest. I'm used to living in a place where I see lots of folks who look nothing like me. Accordingly, I tend to get a little jittery when visiting places where gringos predominate. My prejudice is against homogeneity, I guess. Sue me.

So what will I do now that my county no longer has a majority race? Well, tonight I feasted on pupusas and tamales. I think I'll grab some masala dosai tomorrow.

That's a pretty good start.

Jon Worley wishes more Thai immigrants would move to his corner of Montgomery County.