If America was ever a melting pot of cultures, it's now. We can speak of the Americanization of other cultures, of the open-door policy that has become a political issue in the last decade, but close examination proves that we are a diverse population, and the members of each culture contribute as much positive (perhaps more) input, as they do negative. That we only hear about the negative in news reports is to our shame.

The positive deserves mention, also. In an article at DiversityInc.com, this title caught my eye and inspired today's post: "Asian Americans: Affluent, Educated and Young."

The article doesn't break the stats down by gender, but it doesn't have to. Even within the Asian population, further research would no doubt uncover that there are more women than men. I will cover this group in more detail in my next book, but for today, look at these numbers and recognize that this is a group you should spend some time marketing to.

The report, "The Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States: March 2002," released on Wednesday in conjunction with Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month, said in 2001, 40 percent of Asian-American families had incomes in excess of $75,000, compared with 35 percent of white families. But they also are more likely to have incomes less than $25,000 -- 17 percent compared with 15 percent of white families.

The report also highlighted Asian Americans' high levels of education. Fifty-one percent of Asian-American men and 44 percent of Asian-American women, ages 25 and older, had bachelor's degrees or higher, according to the report, compared with 32 percent of white men and 27 percent of white women.

Great dynamics. Great opportunity.

What's not to like about that?