WASHINGTON—Demographers say that in 50 years America will have a different face.

With an overwhelmingly Caucasian population today, by the year 2050 the country will be just 52 percent Caucasian—with the rest composed of so-called minorities.

The increasing non-white population change will show itself as early as the year 2005 when Hispanic Americans are expected to become the country’s largest minority group, surpassing Blacks who have long been the country’s largest ethnic minority. By 2006, Hispanics will account for 12.8 percent of the total U.S. population, whites 69.5 percent, Blacks 12.4 percent, Asian and Pacific Islander 4.5 percent and American Indians and Eskimos 0.8 percent.

States like California and Texas have long been home to a large segment of the country’s Hispanics and Asians. In these states, many counties and towns already look like foreign countries—a phenomenon that even politicians must take seriously if they want to get elected.

"The entire country is changing," said Eric Rodriguez, senior policy analyst at the National Council of LaRaza, the country’s leading Hispanic civil rights group, based in Washington, D.C.

"There are going to be fewer and fewer non-minorities across the board, and government policy-makers have to be aware of that. They have to start realizing that programs and jobs are needed to serve minorities more proportionately. This means we have to change the way we think about this country overall—and that’s not happening quickly enough," he said.

Scholars, minority leaders and politicians differ on what the rapid change in the face of the American population means. "First, this new majority of minorities is not likely to mean what we think it will mean," said Roderick Harrison, director of the Data Bank project at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Black think tank in Washington.

He cited Miami, Fla., where "there are third and fourth generation Cubans who don’t speak Spanish very well, many don’t speak it all. What can happen is that some portions of the Hispanic population may experience assimilation of the sort that European immigrants experienced" at best, and intermarriage with other ethnic groups at worst.

Still, some leaders are working to build coalitions across communities of color, hoping for maximum cooperation to garner greater economic, social and political power.

Eric Rodriguez, senior policy analyst at the National Council of LaRaza, the Washington-based Hispanic civil rights organization, said, "what we’re talking about is demographic growth of the Hispanic population and its concentrated in certain regions, but we’re definitely seeing Hispanic populations growing in other areas, including some of the mountain states and some of the southern states.

"I think Hispanics, certainly in the policy making field, are aware of their increasing population," he added, saying Hispanics see "subtle changes" that make them believe that the country is more receptive to them. These changes include increased Spanish-language television, more Hispanic actors as well as the accepting of Latino music in the mainstream.

"On the other hand, there is still great anti-immigrant sentiment that Hispanics see coming through the policies of Congress and cases of racism locally all over the country," Mr. Rodriguez said.

Mario Acosta, executive director of the Latino Civil Rights Center, said his group realizes the potential of cooperation.

"We’ve started the process of building bridges and development with the African American and other minority communities in the Washington regional area," said Mr. Acosta.

"We want to see what are the areas of common ground between African Americans, Asians and Latinos. Now we are moving in the direction of establishing task forces in areas such as education, public safety, voting rights, language and different areas of civil rights, which we think a collaboration of these groups will make all of the groups stronger."

Joyce Nishioko, an Asian-American journalist, writes for Asian Week newspaper, which is based in San Francisco and whose weekly circulation is 40,000.

"I think Asian Americans are excited about their rising numbers because for first time they have a lot of clout, especially here in San Francisco where the school district is over 50 percent Asian American," she told The Final Call in a telephone interview from her office.

She cited the election of more Asian-Americans in the country as an example of the group’s growing numbers and clout in the country. In 1997, citizens in Washington state elected an Asian-American as the state’s first non-white governor, perhaps one of the clearest signs of the changing face of the U.S.

"Asian people are starting to organize, especially Asian immigrants who are really being educated and they are speaking out much more," the journalist said. As far as building coalitions with other minorities, she said, some Asians are discussing these possibilities.

In California, Asian, Black and Latino media outlets and the progressive Pacific News Service have formed the New Media Coalition, which includes ethnic newspapers, radio and television stations. Coalition members say the network’s outreach, with more than 100 news organizations, surpasses mainstream media in many metropolitan areas.

"America has traditionally seen itself as a nation predominately white, with a Black minority," said Mr. Harrison of the Joint Center. With the end of the Immigration Reform Act of 1965, which essentially ended quotas favoring European immigrants, more people from Asia and Latin America entered America, which is partly responsible for the U.S. population boom among Asians and Hispanics, he said.

"We’re already seeing states and cities which have majority Latino populations. I think one of the things that needs to be talked about are coalitions between ethnic groups of color—Black, brown, yellow, red," said Dr. Ray Winbush, director of Fisk University’s Institute of Race Relations in Nashville, Tenn.

Much talk has been devoted to potential clashes among so-called minorities vying for power, observers note. Clashes notably in California between Black and Latino students and some gang members, and Blacks and Koreans during the L.A. riots are pointed to as harbingers of friction, they say.

On the other hand, attacks on affirmative action, racial profiling that strikes Blacks, Latinos and Asians, and white hostility have sowed seeds of potential unity.

"White supremacists are probably going to continue to try to divide people of color, saying that they have separate agendas," said Dr. Winbush. "I think it’s very important for minority civil rights organizations and other groups to try to pull together and have dialogue. For example, I know Minister Louis Farrakhan has always reached out a great deal to Native Americans. This kind of dialogue has to continue in America, so that we don’t continue emphasizing all of this division among people of color."

According to Butch Wing, a Chinese American who directs the National Rainbow Coalition’s office in San Francisco, "It’s vital for the progressive coalition in the rainbow to make sure that we look at coalition politics as the key to strategic orientation in the years ahead. It means advancing the dialogue and formulating a common agenda to rally around."

Asians, Blacks, Native Americans and Latinos have suffered from the "politics of division" by Republicans and the right wing on "issues of mass destruction," said Mr. Wing. He counts Proposition 187, as well as other issues which targeted immigrant access to jobs and equal education.

"Those politics of division of the Republican right really came home to roost in November," Mr. Wing said. Latinos and Blacks helped many minorities get elected and defeated many lawmakers hostile to their common agendas, he said.

"There are some possibilities for coalitions, but people must not be so na�ve in thinking that emerging ethnic groups don’t want their share of power," said Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), whose congressional district is 43 percent Hispanic. "They want to take advantage of that and they want to assume the role that others had when they had the numbers and leadership.

"I think Jesse Jackson, as early as 1984, talked about rainbow politics and reached out to Latinos, Asians and Native Americans to join in a rainbow coalition to elect their president," Rep. Waters added. "I think a lot of people didn’t understand that at the time. He pursued it again in 1988 and helped a lot of people understand that coalition politics makes sense."

Rep. Waters said Blacks "never realized our own strength. We don’t register, we don’t vote, we don’t elect people in the numbers that we can. So before we talk about coalition politics, when you come to the table you’ve got to come with something."

Are whites in America, who are accustomed to being the majority group in the United States, prepared to deal with this inevitable changing face of the country? David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center For Political Studies, said the increasing number of minorities isn’t going to change two things—money and politics.

"There is no shift in money in terms of who has the money in the country—non Hispanic whites. There are some people who don’t believe that money talks, but those people don’t know anything about politics," Mr. Bositis said. "This is going to be just as true in the future as it is now. The people who are going to control most of the money in America are going to be white."

Mr. Bositis explained that currently there are 30 states that are majority white. "In 2050, those states are still going to be majority white," he said, adding that two representatives are elected from each to the U.S. Senate. "That means that 50 years from now there are going to be 30 states that are majority white which will elect two white Senators and the U.S. Senate is one body which controls the country. So in 50 years whites will control the money and the U.S. Senate.

"The only whites who are concerned about increasing minorities is white racists, but for whites controlling the money, this doesn’t upset them," he said.

Dr. Winbush says Blacks, Hispanics and other so-called minorities don’t have to wait until their populations nearly equal whites to take advantage of unity.