The diversity in our neighborhoods

The numbers tell a dramatic story.

In DuPage County, the white population has actually fallen in the past 10 years, a decline of 6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the same decade, the black population in DuPage grew 53 percent, the Hispanic population climbed 49 percent and the Asian population increased 29.5 percent.

In Will County, where the 35 percent overall increase in population led the Chicago region, a good chunk of that increase was people of color: Asians, 177 percent; Hispanics, 142 percent; blacks, 44 percent.

The diversity numbers may not be quite as stunning elsewhere, but they are just as unmistakable.

In booming Kane County, increases in the Asian, Hispanic and black populations of 145 percent, 65 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

In Lake County, increases in the Asian and Hispanic populations of 77 percent and 51 percent.

In McHenry County, a rise in the Hispanic population of 80 percent.

In the Northwest suburbs of Cook County, the aggregate numbers are a bit more difficult to detail since the county numbers include a mix of Chicago and the South suburbs.

But it is clear in surveying the figures in individual suburbs that, in town after town, large increases in Hispanic, black and Asian populations were recorded.

Are all the numbers spread throughout the suburbs precise? Undoubtedly not. The census figures are based on self-reporting, and that leaves them flawed by individual definitions of race and ethnicity.

But it is clear beyond any doubt that the suburban population isn’t just growing in diversity. It is booming.

That is a fact.

Whether you celebrate that diversity or are troubled by it, that is a fact.

An unalterable fact.

One that will not countenance any turning back of the clock.

And so it seems to us, as we have suggested in this space before, we as a community shouldn’t get sidetracked by the question of whether this diversity is a good or bad thing. That’s beside the point. No matter the answer, that diversity is here to stay. It is real.

The question we should be asking is how do we all work together to build a community of harmony and understanding?

Make no mistake. Each of us, regardless of our racial or ethnic background, regardless of our politics, has a stake in building that community.

Because when all is said and done, we are more than the color of our skin, the language of our ancestors, the customs that we keep.

We are, in the end, neighbors.

Let’s all act like it.