(The Root) -- Recent census data reveal that, for the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half of all children born in the United States, with 50.4 percent of children under age 1 identified as Hispanic, black, Asian American or members of another ethnic minority group.

In terms of the overall population, African Americans are the second-largest minority group in the nation (after Hispanics), with a 1.6 percent increase between 2010 and 2011. Minorities now make up nearly 37 percent of the overall U.S. population, and it's predicted that by 2042, a minority of Americans will be non-Hispanic whites.

What do all these numbers mean for our understanding of race, for the issues that affect communities of color and for our very concept of who is a "minority" in this country? The Root has gathered a variety of perspectives on the significance of America's becoming a browner nation for a series of interviews on whether, and why, we should pay attention to these demographic changes.

For the first in the series, The Root talked to Sandra E. Timmons, president of A Better Chance, an organization dedicated to boosting the number of well-educated young people of color who are prepared to assume positions of responsibility and leadership in American society. With alumni including Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and singer Tracy Chapman, it carries out its mission by placing talented children who are educationally disadvantaged in college-preparatory schools.

The Root: For the first time in U.S. history, most of the nation's babies are members of minority groups, and the census has forecast that non-Hispanic whites will be outnumbered in the United States by 2042. What might be the positive and negative effects of these changing demographics when it comes to issues affecting communities of color?

Sandra E. Timmons: California and Florida have gone majority minority already. There have been signs all along that our presence as a multiethnic nation was changing. I think there is fear, certainly, because of our complicated, tortured history of race and race relations and all of those things. I think our whole approach to things like education has been so shortsighted -- when it comes to things like what it means to invest in the next generation, we are not looking at the longer-term, bigger-term picture.