By Mike Males

As San Francisco becomes the first major city whose youth population mirrors the diversity of the globe, its official attitudes and policies toward youth remain mired in the past. The city’s youth—43% Asian, 25% Latino, 20% white, 11% black—demonstrate that California’s and the nation’s transition from a white-dominated to a multicultural society brings greater opportunities and safer communities. Some initial steps to shaking up and modernizing the discussion include debates over (a) reducing San Francisco’s voting and office-holding age to 15, and (b) classifying anti-youth invective the same as hate speech vilifying racial and other groups. Every group in town endorses some cliché about “empowering youth;” let us now get serious about it. Read more »