what happened when the music began.rn”Yes!” She was thrilled.rnWe talked for some time. She thoughtrnwe Americans had never been a tribe; Irntold her I thought that once we had.rnWliether or not I was right, she made thernwisest remark of the night. She was jokingrnwhen she answered me, but spokernwith utter sincerity. Up on her toes, nearlyrnhopping with excitement, she said, “Irnwant to be in a tribe!”rnSo do we all.rnBrian Kirkpatrick is a physician who livesrnin Baltimore, Maryland.rnLetter FromrnGreen Bayrnhy Michael KuehlrnPacking thern”All-America Citv”rnPerhaps one can forgive Vernon Taylorrnfor indulging in a bit of self-aggrandizement.rnAfter all, as the Green Bay Press-rnGazette’s newest “diversity” columnist,rnhe’s now a recognizable face, a householdrnname, a minor celebrity in a fabledrnNadonal Football League cit)’. His opinionsrnon race, culture, and politics arernread by tens of thousands of people. Arnportly middle-aged black man with arnshort Afro and scraggly mustache, Taylorrndebuted in May 1999 with a column entidedrn(predictably) “Green Bay Enrichedrnby Growing Diversity.” As one of the firstrnblacks. Packers excepted, to live and workrnin Green Bay, he portrayed himself as anrnhistoric figure, a harbinger of demographicrntransformation, a symbol ofrnprogress and diversit}’ and multiculturalism.rnNot surprising]}’, his coming to I’itletownrnwas a result of affirmadve acHon.rnI came to Green Bay, as so many ofrnus as people of color do, for opportunityrn. . . There was a positionrnopen, resulting from the transfer ofrna friend, at GMAC. Affirmative actionrnwas alive and well in the carKrn1970’s, so it was recommended thatrnI be hired.rnHe arrived from Texas on October 27,rn1974, with a trunk, suitcase, and $28,rnand, as he puts it, “the rest is history.”rnBut, alas, the Green Bav of old was asrn”white” as Oslo or Dublin or Helsinkirnand, moreover, benighted and philistine;rnapart from the Packers —the legends ofrnCurly Lambeau, Don Hutson, VincernLombardi, Bart Starr, the “Ice Bowl,” thernfirst Super Bowl champions—a place indistinguishable,rnracially and culturally,rnfrom such “cowtowns” as Fargo, SiouxrnFalls, Duluth, and Cedar Rapids. “Tornmv surprise,” he repines:rnI discovered that Green Bay was arnrural-blue collar community thatrnwas 99.75 percent white. Notrnknowing, most people would assumernthat a professional sports cityrnlike Green Bay would be more urban,rncosmopolitan and racially diverse.rnThere was very little that Irncould identify with. The OneidarnTribe of Indians was the onlv ethnicrngroup of major proportion.rnTwent)’-five years later. Green Bay isrnnot dramatically more “cosmopolitan.”rnIn some ways, it is more “urban” —morerncrime, gangs, drugs, po’ert)’, overcrowdedrnjails, and traffic congesHon. And it isrnfar more “racially diverse.” “As we enterrninto the year 2000,” writes Taylor, “thousandsrnhave followed since my arrival inrn1974.” How many thousands? Howrnmuch “diversit}”?rnOn Christmas Eve 1996, in a paean tornimmigration, the Press-Gazette reported;rnIn tf lis area,. ,112 egal immigrantsrn—most Asians — have comernto Brown, Door, Kewaunee, Ocontornand Shawano counties the pastrn10 years. In addition, 3,000 torn4,000 Hispanics—including an estimatedrn1,000 illegal immigrants—rnhave moved into the region.rnThe editorial did not mention thernsource or year of such estimates. Ihilessrndated by two or three ears, however, thernnumbers were a gross underestimation.rnFor by this date, a week from 1997, thernpopulaHon of Hmong and Lao in BrownrnCounfy- alone far exceeded 2,112.rnAccording to a pamphlet distributedrnby the United Way of Brown County,rn”Brown Counfy’s total Southeast Asianrnpopulation is estimated around 4,200.rnOf this total, approximately 86% arernHmong, 13% are Laotian, and 1% arernVietnamese.” And less than three yearsrnlater, the Hispanic population may havernreached 15,000, including thousands ofrnillegal immigrants. “At the moment,”rnwrites Tom Perry in a pro-immigrationrneditorial for the Gazette:rnno one knows for certain just howrnmany people with ties to Centralrnand South America live in GreenrnBay . .. Estimates range from 6,000rnto 10,000 people. The 2000 censusrnshould bring the number in sharperrnfocus.rnLast vear, a TV anchorwoman saidrnthat there were 10,000 Hispanics inrnGreen Bay, and that their ninnbers arernexpected to double in four to five years.rnBut this assessment might have been anrnunderestimation. “Because census datarnis old and many new Hispanic residentsrnare difficult to track,” writes Jim Kneiszelrnin the Press-Gazette:rnthe ethnic populahons in GreenrnBay are an official myster}’. Butrnanecdotal evidence points to dynamicrnHispanic growth and smallerrngains in ^Asian growth . . . [T]herndepartment of refugee migrationrnand Hispanic services for the Archdiocesernof Green Bay estimatesrnthere are 10,000 Hispanics in therncity and 15,000 in greater GreenrnBay. According to Barbara Biebelrnof the Archdiocese, there are aboutrn5,000 Asian residents in the area.rnThe most illuminating and portentousrnstatistic is the number of nonwhite studentsrnin Green Bay’s public schools. “InrnGreen Bay,” write the editors of the Press-rnGazette, “white enrollment in the publicrnschools was 82.8 percent last year comparedrnto 92.3 percent in 1985. Hispanic,rnblack, Asian and American Indian studentrnpopulations all increased.” Put inversely,rnminority enrollment in GreenrnBay’s public schools more than doubledrnin ten years, from 7.7 percent in 1985 torn17.2 percent in 1995.rnRoughlv half of the Asian and Latinornstudents cannot speak English. Accordingrnto the Press-Gazette:rnThis year, about 1,800 of GreenrnBay’s 19,500 public school studentsrncan’t speak English well enough tornsucceed in the classroom. Most arernpart of an influx of Asian and Hispanicrnimmigration and migrationrn40/CHRONICLESrnrnrn