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The introduction defines both the issues and the groups being studied, and explains why the topic is important. It provides background to the study with a look at political and social conditions in the United States in the immediate post-World War II era, as well as changes that occurred within rightist movements as the nation moved into the Cold War era. It introduces key individuals and organizations that will be examined in the book, and provides brief summaries of the chapters to follow.

This chapter focuses on right-wing women’s racism and opposition to the civil rights movement, particularly as it pertained to school desegregation. Thousands of right-wing women in both the South and the North openly revealed their racism and were wholehearted participants in crusades against school desegregation. Rightist women were often in the forefront of anti-school busing campaigns. While white Southern women often focused on the Southern tradition of separation of the races in their arguments against school desegregation, many Christian women from regions throughout the country argued that God wanted the races to remain segregated. The baby boom generation, however, was revealing itself to be more agreeable to racial mixing.

An aging-population tsunami is sweeping the world, and capital markets have buffeted pension plans while retiree healthcare care costs rise without letup. This coincidence of shocks marks a crucial moment for global retirement security, since public and private retirement systems everywhere have fared poorly just as the massive Baby Boom generation moves into retirement. Clearly, urgent efforts are needed to enhance risk management for public and private pension systems around the world. This book explores three aspects of the evolution of risk and reward-sharing in retirement to offer guidance to pension fiduciaries, plan participants, and policymakers. First, it focuses on new perspectives for assessing retirement risks and rewards. Second, it evaluates efforts to insure retirement plans. Lastly, it provides several new strategies for managing retirement system risk. This chapter previews the remarkable findings by contributors to this volume.

Chapter 2 examines three health issues that drew the attention of rightist women: fluoridation of public water systems, mental health programs, and polio vaccinations. In regard to both fluoridation and polio vaccination, rightist women feared that they were detrimental to Americans’ health, especially that of the baby boom generation. The women protested government involvement in mental health programs. Many women on the right believed that, as a result of their activism against some government programs, they were likely to be targeted as “deviant.” They protested the administering of mental health examinations in public schools, fearing that such tests were not only intrusive, enabling government to learn more about them and their families than they wished to disclose, but also that the tests could actually cause children to develop mental problems. Some on the far right believed that the government, communists, Jews, and the scientific elite were conspiring to gain control of the nation via various health programs.

This chapter considers the economic and financial status of millions of baby boomers as they face retirement. It describes the financial power of baby boomers, who are widely considered the wealthiest, healthiest, most vigorous, and best formally educated soon-to-be-older adult group in the history of the United States. It looks at the poverty rates of boomers of color, which are dramatically higher when compared to their White, non-Latino/a counterparts. The chapter concludes by posing the question whether retirement is even a viable option for many boomers of color. It argues that old age and retirement will not constitute “golden years” for countless numbers of baby boomers of color. Their economic situation places them in an at-risk category for severe economic hardships and the social and health consequences associated with a low income level.

This chapter focuses on several different dimensions related to the health of baby boomers, highlighting boomers of color whenever data are available. It also presents a profile of current and projected health care needs and financial costs of baby boomers, with particular attention to debates about Medicare. How the nation addresses these health care and cost challenges will play a significant role in the well-being of this cohort. Just as with Social Security, debates over Medicare raise profound ethical questions about intra- and intergenerational tradeoffs in how we spend health care money. The discussions cover the role of racism in creating health disparities; the health issues and concerns faced by boomers of color; the need for a medical workforce prepared to meet the diverse medical needs of boomers; and uninsured boomers.

This chapter introduces various demographic facets of baby boomers of color. According to the 2011 U.S. Census, no racial or ethnic group of color has more than 10% of its population in the boomer category, with Asians/Pacific Islanders (9.8%) having the largest percentage of boomers, followed by African Americans (9%), Latino/as (6.1%), and American/Alaskan Natives (0.9%). In 2008 almost 60% of Asians, Hawaiians, and Pacific Islander older adults lived in three states: California, Hawaii, and New York. African Americans, however, had a wider national distribution, with 50% living in eight states, including New York, Florida, and California. The remainder of the chapter discusses how the boomer generation is best understood within the context of two powerful and distinct demographic trends in the United States: the nation is graying (getting older) and also becoming more diverse ethnically and racially, that is, browning.

This chapter lays the groundwork for utilizing an assets perspective when working with baby boomers of color. An assets or strengths perspective finds saliency in practice and scholarship that specifically embraces empowerment of marginalized groups. Instead of casting boomers of color as helpless and/or dependent, as albatrosses around their necks of families, communities, and society, an assets perspective emphasizes how boomers and their communities have survived, and even thrived, against very impressive odds. Many of these boomers have lasted through high rates of violence in their neighborhoods, substance abuse, inferior schools and formal systems of care, high rates of imprisonment, poor nutrition, participation in wars, employment in dangerous occupations, and more economic recessions than any other previous generation. How did they manage to make it to this life stage? There were certainly individual and social forces operating to help them succeed and enter older adulthood. An assets perspective helps put this puzzle together.

The family can be a particularly powerful asset in the lives of baby boomers of color and its importance increases as boomers enter later life. This chapter focuses on the importance of the family and four specific aspects: grandparents raising grandchildren; family support; transmission of cultural history and values; and financial support. These four dimensions are not mutually exclusive and not equally represented in strength across all boomer families. It is important not to romanticize or underappreciate families, and thus attention will be paid to the rewards and challenges associated with viewing family as a boomer asset. The chapter also considers the challenges in thinking about families and boomers from an asset perspective, in order to prepare social workers for this form of practice.

This chapter examines the potential of baby boomers of color to make significant contributions to their communities and society through various forms of community service, referred to here as civic engagement. Boomers of color can provide services to their communities either formally or informally, in traditional and nontraditional settings, and across the entire lifespan into later older adulthood. One study found that, once engaged, African American/Black older adults can be expected to commit more time and enjoy perceived greater psychosocial benefits from volunteering. The chapter discusses the principles of civic engagement, the rewards of civic engagement, and the challenges organizations will face in engaging boomers of color.

Embracing a view of boomers of color as possessing assets and strengths that can be incorporated into practice opens up a new world for social workers, along with numerous corresponding challenges. This chapter outlines the implications and challenges for social work in meeting the projected needs of baby boomers of color over the next decade, and doing so while tapping their strengths and assets through an embrace of democratic participatory principles associated with social justice. It presents recommendations for policy, practice, and research that attempt to identify and support the potential key contributions of baby boomers of color. A special section on nursing homes addresses the potential role they can play in being ready for future residents of color.

The introduction of an assets perspective on boomers of color brings great potential for innovation and the excitement that often accompanies bold new approaches. Unfortunately, bold new approaches also bring resistance to change and cause anxiety, and this can be coupled with the presence of racism, classism, and ageism to make these changes in thinking and service delivery much more arduous to accomplish. This chapter aims to help practitioners classify innovative efforts that tap boomer of color assets. It presents three-part classification and seven-point criteria for evaluating practice, which holds much promise for the field. Practices can be categorized into three classes: best practices, promising practices, and emerging practices. The seven criteria that can be applied to best, promising, and emerging practices are: culturally appropriate effectiveness, impact, replicability, (5) scalabilty, (6) sustainability, and (7) innovativeness.