New Hampshire has a problem it's not sure how to fix: It's 94 percent white

This problem might exist in most of New England, but The New York Times is concerned with New Hampshire, which is trying to fix the problem of being too white.

New Hampshire is 94% white. It is now trying to figure out how to change that. https://t.co/aVB7YkkKFD

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 28, 2018

The New York Times reports:

New Hampshire, like its neighbors Vermont and Maine, is nearly all white. This has posed an array of problems for new arrivals, who often find themselves isolated and alone, without the comfort and support of a built-in community.

It has also posed problems for employers in these states, who find that their homogeneity can be a barrier to recruiting and retaining workers of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.

…

New Hampshire’s neighbors, Vermont and Maine, are 95 percent white, making northern New England collectively the whitest region in a nation where white residents make up just over 60 percent of the population, according to the census.

Is it just us, or is it weird that the Times opened its article by sharing the plight of Catalina Celentano, who “used to hold training sessions for hospital workers in Lynn, Mass., to familiarize them with the cultures of patients from Cambodia, Russia and the Dominican Republic” but “suddenly found herself in an ethnic vacuum” when she moved to New Hampshire?

“The only person I spoke Spanish with was a cleaning lady and she moved back to Colombia,” Celentano said.

We believe diversity is almost always a good thing, but we really are getting a chuckle out of lily-white New Hampshire wondering how to make itself less white. Maybe start by making the state more livable for everybody … or build a big empty city among all the vacation homes for people to move into?

The title of the article is completely misleading. The premise of the article is completely racist. I’m 56 and I have never interviewed for a job or bought a house based on seeing someone of a particular race. That’s absurd. Just be respectful at work or at home.

— Paul (@plsleet) July 28, 2018

Who writes these headlines?

— js (@GinJake_S) July 28, 2018

To be honest, the tweet is misleading — according to the article, a lot of what New Hampshire sees as a problem is that the state has an older population and has trouble attracting young people as well.

“How do we bring in millennials when they can’t afford housing or can’t get from Point A to Point B?”

Oregon shifts uncomfortably. https://t.co/K9OziZpskD

— Chris (@likeawest) July 28, 2018

I still fail to see why it matters in the slightest.

— Devon (@AhhhBeees) July 28, 2018

According to the Times, the state is looking at its overwhelming whiteness more as a business problem than a social one: “diversity has become a bottom-line imperative for companies competing for talent.”

Maybe immigrants just can’t find a house there?

“Housing is at the core of why there aren’t more immigrants — there’s no place for them,” [demographic analyst Peter Francese] said. “An ethnic person who wants to come in with a family of four or five people is not going to find a home they can afford, and there’s almost no rental housing whatsoever.” In addition, Northern New England has the nation’s highest concentration of second homes, making the housing market especially tight.

So that’s another problem: the state has the highest concentration of second homes? Yeah, we hear that even socialists from Vermont are tying up three homes.

Wow. What an amazingly stupid article.

— Leonor (@Leonor_Chaves) July 28, 2018

If you find yourself saying "we have too many people of this color and should change that," you need to re-evaluate your life and philosophy immediately. https://t.co/StB95axOFC

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) July 28, 2018

New Hampshire is almost exclusively white in winter, but turns green in spring and summer, and all sorts of bold colors in autumn. But I think The NEw York Times knows this. Why are they concerned about skin color again? #Seasons

— mediamatt (@mediamatt) July 28, 2018

If half the white folks in New Hampshire were to leave the state, the population would be only 88% white.

You’re welcome. (That was really easy tbh.)

— Victor Laszlo (@glenn_fogle) July 28, 2018