In the 1950s, school kids were taught that America was a great melting pot in which cultures were easily assimilated. The new thinking describes us as an ethnic salad bowl, a stew or a mosaic, in which all the components retain their individual tastes, colors and identities. Editors this week groped for the correct verb to describe how Florida's Hispanic population had grown larger during the last decade than the number of African-Americans. Nothing sounded right. It isn't a competition, and, of course, there was no bloodless coup.
Top minority is itself a dubious accolade.