Saturday, August 5, 2006

Maine remains the 'whitest state'

By ANN S. KIM and JOSIE HUANG Blethen Maine Newspapers

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

When Hamza Haadoow moved to Portland in December 2000, the Somali community was so small that everybody recognized each other.

Now there are so many Somalis that Haadoow is often mistaken for a new arrival. "The population has increased so the people don't know each other now," said Haadoow, a 32-year-old father of four.

The number of blacks in Maine nearly doubled between 2000 and 2005, but the state still has the nation's whitest population, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Friday.

A significant portion of the black population is in Portland, a resettlement area for refugees, including those from Somalia and Sudan. Many Somalis have also made the Lewiston-Auburn area their home in recent years.

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/3000062.shtml