the population. That number is expected to grow to 88.5
million by 2050, when one in five will be 65 or older. One
consequence of the graying of America is a growing fear on
the part of younger Americans that they will have to bear
the financial burden for their retired elders. In large part
because older Americans are healthier than ever, they are
redefining age, increasingly bringing the activism they
exercised in the 1960s and ’70s to bear on age-related
causes. At the same time, America continues to be ob-
sessed with youth. And Baby Boomers and other older
Americans worry about such catastrophic ailments as
Alzheimer’s disease—a fear that has created its own lingo,
with the term “senior moment” used almost as a magic
charm every time an older person forgets a name or
phone number.
The demographics of the workplace have also changed.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, only 15 per-
cent of those entering the work force were white males,
with 25 percent white females, and the balance Latino,
black, and Asian. Latinos are the fastest growing minority
in America. Their numbers increased more than 50 percent
between 1990 and 2000, to 35.3 million. In 2008, the coun-
try’s Latinos numbered 46.7 million—15 percent of the
population. Since 2000, the Latino community has grown
larger than the African American community, which num-
bered 41.1 million, or 13.5 percent, in 2008. That disparity
is expected to grow wider by 2050, when the Latino popu-
lation is projected to reach 132.8 million, the African
American population, 65.7 million. (In 2008 the Asian and
Pacific Islander population was 5 percent.) The Latiniza-
tion of America is changing everything from national
On Becoming a Leader