So what is the real fear here -- that the new white minority will be treated just like it treated non-whites? Awwww....
19
One great irony is that Hispanics are "Hispanic" by virtue of their Spanish, i.e., European, origins.
23
During war and natural disasters, we see stories of blacks risking their lives to help whites and vice versa. Racism is a waste of time. If racist energy were directed towards building community, we would be stronger locally and globally. This is what our leaders should be encouraging; not dividing us.
22
Long winded article. Net is currently, Americans for a host of reasons, don't seem to be buying in to Multiculturalism. Some nations like our Canadian neighbors, teach it in their schools, and advocate increased immigration to support their very existence, and pay for retirees. Many Americans believe our population of third, fourth, generation white Americans, would work just fine. Given time, as all these stats jump all over addressing, eventually so called inter marrying, then those two people having kids, they will come up in our culture, no different than a white kid from a long history of white European ancestors. Forcing immigration down peoples throat, i what is being rebelled against. Ellis Island is history.
7
If only white capitalists in the US, UK and elsewhere, so smug in their delusions of white racial superiority, hadn't employed their governments and militaries to exploit, pillage, enslave and rape the human and natural resources of literally every non-white country on the planet. But they did.
If only they had encouraged the development of democratic institutions and egalitarian economies rather than install dictators and tiny ruling classes to suppress the populaces and ensure the steady flow of wealth to white capitalist nations. But they didn't.
If only they had not made their own nations the only ones with political freedom and economic opportunity, all the non-white peoples of the nations they victimized wouldn't be at their borders clamoring for admission so they too can be free and make decent livings.
We live as well as we do precisely because of the moral and legal crimes of our rich rulers and politicians, governments we elected and empowered.
Obviously we can't accommodate every economic and political migrant - we don't have the room or resources for a nation of billions of people. But these are people who would rather stay home if they could have there what we have here.
White racism is our most terrible gift to the rest of the world. We have so much to atone for. We could still turn this all around with generous economic aid and support for democratic reforms. What I'm seeing instead is nothing but more fear and more lashing out, guaranteeing failure.
29
I grew up in the deep south. I have check my DNA and have some African, Native American, Asian but most Northern European. My close family has many races, genders and identities, mostly white. Check everyone, the ideal is to mix the genes often and get the greatest diveersity with opportunities for the survival of the Genes, not the current manifestation in the single human resulting from the latest match up.
Diversity is the rule, not the exception. Skin color is merely adaptation, time to put some of this debate into the dustbin of obsolete information.
10
Who are all the "white" folks which people keep going on about? Even the fairest of people -- except the unfortunate few unable to produce melanin at all -- look more pink to me.
4
The racialism of the story is unremarked by the author and most commenters. The ignorance about Trump voters is even worse. What Trump voters want is people who will ASSIMILATE to the American ethos-- speak English, adopt our values. And, yes, abandon their original folkways and dress in at least a generation or two. The way that all other ethnic groups have done. To become Americans. It's that simple. It's only secondarily, if that, a question of race, skin color or ethnicity per se. Not that there aren't plenty of real racists. But people have a right to feel comfortable with their neighbors, just the way that you do if you would admit it. That's why there are plenty of black, Asian and Latino Trump supporters, and will be more.
12
The top 10-20% of whites will be fine they own everything. It is the bottom 90-80% who will feel the loss of their imagined status.
7
Whether Whites are the majority or a minority seems hardly to matter. Jews are regularly seen by bigots as not White. On the other hand many Latinos are as White and any American. Also Blacks, and i think this is what this is really all about on both left and right, are shrinking as a minority. People of color is one of the odder ideas as Blacks, Latinos and Asians don't share all that much.
3
I traveled in my work to many foreign countries. As a representative of a large US fortune 500 Multinational corporation, I was obviously schooled in others customs and cultures. Make no mistake. Americans are not all that welcome outside our borders. If you immigrate somewhere, make no mistake you have to fit in, if your white in a nation of color, you never will.
8
This type of profiling put me immediately in mind of Daisy and Tom’s (“Gatsby”) obsession of a book they called the “Rise of the Colored Empires.”
Based on exactly this type of “white extinction fear” it was actually written in 1920 by Lothrop Stoddard, “The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy”. Obviously, Daisy and Tom were people of high intellect and scruples. Were they real and alive now, no doubt who’s team they would be on.
2
White ,black, brown, red, yellow..who cares. Get over it. Keep race in the headlines and it will always be a bone of contention. Let the chips fall where they may and it will all work out in the end.
Evolution will prevail no matter what. It will be what it is.
9
America cannot become a majority minority country. The majority is the majority and the minority is the minority. What you mean to ask is whether the United States will become a minority white country. This will pretty certainly happen. More to the point, what some worry about is whether the intellectual and cultural tradition of the West will be perpetuated. Again I am confident that that tradition will be in good hands. Every educated Indian and East Asian that I've known knows the great thinkers of the West as well as the western heritage in the arts and in music very well and a good thing it is. In fact if these things were left to the so-called white(?) minority it would pretty certainly fall into the cheapened and vulgarized tropes that are being promoted by those pretending to be gravely concerned with preserving the "Western tradition" right now.
6
Here's my thoughts on this issue as a Black American...It's ironic. Especially for Hispanic Americans, who in the past would take the 'Pass for White' card to move up. We always knew about the old Hispanic admonitions to 'Marry Lighter' so that the children and grandchildren could come out 'Whiter' and climb up the color ladder. But that was the past.
Well here we are in the Age of Trump...and we have quite a few Hyphenated Americans who, let's be honest, by dint of their fair complexion, could 'Pass for White' and did so. And they would tell themselves: "Well, my mom's from Honduras, but I'm really White..." or "Well, My dad is Brazilian and my mother's family is Light skinned Mexican from Mexico City, so I'm really mixed..."
Well here's the rub...the people this article is talking about, the plain-spoken folks from the Heartland of America who voted for Trump...they only see TWO states: White and NOT-White.
White=Real American
NOT-White=You're just Tolerated
Mixed=Meaningless=NOT-White
And for all the Hispanics holding that old Pass-for-White Card...I'm afraid that card has been revoked. 'Cause just like the Article says..it doesn't matter what YOU think you are. All that matters is what the Little White Lady in the elevator from Peoria Thinks you are. And to her: You, for sure, Ain't White.
So why not just do what the rest of us Brown and Black Folks have been doing all along: Whatever you are, Just WEAR IT WITH PRIDE. Stop trying to climb that old color ladder.
22
When it comes to the genetics of things, the maternal side of my family was from Sicily. Hence, like everyone of Sicilian descent, i am fairly certain that I carry genes of Arabic, North African and sub-Saharan origin. Sicily was always a great crossroads of cultures and peoples. I might add that as someone of Italian descent I would carry genes of African, Asian and mid-Eastern origin. Italy is descended from the Roman Empire, one of the most extensive the world has known. In such empires those from the periphery always sought out the metropolitan center where they intermingled and undoubtedly intermarried with central metropolitan Romans. So what is "whiteness" after all but proof that you are from an isolated backwash.
8
Former Canadian Governor General The Right Honourable Addrienne Clarkson gave the 2014 Massey lectures titled Belonging The Paradox of Citizenship. Clarkson is the most Canadian person on this planet yet she is neither born in Canada nor Caucasian.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-2014-cbc-massey-lectures-belonging-th...
3
If I remember correctly, Hispanic Americans attend church far more than their "white" counterparts in this country. Further, they place higher importance on family than their white counterparts. They also start small businesses at a greater rate as well.
If these statistics are predictive, what's the problem with the future? Instead of reading the truly fake news, perhaps those who do have a problem with this would be better served by learning Spanish.
4
Oh, for the day to arrive when concerns about the percentages of “whites” and “minorities” are no longer topics for articles. It’s going to be a while, if ever, and the current president has thrown us back many steps. Sigh.
8
"Who’s Afraid of a White Minority?"
Define minority.
For whites, are we talking:
In the entire US ?
State by state ?
City by city ?
Relative population of an institution ?
I'm less interested in who is afraid, than I am the two-bags-of-popcorn worthy situation that will require the left wing Progressives to apply their own ideology to the protection of the rights of minority whites.
I can hardly wait to see how they rationalize rejecting that burden.
4
As a minority myself..I’m not afraid and neither should white folks. There’s little doubt that those who are startled by such a thought reminisce about the whiteness of the Founding Father’s, but they don’t bother turning the pages in the history book to a time prior to the 18th century. The folks who founded this country may not have named it but they sure as heck were here first and they wore no white skin. This country is merely...returning to its roots as a “brown” country.
8
Nature prefers ethnic tribes over ideologically constructed societies. If this were not true we wouldn’t care about race. But we do, and a lot.
4
If the alt-right did the counting, they would put everyone with a drop of non-white blood in a non-white category. And, they would add Jewish respondents to the non-white category also. So, in their thinking, the “white” population is still declining regardless of what this article says. They will continue to have the ear of Trump and his MAGAphants.
2
I just wish we were half so interested in how well we're educating the next generation as we are in what color their skin is going to be.
16
This is really quite funny. Just a few years ago, the Democrats were frightened by the very successful efforts, spurred by the Bush clan, to engage Latino, Asian, and other ethnic white and non-white immigrants and sign them on as Republicans. I always felt they weren't serious about recruiting African Americans, but there was (and is) good reason to focus on new Americans as an easier get. Indeed, Africans and West Indians who flirted with going Republican and were welcomed so far as I could see. One has to expect that once Trump and his pandering to the aging white racists are out of the picture we will see the GOP go right back to this old tack, since it will become their only hope to win anywhere that has more House members than Senators. At that point, we will read stuff in the Opinion pages theorizing why the Democrats lost all that minority support they gained during the Trump years ;)
I notice many comments here coming from bi-racial individuals or those with family members of a different race.
And while I think it unnecessary to posit myself as one, I think all persons with European and mixed backgrounds are in the best position to speak on this particular subject.
To begin with and make no mistake, it always revolves around the colour of one's skin; which in many cases is a poor indication of one's heritage, since I am often mistaken for being Latino, even though I'm not.
And the whole race situation is especially fraught with peril in Europe these days, especially in Germany where half of my family is from, and for the very reasons that have been making headlines since migrants and refugees became a problem in 2015, when Angela Merkel opened the gates, which ultimately led to the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) gaining a place in the Bundestag, and has spurned the riots we're seeing today in Chemnitz.
America got an impression of this mentality last year, when tiki-torch marching neo-Nazis descended upon Charlottesvile, Va., resulting in the death of a young woman who protested against them.
And all this makes one ponder the course of our America, and what it has always stood for.
Being bi-racial has always granted the possibility of knowing two different backgrounds, languages and cultures.
But now it seems we all have a long way to go before rediscovering what 'E pluribis unum' -- out of many, one really means.
Good luck with that.
2
This may sound self-serving, but I don’t see that America has ever had too much of a problem integrating any other group besides the descendants of slaves.
4
"Historically, this has played out in the practices of the Census Bureau and the Citizenship and Immigration Services that 'recorded race and ethnicity categories over time, e.g., ‘Celt’ and ‘Hebrew’ once appeared outside of the ‘Caucasian’ category.”
In other words, there have been and still are selfish, hypocritical people who - once they or their ancestors have crossed the bridge - are eager to burn it down behind them.
3
When one starts to delve into statistics, the subtleties of things like race and ethnicity begin to get lost. Let's take a few examples.
1. Just because some Hispanics self-identify as white doesn't mean that race-nervous whites would identify them as white. For example, white-looking people who can only speak Spanish are usually assumed to be non-white in most parts of the US.
2. Same goes for blacks who are part white. If they look black at all, they will eventually be treated as black by someone who discriminates based on the still predominant assumption that any black ancestry at all means you're black. Also, implicit or explicit racists will treat these folks differently, subconsciously or consciously. Doesn't matter what the self-identification is.
3. I'd like to see the evidence for Alba's assertion that "most partly white individuals behave like whites in sociological terms." That only works if most partly white individuals look "wholly" white (see 2. above).
4. The whole issue points up, once again, how bankrupt the concept of "race" is. Ethnicity is truly important; race is artificially so, built of categorizations tainted by the efforts of some Caucasians to codify their belief (hope?) that they are the superior race. Look at the language required to talk about race: non-whites "self-identify" as white/non-white; non-whites are minorities. even when they are numerically the majority as in South Africa; partly-this and partly-that. Folly.
3
The optimists quoted by Thomas Edsall are delusional, and the pessimists are not pessimistic enough.
James Baldwin called it "The Fire Next Time," but he was diplomatic enough to not emphasize that in the war between races that is coming, whites will learn that while they know nothing about their enemy, their enemy knows everything about them.
5
I think everyone misses one of Alba's original points. He raised the question of whether a majority minority population would inevitably lead to Democratic majorities. He raised the possibility that minorities who grow up among whites, have white friends, and marry whites might start voting like most whites as well.
2
Sad that the progressive left has made race, gender and sexual orientation such a focus, that now, there is hardly room for discussion of the issue that is an existential threat to us all: Climate Change.
2
"Race" had been thoroughly discredited as a scientific concept. In America, it refers to a shared experience of brutal exploration, disenfranchisement, and exclusion, along with incredible resilience, creativity, and insistence on dignity. Any attempt to assign people to "races" according to some scientific method is doomed to endless controversy and revision, because race is a story we've been told, like Adam and Eve and the Serpent, not a scientific fact. It's that shared experience of marginalization and resilience that's real and won't fade any time soon. This is what the racial accountants need to pay attention to.
Is the issue skin color or is the issue cultural values and behaviors?
As the "white culture" excluded nearly any non-white skinned person, the non-white cultures developed their own culture.. As those "other than white, Northern European" cultures have exhibited higher birth rates, gradually their numbers have grown proportionally larger.
The white culture appears to have condemned itself to a frozen-in-time and static culture that resists the other cultures around it. The exceptions being popular music and professional sports. Those meritocracies are based on accomplishments that cannot be masked or distorted. And, as they appeal to a proportionally larger audience, they gradually supplant the former practices. Basketball competes with baseball and football. The mechanics of the sport also require less equipment, so people with less wealth can play it as often as people with more wealth. Likewise, the primal appeal of popular rock & roll and rap music supplants the more musically complicated big band and vocal music.
Shift the emphasis from white vs non-white to majority vs minority. Oppression of minorities is not unique to white-majority countries.
People may feel less defensive when a conversation is framed in terms of population fraction instead of "racial" identity.
This approach should be considered by everyone who values pluralism and wants to dispel fear from the prospect of whiteness slipping from majority status.
1
To summarize: Conservatives fear the imminent arrival of the date—25 years from now, plus or minus—at which point whites become minorities and they—the non-whites—become the permanent majority. And the suffering will commence.
1
As a European-American with ancestors on both sides that immigrated to North America more than 300 years ago, let me offer some thoughts:
We are all from Africa (if you look back in time far enough). Personally, my light-colored skin is due to Darwinian evolution since my near-term ancestors are from northern Europe. My blue eyes (even though I'm an adult) are due to a genetic mutation about 30,000 years old.
The labels "white" or "black" are simplistic, quite useless and mostly meaningless UNLESS you are in cosmetic sales OR you profit somehow from racism.
Racism exists. It's part of our evolutionary history, so unfortunately, it will never go away. Racism is not a one-way street; all self-identified "races" do it to some extent.
The best we can do: cherish diversity, but do not ever judge people by anything so superficial as skin color.
To answer the question of the excellent article by Edsall:
No, I don't worry at all about being a minority in the USA by skin color; why should I? The USA is a country of immigrants more than any other country in the world, and this is a good thing. In the information economy, diversity is a good thing.
12
Great piece to read but at the same time it bores me the hair splitting annotated description of ethnicity, race and demography. Darwin would state that race is fluid. Genes are transferred seamlessly with random mutations to its progenitors until it is checked by Natural Selection. So far interracial breeding is doing well by Natural Selection. It is to be noted that in the early days of Anthropocene Period, Homo sapiens happily interbreed with Neanderthals and Denisovans. Race is moot in census. Simple head counts give useful data. Color, race, ethnic neutral. Donald would be clueless to fire up his base.
2
Not much about generational change here. Many professional urban Millennials seem to already display a kind of post-racial mentality, living and working around people from all over. The growing rate of mixed mariages is also encouraging. Newborn babies have a way of bringing out the best in everyone, mollifying underlying prejudices. Maybe what will get us over this silliness is the inevitable consequences of diversity itself on our everyday lives and most intimate interactions, as people from different backgounds come to share their days as colleagues, neighbors and kin.
2
Trump supporters probably don't care as much about whether the nation becomes a "majority-minority" county nearly as they do to the (accurate) observation that Democrats and liberals consistently blame white Americans for almost every social ill conceivable.
Virtually every group in America can claim victim status except white people, especially white males. Instead, they are seen as the oppressors, the victimizers.
Well folks, life, and life's problems are complex and multifaceted. For liberals/Democrats to find an easy victim--white people--isn't really a liberal position. Instead, it is a conservative position dressed up as a liberal one.
The notion of becoming a minority is as fear only because of this liberal blame. If people who fit this demographic were validated, and their concerns and fears validated, they would care less about whether they were a statistical minority.
Trump is here because liberals have lost their way. They have adopted a smug satisfaction in believing that they are morally superior to the group of Americans who they deem as ugly, awful, deplorable, racist, and oppressors.
Well, liberals (of which I am one), this is what it got you----Trump.
3
@Dan: So you think Jim Crow, which existed well into the late 1960s, was somehow "imposed" upon blacks and whites alike, in mutual agreement, with both groups benefitting from it? That blacks happily submitted themselves to slavery and the whip of their white masters? That Trump refusing to rent to blacks in the early 1970s had nothing to do with racism and his sense of white renters being somehow superior to black renters? Or more recently, Norwegians being preferable immigrants over those from sh.thole countries? That LBJ was not right when he said: "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."? Unlike Germany, this country has never confronted its ugly past and is still struggling with it as a nation and in denial about systemic inequity based on race, that has its roots in an all too recent past. Why do you, as a liberal accuse your fellow white liberals who grapple with questions of race, of "smug satisfaction" and "believing that they are morally superior" to racist and corrupt Americans like Trump and his more rabid supporters? Why don't you try to understand your fellow liberals for a change?
5
Why should race matter at all? I don't care if you're white, black, purple, green, all people want is to live a happy, productive life. Why can't all of society learn to help each other overcome the racism that never seems to go away? For those that are religious (any religion), doesn't your scriptures say that you should all live together in peace and harmony? You should help your neighbor. You should not have enemies. Yes, it's an idealistic view but isn't that what what we really want? Some folks unfortunately want to control people, want power, are violent and insecure in their own skins. These are the folks that need help and need to be "rounded up" and treated. Trump, and other dangerous figures, feeds into the hate and he/they need(s) to be stopped by the sensible people in our world. Are there any left?
1
Decades ago I wrote that the salvation for America would be romance and sex.
The number of cross racial or ethic marriages or loving relationship is increasing rapidly, albeit not yet exponentially.
As we all begin to share physical characteristics, not just DNA, discrimination and absurd bigotry will become nearly impossible, even for those who cling to prejudice.
2
Let’s not forget the role of the Christian evangelicals—and especially the Southern Baptist Church—in institutionalizing racial segregation and fostering fear of anyone of color as a way of protecting “their” women and preserving supposed white “purity.”
The Southern Baptist Convention broke off from the Baptist Church in 1845 expressly over slavery, taking on the preservation of white purity as its express mission and promoting systemic racism and opposition to African/American civil rights for the remainder of the 19th century and most of the 20th. The convention did not officially renounce slavery and race discrimination until 1995.
And the Church’s racism was far from subtle. I remember vividly when my high school guidance counselor, a devout Baptist, counseled girls in our class in 1963 or 64 against fraternization with “nigra” boys. “If you do,” he warned, “you might be taken advantage of, and then we’ll all end up kind of tan.”
After passage of the Civil Act of 1964, the Church’s racism gradually went underground, although in my experience it remained strong in private conversations among the faithful. So although I left the Church decades ago, Trump’s appeal to Christian evangelicals was hardly surprising. He strikes the same chords of black threat to white purity they may well have learned in Sunday School.
9
When the indigenous people were living here without Europeans there was not even a white minority. If we white people hadn't taken over the nationwide neighborhood, the notion of a necessary white majority wouldn’t exist.
We can not with clear conscience believe all improvements are ours. The Iroquois confederacy existed before the United States did. In fact the concepts endorsed by the confederacy contributed toward the New York State constitution.
White people are not a world wide majority so we should be just fine — if we ever grow up.
3
The Republican Party has to thank the relentless identity politics of the Democrats for its success. There is no way to implement comprehensive social reforms like public health insurance, when the white population, especially white males gets vilified as source of any evil in this country. People all over the world will only willingly contribute to the common coffer, when they feel that the benefits are limited to those in the country legally and when mass immigration will not overwhelm the system. Otherwise tribal identities will raise they ugly heads. I don't think that the issue can be boiled down to skin color, but to common culture as the glue that holds a nation together. Whenever a huge number of immigrants with different cultural norms seems to threaten this common culture the human animal will defend its territory like all other mammals.
4
As Mike Pod notes, there is basically no "pure" race person - only a very tiny group would be so. Race concepts are so wholly outdated - they are anachronisms. Can we move on, please? Move on to what? you might ask. Let's move on from DNA to cultures, and ask how the US can be a wonderful place to live via cultural synergies. How to approach your parents/family heritage? Take the best of them and forgive the rest of them. Cultures - same. Let's stop asking people in census forms what race they are. (I advocated for this in 1990s regarding city census of its citizens; let's focus on "the content of people's character" as MLK Jr. said, not DNA).
1
Prof. Edsall's thought provoking piece included passages from many intellectuals. Two (2) of them are offensive to me.
The first of these is from Prof. Lavine. He indicated that whites are authoritarians. The reality from my Red State location (and I do travel extensively to Blue States) is that this man IS UNINFORMED. My suggestion is that he visit a nearby Red State, study those whom he has encountered and then let us know if this real world experience has changed his position.
Throughout this essay are references to the Republican split (traditional conservatives and Trumpists). What was NOT ADDRESSED is the Democratic split (traditional liberals and Socialists).
Many of us have experienced in the Red States have dealt with (and survived with) traditional liberals in various elected positions, but we are less enamored of the potential damage that the Socialists could do to the economy; if elected.
The Antifa (and others like them) are more authoritarian than the conservative Republicans are. There is ample evidence of the elimination of First Amendment and other rights for those who disagree with Antifa. This circumstance is worth watching.
4
Socialists and the Antifa are not in the same category.
2
Race is just a convenient characteristic to sort the outcomes on thus helping those who want to exploit such outcomes either politically or economically or both.
3
This has been projected for over 40 years. Look around, it has already happened. Any time I walk into a place and it is not diverse, I have to stop and question why.
2
@wbj "Any time I walk into a place and it is not diverse, I have to stop and question why." I tried that once in Maine. Then I realized there weren't enough "non-whites" in the state to have diversity in every place I visited on that trip. Maine is a great state to visit, even if it does not currently have the diversity some would like.
5
Whether or not a hispanic (or any other ethnic group member) considers himself white is irrelevant if the larger society does not agree with him. The American concept of race is not purely based on genetics. This may have been the case when a justification for slavery was necessary, but now the focus is on the preservation of what some Americans see as their self identity. Their definition of "white" is now not only based on racial delineations but is also intimately tied to what they perceive as their culture. However this is definition still as arbitrary as it has ever been, and as usual we find that attempts to codify and define it become replete with logical inconsistencies. We should however, feel hopeful that despite the current environment, what we are seeing are the last gasps of a concept with is dying. Yes, 40% of Americans may still be motivated by the racial politics that define Trumpism. However, they are not the majority, and their brand of xenophobic hatred is repulsive to the rest of us. More and more families are now multiracial, and therefore so are more and more children. As these children grow they will search for identity, and that identity will not be that they are white - it will be that they are American.
5
I have a solution to your problem: drop all previous categories and use a colour chart similar to the one in paint stores. Five options, from pinkish white to blackish, with pale brown, brown, and dark brown in the middle. Why not use the funny names used by the paint manufacturers? Soft sand, Wisp of mauve, Ticonderoga taupe? I claim all possible intellectual rights for this suggestion.
6
I think there has to be at least some mention of the issue of the related claims that many who fear a majority-minority country keep making--that they are only against ILLEGAL immigration, and NOT legal immigration.
Whether this view is deployed as a disguise for racism and fear of immigrants *in general*, OR whether its a more genuine reaction against perceptions of disorder and lawlessness, it seems to be a big part of the constellation of fears that many Americans have today.
It seems to me that the people who study the fear of minority-majority and its political implications need to do more work in understanding where attitudes towards legal vs. illegal immigration "fit" into this issue. I think it might help decrease the perception that this is another example of "leftists" and "liberals" simply talking ABOUT people they don't agree with, rather than a genuine effort to have a rational discussion about American identity.
7
A few of the comments here looked at the immigration "problem" from the point of environmental concerns. And their opinion was along the lines of the meme that there are too many people in the US already and/or that migrants use less energy and/or create less pollution in their home countries...so keep them there.
While I don't disagree that many of the world's environmental problems are made worse by over consumption and disposal, along with the concurrent pollution of air, water and ground, I will take issue with using environment concerns to discourage immigration. The solution to issues such as climate change is not mainly or even on a minor basis handled by putting up border walls and keeping immigration to very low levels.
The actual solution to climate change is through innovation and immigrants tend to bring innovation with them. Furthermore, blaming environmental problems on immigrants allows the chief source of those problems, lack of concern on the part of the citizenry, to hide its ugly head.
Border walls also hurt...wait for it...migration of animals across human designated, but unnatural borders.
Hopefully, it's a small minority of Bernie supporters who were pro environment, but anti-immigrant. I'm very pro environment and doing something about climate change. I'm also pro immigrant. I don't feel any conflict at all in those positions. That's why I'm going to
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
3
We need to do away with any categorization of people by "race:" it is a ridiculous social construct that has done nothing to benefit anyone not in the majority. There is no biological foundation on which to support these superficial classifications based purely on skin color and/or ethnicity. Once we stop forcing people to self-identify as one of these false singularities, we can then begin to hold those who claim to be "color-blind" to their words. I know this is no easy task, and that it will take more than one generation for us to achieve this more enlightened state.
3
Bean counting has always come down to how you label the beans, and the labeling system is arbitrary. If we used 19th century racial classifications, whites, which is to say Anglo-Saxons would have become a minority many decades ago and we'd instead be worrying about more important things such as our decrepit infrastructure, aimless youth, small town drug problems, soon-to-be flooded coastal areas, and the list goes on. How the country counts its beans (or is it, how people identify themselves, which is two totally different things, isn't it?) is the last thing I worry about.
3
Funny. If we combine the old “one drop” rule...and even ratchet it back to “substantial African” blood...with what we now know of the rampant rape, and in some cases consensual intercourse by Old South whites with slaves, (Thomas Jefferson...call your office) we might put this to rest by DNA analysis all around! My guess is that the number of pure white (whatever that means) Americans is a whole lot lower than we think.
106
It’s actually not. There have been DNA tests en masse and there are very few Americans who identify as white with African ancestry. I read an article about it in this paper actually a few years ago.
6
@Mike Pod Exactly. Aren't we all mixed anyway?!?!
1
@Mike Pod
"My guess is that the number of pure white (whatever that means) Americans is a whole lot lower than we think."
So is the number of pure black Americans (whatever that means).
And all Whites by definition are ~5% Neanderthals.
Let's face it, we are all mutts.
3
The real question is why do whites care about future whites and if so why don’t they care about the environment they are leaving them. Seem like a bunch of uneducated fools to me.
15
@R. Koreman
Because they are paying for most everything. The lower ranks are mostly latino and blacks who pay nothing in taxes but require hundreds of billions annually in social services. The 72% and 53% black and latino illegitimacy rates, as well as unacceptable high school drop out rates are the prime cause of both the endless poverty and crime that the U.S. cannot get out from under, generation after generation. The financial and human costs are completely avoidable.
Reading this column as an immigrant, I slowly turned into a whiter shade of pale.
3
I never thought of any Hispanics, except those who are obviously black, as anything but white. Calling them "brown people"and non-White seems to me a recent invention of the MSM and other media.
12
Simple. White people.
1
The big turning point was the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States. Suddenly one of "those people" was the most powerful man in the world. Fifty years of suppressed racism was awoken.
Obama spawned an entire political movement: the Tea Party. The "we're not racist" white power movement whose small-government policies always somehow were designed to suppress minority votes, minority immigration, minority religious affiliation, minority sexual orientation.
Obamacare, a health care reform proposed by a REPUBLICAN think tank, first implemented by a REPUBLICAN governor, was suddenly a nefarious plot of the Muslim foreigner president to enslave white Christians under a global UN government.
Gun ownership, and the militarization of the police, were designed to intimidate minorities. School vouchers, and charter schools, were designed to re-segregate schools. Immigration restrictions designed to stop the wave of non-whites into the country. Trump admitted he wished more people would immigrate from Nordic countries (the Aryan race, as defined by the Nazis).
Everything the Republicans do these days is about money and power. More specifically, keeping money and power in the hands of conservative white Christian males. Terrified white racists believe in it, too, because they keep voting for these guys.
15
Good grief, all this talk about racial classifications sounds like something out of the Nazi Race Bureau. What next ... jobs, school placements, promotions, etc to be accorded on the basis of race?
8
Black supremacy is just as bad as white supremacy. You just have to look at nations, especially third world nations, that rely on white majority nations for foreign aid continuously, to see that a nation with a black majority government cannot be a democracy or treat their own citizens fairly no matter what ethnicity or culture they are.
If USA ends up with a white minority and white flight to other nations then it will be USAs loss. All black majority governments are corrupt governments and USA will revert into a third world nation. Most genocide around the world is done by black governments on their own citizens. No one ever calls it Nazism because the nations ethnicity is a black majority.
This is why you need immigration laws so your nations culture and human rights for all ethnicities, including white ethnicities, doesn't get crushed by illegal immigration and ethnicities that bring their culture and human rights abuses way of life to the USA.
Ask yourself why black majority nations can't get their act together and run a decent nation with decent infrastructure and democratic laws that work in practice - and you'll find that black majority nations are corrupt and all about themselves and making themselves richer by exploiting their own countrymen and woman.
15
@CK, Today large parts of the US are operating at developing world standards. We are in the 2nd world phase, soon to become a third world one.
2
@CK
"Ask yourself why black majority nations can't get their at together and run a decent nation with decent infrastructure and democratic laws that work in practice..."
Easy answer. It's called 'COLONIALISM'....
Do yourself a favour, and look it up -- there are many examples to choose from.
1
I am amazed that this article poses to explain a complex, multidimensional reality by transmuting complex, diverse, live, interacting individuals, and groups, into static numbers whose implications and outcomes re (1) identity and (2) in a range of roles, environments, contexts, networks and situations are/can be predictable. Mr. Edsall posits. Predicts. No weight, or mention, is given to realities everpresent dimensions: uncertainties. Randomness. Unpredictabilities. The lack of total control- which itself is a myth-no matter the types, levels, qualities and timeliness of our efforts. The categories used by the Census system, its staff, and theoretical and empirical underpinnings may be off. Flawed. Of what relevance is that when NO ONE is black, brown,white in their daily doings or not doings! As for IDENTITY, self or created and/or imposed by others...what can IT mean in a WE-THEY culture, and country, which enables violating, by words and deeds, daily, selected and targeted "the other?" "Colors." Hues. Hair. Religious practices. Weight.Gender. ETC. One needs to ask when are we going to be sufficiently concerned about numerical and semantic surrealism and do something effective whose results would be causing personl accountability for harmers of individuals and systems?
Realistically, our species has not yet lost its instinctive trait of xenophobia but the higher order of human intelligence tells us that to survive we must adapt to our surroundings and changes, both social and natural, in the living environment.
The evidence shows that isolated species develop negative gene expressions that shorten our lifespans and can have a lasting negative impact on our immune systems making the isolated species more likely to be susceptible to autoimmune diseases and infections.
Climate and exposure to electromagnetic radiation and sunlight are big factors in determining racial characteristics, but to my knowledge, there is no natural factor that determines intelligence, but we do know that cultures and societies that provide equal oportunity to acquire knowledge and skills generally are more successful and more healthy.
Social science and all its derivatives like economics, politics, and government are in their infancy but fortunately. the science is improving.
I am a fan of E.O. Wilson and his particular take on biology, that he calls sociobiology, and Jared Diamond and his studies in anthropology have been great teachers. They are both great writers so I direct all of the young people that I know including my own children and grown grandchildren to their books.
I also think TV and transportation and the growing convenience for sharing images, languages, and experiences are having a profound positive influence on our society.
3
One would never find an opinion piece like this in conservative media because conservatives are simply not invested in identity politics. For "progressives" it's all they have since their socialist ideas are non-starters for the majority of Americans. To have any power our "progressives" must necessarily attempt to demonize conservatives as racist in attempts to scare away minorities. The "progressives" must obscure to the extent possible their dismal record on lifting minorities economically, and Trump's success. Not sure how much longer our "progressives" can pull it off, when minorities start seeing through the smoke screen that will be the beginning of the end of "progressive" power, and it cannot happen soon enough.
9
@jaco - great observation, spot on!
"immigrants as outsiders and as threats to the nation’s culture"
We should welcome "threats" to the nation's present dominant culture. It's not super great.
The food will certainly be improved, as well. :)
2
We need more immigration, of whatever color, not less. As the native born become gray, we need those young ‘uns to pay social security at rates and in proportions enough to sustain us until our exit. Having traveled the world, I know there is no truly exotic Other. We, at our cores, are alike with the same wants and needs, happiness and sorrows. The monsters among us include brute sociopaths that cruelly prey on us and clever sociopaths that use perceived differences like race to divide us and profit from that.
4
@Moxnix67
Most remain low income and fairly uneducated. They already don't pay taxes and won't be supporting any elders in the near or distant future. To the contrary, elderly whites now mostly work till they drop and will continue to do so in order to keep government funded and working for those tens of millions who don't.
5
@Margot We really should change our immigration policy and stop chain migration and family reunification and only let in people with skills.
1
I think, taking a step back, that we really need to get to a place as a society where the color of someone's eyes, how curly their hair is and how much melanin they have in their skin is of no more consequence than whether or not they have freckles or a cleft chin.
Even keeping track of race in the census should be eliminated, but of course that would be seen as some kind of 'conspiracy'.
Years ago a close friend of mine who is Jamaican told me that was the weirdest thing she found here when she emigrated to the U.S. as a 17 year old. Every form, whether for a job or from the government asks what the person's race/ethnicity is. She was also stunned how obsessed everyone was about race, and of course the rather rude question of 'what are you?'
4
These definitions have always been pretty hazy with the Hispanic designations thrown in. But we are seeing the blending of America, a new kind of “melting pot.” My kids, for example, are half white and half Japanese. I’m sorry to say this, but they probably would not be too welcome in small-town America. I also wouldn’t be as I’m part Jewish. I was going to say we fit in nicely in the Bay Area, but we don’t as we’re not ultra wealthy. Always a catch.
2
Whites are a minority in the world. Asia by far makes up the largest land mass and hosts the largest population of people - China has 1.4 billion people and India 1.3. Of the top 10 most populated countries, only 2, are considered to be majority white (the US and Russia).
Africa is expected to have a population explosion, its population will more than double to 2.4 billion by 2050.
Whites worldwide have a very low fertility rate. Compare this to the fertility rate in Africa and southern Asia, e.g. India, and Indonesia, and you will see that
whites will exponentially decrease as a total % of world population.
I do not think for a minute that whites are superior to other races, but I definitely think that whites deserve to have their homelands as any race of people have, especially if they built the homeland over several centuries. Right now, whites are projected to be a minority also in their ancestral homelands of Western Europe - the same thing that is happening in the US is happening in Western Europe. Whites are facing a kind of extinction in their homelands across the Western World, that Asians and Africans are hardy facing. Nor would the governments of China or any non-Western country tolerate for 1 minute the pressure of mass migration from different cultures as all western countries are currently facing. What is fair for non-white countries should be equally fair for the majority white countries.
11
@Philly, Why do all and only white populations have to be diverse or multi-cultural? This is not demanded of any non-white people, anywhere.
1
Although the problem currently at issue in the U.S. takes the form of "white " vs. "non-white ", the roots of the problem are "them" vs. "the others". Historically the "other " in the U.S. has been blacks .Trump has capitalized on this politically by adding "brown "people , Hispanics and other immigrants, to the list of "others" in the U.S. . Politicians and demagogues have used fear of the "other" to create a unified base of support throughout history. It is a minority which is culturally, racially, religiously, sexually or economically different from the majority as the "other ". In Nazi Germany Hitler branded the Jews as the "other " . At different times oppressed minorities which served as the political "other" in the U.S. are Catholics, and Native Americans have served politicians as the "other ". Global examples are Muslims in China , Chinese in Indonesia the Uyghyrs in China. Correcting the problem is education of the majority to reject the concept of ( the other ') Unfortunately it is a long and difficult process as evidenced by Trumps current success stigmatizing blacks which dates back to the U.S. 's pre-civil war plantation South
I think that "white minority" should be replaced by "white plurality" throughout this article.
2
If there are colored folks, there must be colorless folks. Give you one guess.
Let us not forget that to the best of our knowledge, this vast land we call the United States of America belonged to NON-WHITE people. Writing a Slave-owner centric constitution does not change that fact.
3
If you guys don't stop fueling the fires of racial division there is going to be a civil war. Most people I know do not consider race as a qualifier. We base our opinions of other people on how they treat their fellow man.
6
Robert Jones hit it right on the head in ascribiing our worst divisions being based on a "binary understanding of white vs. non-white". Talk about a ridiculous way to divide people! I look forward to the day when everyone procreates with everyone else, until distinctions based on color or religion, disappear, and lowlifes like 45 are no longer able to exploit such divisions.
1
it often strikes me that the people most obsessed with the concept of "white culture" are its worst examples.
5
I have always found it interesting that if someone has some African, Asian or Hispanic blood, they are deemed to be of that race even when the other "half" is white. Why? Why was Obama, who is half black and half white, considered black? Why not white? He is just as much white as he is black and was raised by his white mother and not his black father.
And as more and more people who think of themselves as white discover through genetic tests that they have some ancestry from other races, do they cease to be considered white?
Are you white if you look white? Lots of Hispanics look white, and some whites look Hispanic.
It's ridiculous. Humanity all comes from the same root. The sooner we stop asking the race question, the sooner we stop quoting statistics on race, the sooner people will stop thinking about it. It's time.
5
@MJ
Agree. All through Obama's campaigns, his time in office, he was always referred to a a Black person, never any mention his mother was white. Why ?
I agree that the question of how we talk about demographic change is important and complex, but massaging the data and framing the discussing in certain ways to avoid conflict feels insincere and more likely to make everyone in general feel like leaders and "experts" aren't trustworthy.
The simple fact is that the country is in the midst of a massive demographic change that hasn't been seen in this country since the beginning of the 20th century. We have opened our doors to allow in 1 million immigrants every year, the vast majority from non-European countries. We show no sign of significantly slowing this level of immigration.
Of course, such high levels of immigration of people who don't have large existing native-born communities here is going to cause concern and possibly conflict. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the US is undergoing an unprecedented experiment in moving around large populations and placing them next to other populations with whom there is little shared history or culture. Why downplay the radical nature of such an experiment?
3
@Eric, It already is a great cause of concern and conflict.
Demagogues always rely on exploitation. What the GOP has done is cast its lot with demagoguery. Since the inception of the “southern strategy” the GOP has embraced racists and exploited racism. Given the fact that “exploitation” is the key strategy, what is exploited is less important than the manipulative advantage it confers.
Our efforts must address racism and exploitation. The fears of whites becoming a minority are false. In the antebellum South, Black slaves outnumbered white owners. White fear is manipulative and false. Reassuring whites with stats that delay minority status is childish. Better to invest in the genetics. There is only one race. The human race.
2
"Race" is a questionable concept in the best of circumstances. It is particularly misguided in the context of race discussions in the US.
My favorite example is Giselle Bündchen. Bündchen is a Brazilian of 100% German ancestry. But because she is an immigrant from South America, she is considered non-white in the US -- even though her genes are squarely of Northern European stock. So is she "hispanic", based on linguistic origin? Her native tongue is Portuguese, not Spanish. What about fellow Brazilian Pelé, who is of African descent? Are Giselle Bündchen and Pelé the same race? According to Americans, they are.
Race is a non-sense category. For their own sanity, Americans should ditch it.
3
@Jorge Larangeira - Which Americans say Giselle and Pele are the same race? Giselle is a white Brazilian. Brazilian is a nationality, not a race. I'm pretty sure Tom Brady, the "all-American boy," would not have married her if she were nonwhite.
Pele is a black Brazilian.
Where to begin? Why do the author and the academics he quotes all comment on the briefs of right wing Republicans and Donald Trump supporters? There is the frustration -- the hypocrisy of it. The Democrats and the left are the true exploiters of race, and at least share the blame for the anxiety and paranoia in our current society. Indeed, you could say that the Democrats are now the "race" party, turning away from "whites" and exploiting blacks and Hispanics to "vote their race," presumably against whites, specifically white males. Democrats, for example, offer sympathy for millions of illegal immigrants to impress Hispanic voters, who after all are a mix of Spanish (white European) and Western native peoples (Asian).
As a "white" person, am I now an "ethnonationalist" for being proud of my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary, Civil, Spanish and World Wars? Who devoted themselves to improving U.S. society and equal rights? The whole study of American history itself has been hijacked by far-leftist academics who rail against "WASPs" and their "nativist narratives" to the point of practically rejecting U.S. history before circa 1965. I recall when my family would talk about our heritage as a mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, Welch, German and Swiss -- yes, different peoples who became Americans. But it all just boils down, simplistically, to skin color, doesn't it? There's your uncertainty and insecurity right there.
6
@Scott, What's interesting is that the entire world desires to immigrate to the last remaining, few, white majority countries. Must have done some things right.
2
I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but I find all of this so utterly absurd. Fearing somebody with not-white skin makes about as much sense as fearing people with big feet, or people with brown eyes. It's stupid. My mother had the perfect philosophy that she relayed to me when I was a child and I have carried these words in my heart for all of my 65 years. "Turn 'em all inside out and you can't tell the difference." Indeed you can't.
5
I appreciate the studies looking at all the classifications, trends, and perceptions. However, I am not concerned or alarmed about what they will show. The prospect of a non-white majority, however defined, bothers me less than the current reality of, apparently, the country containing a large number of racists and xenophobes.
1
It's disturbing to read a column that at times appears to be assuaging white people's fears of some impending doom associated with a more diverse future culture with data points. Maybe I read this wrong, but that was my take away. While it is important to point out that the question of one's racial identity is becoming more complicated as the years go by, and some who are "bi-racial" may identify as "white" - the real question is, what is "white"? What is "white culture"? And why is anyone so afraid of losing it? America's culture is made up of so much more than white Europeans, and it has been since it's inception. This isn't new. And, neither is a yearning for white dominance, but I guess as a parent of a bi-racial child, I'd hoped this country was a little further down the road of grappling with this fact. Our family isn't naive and we won't claim to think we're living in anything close to a post racial society, but we certainly won't stand for being labeled an emblem of a change in America that isn't for the better. That idea should be squashed and rejected, vehemently. We are everything America should be.
1
For the record, first, the "binary" laws and bias would have the Irish as non-white for much of "new (to Europe - except for the Vikings, of course) world" history; second, "race" is a cultural concept (check India and Thailand for easy examples on that). Finally, as "bi-and multi-racial" offspring proliferate their grandparents will relax and live with it and re-legislate (e.g. recent/ongoing shifts in all attitudes LGBT). When you have "one of those" in the family that changes everything!
People who are afraid of being in the minority in the future - aren't those people basically admitting that people who are in the minority now have grounds to be afraid now?
If being a member of a future minority is grounds for fear, shouldn't today's majority take steps to institutionalize fair treatment for minorities? Once fair treatment of minorities is part of our law, politics and culture, it seems to me that it no longer matters what race or ethnicity is in the majority.
politicsbyeccehomo.wordpress.com
7
@Ecce Homo EXACTLY. That logical connection seems to go missing in "fear of being a minority" discussion!
1
This has been a brown-skinned people's land for millenia.
Historically, the two hundred years of white majority may turn out to be a brief exception.
2
@Alex Cody
The first inhabitants to both the north and south Americas were Asian nomads.
1
Who cares if the US gets "browner"? The Americas were originally populated with darker skinned human beings in the first place.
Also, at what number would the white population in America have to decrease to be considered a shortage? How is that determined exactly? With a multicultural population consisting of 327 million, it doesn't seem likely there will ever be a supposed "shortage" of any race in this country.
And if or when white people do become a minority, why would they fear that? Could it be the racists are afraid of being treated the way they themselves treat minorities? Would they have to confront the fact that racism threatens the very way of life of those victimized by it?
The American white race shortage conspiracy dramatics are political RW conservative race baiting at its' stupidest. Make them afraid of something harmless, get them to vote for you..... rinse, repeat.
1
There are so many great comments here. Equal means equal. I absolutely believe in the melting pot and when States, cities, or neighborhoods are too similar - they can be quite ... boring. Imagine America without the diversity of beautiful faces, song, prayer, art, thought, and FOOD! I love and appreciate the rainbow that makes us American. This is "What Makes America Great"! Our diversity - and when we can truly support and value this diversity - we will be even greater as a Nation.
I'm opting to leave those little boxes blank on my census. Hopefully may family and I will still "count". I personally don't want to be categorized by the superficial color of my skin. I did 23andme - turns out we're all cousins on the inside.
1
I have never found change to be smooth sailing, but I have learned that some change is inevitable. One inevitability is that whites will not outnumber all other populations in America. So our choices are to treat other ethnic groups as equal human beings with a right to dignity, or not. Seems that if we hope for continuation of a peaceful democracy the first choice will have better long-term results.
2
My mother is Mexican and my father was a white man from the Midwest. I grew up in central Ohio, surrounded by white faces. I don't speak Spanish; I don't have a Mexican-sounding name. However, I identify primarily as Mexican-American/Chicana precisely because when others look at me, they see a brown woman, regardless of the fact that my life was steeped in the culture of the white Midwest. (Though, I should note, I did experience racism within that culture, which is what drove me to seek other parts of the country.)
104
A white minority is a self-fulfilling prophesy of those worried about the change. If there is a true concern why do they continue to support candidates who vote against policies that would help all, including young white couples, raise a family? Poll after poll give the cost of raising a child as the reason many women do not have children. Day care is too expensive, public schools continue to deteriorate, food support is challenged, medical care is unaffordable and college is becoming increasingly unattainable without incurring lifelong debt. The people who protest and complain the most are the same ones who elected two individuals that cut taxes primarily for the wealthiest Americans instead of investing using the money to invest in families.
3
The 'hysteria' of minority vs majority populations exists in the minds of people who write these articles. The point of the census, according to the Constitution, Article I, is to count the number of people in each state for the purpose of electing representatives for Congress. It is over-reaching politicians who have made the census into a tumultuous political quagmire when they deflect their twisted views of society on us. Here is my advice to Congress and all you nosy, overbearing politicians - count the number of people, ask each person if they are an American citizen or not. Period. That's all the information the Constitution authorizes you to ask. The Constitution says each state can determine how to do the count - it does not say the federal government is allowed to know anything further about our personal information of the place in which we live, which is why I refuse to answer anything more on the census form other than the number of people living in my house and that we are American citizens. Period.
4
Fear of becoming a numerical minority assumes that future minorities will continue to be treated the way *current* minorities are (i.e. badly).
But it doesn't have to go that way. We can decouple minority/majority status from power. Which is, by the way, what we Americans of color have been working toward for centuries.
6
No, you cannot decouple power from status. Power is status. More is better
Part of the challenge here is that different parts of the US are changing at markedly different rates. For many states, a “majority minority” population may only become reality far in the future, if ever. In California, it has already arrived, and hardly anyone here seems to care. It may be instructive that California went through a significant anti-immigrant backlash in the 1990s, fueled in large part by Republican legislators including Governor Pete Wilson. Voters passed an initiative, Prop 187, that denied undocumented immigrants access to healthcare, education, and other services. Though the law was found unconstitutional, it served as a wake up call to Latino voters in the state, and the eventual backlash against Wilson, the GOP, and 187 set the stage for Democrats to dominate state politics, and they now hold the governor’s office and supermajorities in the Legislature. Today, Californians are generally supportive of immigration and programs to support and assimilate the undocumented. It’s interesting to consider whether other parts of the state might follow a similar course. Perhaps what we’re seeing now is that some other states are going through a period of demographic change similar to what California experienced in the ‘80s and ‘90s, accompanied by a similar backlash and similar demagoguery. Will the eventual outcome be similar? Time will tell.
4
@JDM Can't agree with you that in California no one seems to care.
On the one hand, Californians work very well together and public life is pretty smooth and without racial conflict.
On the other hand, in my travels in different circles of all races/ethnicities, people are very racially aware and sensitive.
I think much of the equilibrium that CA has struck has to do with the fact that CA is pretty prosperous. I sincerely hope it continues to be, because if the state's fortunes were to turn economically, I think there's legitimate reason to fear that racial fault lines would expose themselves. Right now, everyone's getting along because times are good.
1
None of this matters. The conflict is cooked-up by various groups in our society. What ever gave people the idea that people of color want different things than white people do? It is economic opportunity produced, often, by regional attributes and educational innovation that have granted white culture the elite motivations to success. Not to mention the successes driven by the rise out of poverty. Why would people of color have different motives? This is cultural stereotypes and hate driving this conversation. Feelings of power attached to differences that are nurture not nature. And it is ugly and not useful.
2
A test of what matters and what doesn’t is whether there is massive defection of white voters from the Democratic Party before Nov 6 2018 mid-term elections
3
@Tiger shark Dream on.
Even when the White population in America becomes the minority population, they will still hold the majority of the wealth and power in this country. Wealth and power count for a whole lot more than individual rights under our current political system.
If the White majority today is concerned about what life may be like when they truly become the minority they might want to plan ahead and create systems and procedures to protect the current minorities.
2
By a ridiculously large margin. Fewer than 50 (white) people control over 50% of the wealth.
3
A question more to the issue.
Who is busy trolling on race to make themselves important?
It is such a fad I gots to believe it is like the stock market when the guy shining Rockefeller shoes is in the stock game.
2
Many Hispanics who identify as whites or of European descent, are not. In Latin America whites are a minority and there is reverse discrimination against whites. Still, "whiteness" is the desired aesthetic. Being Native American is not desirable. Many deny they are a mix of/are Native American and get offended strongly if anyone perceives them as such. Mexico has the largest percentage of Native Americans in Latin America. However, most of the population in Chile and Argentina, for example, are or have a trace of Native American as well. But even when physical characteristics identify them as such, they will deny it strongly. Because of this shame, Argentinians refer to themselves as European, not Latin American. But in the US many "whites" have a trace of Native American and are proud of it but still consider themselves white. Therefore, this complexity is not inherent to just "Hispanics." Most "whites" in the south have a trace of African in their DNA, but they are unware of it or will deny it. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, have a high percentage of African descendants who have mixed with Europeans increasingly through the years. And many deny this fact with Dominicans looking down on Haitians. Racism, therefore, exists in Latin America and many "Hispanics" who accuse others of racism are racist themselves.
4
Ah, if life were just that simple. As a Connecticut Yankee living now in Charlotte, I'm discouraged that the entire conversation about race and diversity is being boiled down to gross generalizations for the sake of what? Sowing fear, anger, hatred, distrust? The talking heads have adopted the 20th century Deep South construction on the conversation when it was, literally and figuratively more about black vs. white. This is in contrast to the not so distant past when in the North, the conversation was broader and included national origin, ethnicity, and religious differences. The country survived. Families survived. Fresh and first generation Germans, Italians, Poles, Jews, and Catholics were once to Anglo-Saxon Protestants what are today Peruvians, Guatemalans, Senegalese, atheists, and gays to Americans who are heterosexual, fundamentalist Christian, and older than first-generation Americans. America, at its best, is and always will be a work in progress. Today's Dominican immigrant's grandchildren are the people who will be worrying about changes in the 22nd century. It's what it is, we get over it and move forward. It's what makes America, America.
1
U.S. Births Dip To 30-Year Low; Fertility Rate Sinks Further Below Replacement Level. The Census Bureau and others have been predicting for years that America's population growth will increasingly depend on immigrants, after decades in which the U.S. enjoyed a relatively high fertility rate when compared to other developed countries. White Americans have a "negative" birth rate and their "majority" will soon become a "minority" within 10-15 years, and that is when the fun starts. Hispanics, Asians and Blacks will comprise the "New Majority" and "white priviledge" will no longer be viable once the seats-of-power change and end up in the hands of those who were previously oppressed.
And so I would like to remind those "Christians" and "Evangelicals" what "their" Bible says .... "Be not deceived, the Lord thy God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". - GOOD LUCK WITH THE FUTURE (it's coming whether you like it or not).
The white minority anxiety involves white supremacy at some level that whiteness is superior and therefore must be preserved. ("Make America great again") The one drop rule that goes with white supremacy is probably playing a roll, consciously or unconsciously, in some whites not accepting mixed race people who self-identify as whites.
The sad thing is that some non-whites have internalized this notion of white supremacy and rather buy into the status and privilege by identifying with whites. This is rather prevalent among assimilation-obsessed Asians. What they don't realize is that they are paradoxically handicapping themselves and their offspring further by reinforcing the notion of white supremacy. They should instead learn from LGBT people who proudly declares "we are queer, we are here, get used to it" and strive to "keep America weird".
1
Oh, relax. The only "hysteria" present is the absurd fear of leftists that "whites" make any and all decisions based on racism. Aside from being simplistic nonsense, it takes the lens away from genuine social issues that result in the election of Donald J. Beelzebub and other unpalatable individuals.
3
Why is it that people of "mixed blood" black and white willrecognize themeselves as "blacks".
They are as white as they are black. The fact that some white people may think diferently should be for them, immaterial.
And what about the situation were only a grand father or grandmother is black. Still that person will consider herself black.
If that is to take advantagr from inverse discrimination, that is a smart move, even if slightly immoral.
But accepting the concept of some white hispanics of "la gotita", one drop of black blood makes one black, is absurd and demeaning.
1
I recently went on a trip to Argentina, Uruguay and Spain, where I saw a population whose physical appearance plainly did not differ from that of the Upper East Side, Beverly Hills, Rome or Paris.
My observation has occasioned me to realized that millions of so-called Hispanics and their descendants (who most likely will marry whites) living in The United States are and will be indistinguishable fom caucasian folks in our country. This should assuage white people's fears that their present majority should not be threatened now or in the future.
By the third generation, for most Americans descended from the immigrant generation, the only thing left from the immigrant experience is what foods that are on the table for holiday meals, and maybe the holiday celebrated. All the kids are Americans.
"Racism," Dick Gregory once observed, "is as American as apple pie." Racism is real, but besides the varieties of skin colors, race really is not. Perhaps the best way to deal with this from a census perspective is to drop those questions altogether and move forward as inevitable Americans.
Nowhere does Edsall point out the truth - that the government and media forced this upon the population by lying systematically and deliberately for many years. Over and over voters were reassured that of course changing immigration rules would never ever lead to a nonwhite majority. How could those silly conspiracy theorists ever say such a thing? They were merely mentally ill fantasists. No, they were telling the absolute, literal truth. Americans were tricked and deceived and they have every right to be angry.
5
Earth to Republicans and other “Arian” leaning members. Instead of fighting the losing battle for “white supremacy” why not embrace the change. After all, we only have one planet to share. By loving our differences, we can make this a better planet for all of us.
Scared old white people who are afraid of everyone. Ironically, we all become the same color when we die--dust-colored, so why these geriatrics care about anything, except enjoying their remaining days is beyond me.
1
I am hopeful this is a generational issue that will eventually sort itsefl out as the blank canvases of young, impressionable children are exposed to other children who don't look like or speak like them. This exposure will occur organically in public schools or public places and even on television, in films and in books and other publications. Children possess a natural curiosity to explore and learn that is often missing in older adults.
The great melting pot legacy of the United States is pockmarked by many shameful instances of fear, hatred, discrimination and violence toward those seeking asylum and acceptance in America who look, sound or worship differently from the majority. Early Irish. Italian and Jewish immigrants to America faced frequent discrimination in their new homeland but eventually thrived as they were assimilated.
1
My white son married an Indian woman. Recently their youngest child, age 10, told me he considers himself Indian. Certainly his skin color is brown rather than white, especially in summer, but is he not biracial? Should his skin color matter more than his humanity, intelligence, kindness and goodness?
I think not. I yearn for a world in which we ignore these superficial differences and instead base our judgments on what really matters.
136
@Barbara I'm biracial, like your grandson, and consider my Asian roots much more important than my white roots. That's because-- among many reasons-- white people remind me very, very often that I am not white. I've been called a half-breed, hybrid, the best of both worlds, etc. But people of color never tell me this. They get it.
7
@Barbara
"base our judgments on what really matters."
Agreed, and that is easy when you know a particular person and interact with them every day. Then skin color or other external markers of ethnic origin will fade from your conscious and no longer influence your judgment.
The problem comes in when you do not know someone, but have to make a judgment whether that person is trustworthy or a "threat" to you or your off-spring, directly or indirectly.
Then cultural experience in the broadest sense will substitute initially. That has a perfectly reasonable evolutionary reason: Members of the same tribe are expected to protect the tribe and generally in the jungle the opposite was true for members of other tribes who were considered a threat.
It is difficult to overcome these inherited evolutionary behavioral patterns. What we need to strive for is a world without borders where only humanity exists. Then these racial distinctions will slowly fade, with increasing racial mingling. Trying to force it using policy and law will continue to backfire and in fact reinforce the opposite. That's what brought us Trump.
1
@Sonya Larson
How horrible to be called a half-breed. That's out of the 19th century. I hope you think I "get it" too.
I would worry for my grandsons if they lived in the south as I do, but they live in a very cosmopolitan area near an Ivy League university.
No one should be excluded from anything due to their skin color or other external features.
Why are increasing levels of diversity a threat in the first place? I am white, but I don't see my personal life prospects tied to the number of other white people around me. Besides, there are plenty of examples throughout history of a white minority exerting perfect control over a majority non-white population, such as South Africa. We are already reinforcing the ramparts with race-targeted voter suppression efforts.
One thing I am hopeful for however, is that it has been shown that as communities become more diverse, members of that community's attitudes become more positive towards minorities (after short term anxiety and trust issues).
It just seems sad that we are talking about revising diversity projections to make them seem more white to alleviate the fears of racists, instead of celebrating the melting pot as a founding American value.
I guess what none of us like admitting is racism is also an American tradition that runs deep. Even before African slaves were the 'black' people, the Irish were 'black'. I guess people just need to feel superior because they are so insecure.
1
Demographic data has often been missused. The narrative of the white minority is being paddeled by the conservative far right not and unfortunately only in the USA.
IMV race is not necessarily a decisive factor. If a white immigrant person lives in a society prone to or nurturing prejudices towards "otherness", being white (race) will not have an inclusive effect over an immigrant status. There is always a reason for exclusion of others.
Civil society and responsible politicians and leaders have to do much more to undo the consequences of hate-speech and self-inflicted fear.
Remember that one of the ways whites have remained numerically dominant in the US is by expanding the definition of who qualifies. A hundred years ago, people of Irish, Italian and Jewish ancestry were seen as members of other "races." Over time, and as they married people of English and German descent, their descendants came to be thought of as white. The same is happening today with Latinos and Asians. As they intermarry with whites, their children are more likely to gravitate toward thinking of themselves as white. And just as people no longer perceive faces as characteristically Irish or Italian, in the future we'll stop perceiving Asian and Latino faces as something different from whites.
Currently reading "The Fall of the House of Dixie" by Bruce Levine, which looks at the U.S., pre- and post- Civil War. A key component of the South's ability to keep non-slave owners "with the program," so to speak, included the emphasis that every white man was better than every black man. White supremacy was an unquestioned fact and the basis of the South's social structure. It's not hard to see that although a lot has changed since then, some things haven't.
3
Who's afraid of a white minority? That's easy.
I'd say most white people in this country.
And thanks to a president who doesn't shy away from using negative racial epithets, and who openly supports, and is supported by white supremiacist groups -- that should be a given.
Not that racism in this country is anything new.
After all, it was built up and founded by it; which is also why after so many centuries of being in control, it's hard for whites and white men in particular, to face the possibility that at one point or another, they just might be the ones to who don't get the job, or the home, or equal pay -- and may even have sit at the back of the bus.
5
Whites are a minority in the world. What is "whiteness" anyway? It's not certain which came first, light skin or dark. But the variations we see are generally a matter of adaptation to intensity of sunlight. The notion that a "white gene" or a "white chromosome" is linked to intelligence and Northern European Protestantism is plain garbage. If some people want to wall themselves up in an albino ghetto, too bad. But why should I be bitter about it, pink that I am in skin and politics? If there is bitterness it is because the rampant racism in America not only harms those who are now a minority, it hurts us all by diverting time and energy into paleolithic politics rather than concentrating on defining civilization in this new challenging world.
5
The shame of the situation is that when the instrument upon which our republic is founded upon, the Constitution of the United States which includes the Bill of Rights, is adhered to and interpreted properly, it is the protection and shield for all people of different races, religions, classes and origins. The irony is that Trump and the "original intent" interpreters of the Constitution are so intent on keeping keep white people in power now by trampling upon the Constitution, they are in fact, removing the very safeguards that would protect them when whites are no longer the majority.
1
I am brown about half African ancestry. Most of my first cousins on my father's side are so light they have to announce they have some African-American ancestry and are part of an African-American family. My Impression from these cousins and others is that presently lots of non-Black people do not care when they find out about the partial African genetics, but it can become an issue if they identify culturally as Black or espouse average Black political views. (I say average Black because Black political views vary all over the place.) I am looking up research on this issue.
Also: it has been proven that here is no such thing scientifically as race. Why doesn’t the NYT point this out at any opportunity when describing a US census that is collecting data on race?
Having said that, the experience of different communities (formerly called races) and their fair treatment are two matter absolutely of vital importance in how we govern ourselves as a society.
Can we get rid of “race” on the census and exchange it for penetrating questions about identity, heritage and community?
I could read Thomas Edsall all day everyday. I always feel just a little bit more intelligent after reading his column.
A big thank you to him for digging deeper than the headline and uncovering some hidden gems of truth.
Facts and truth are often in short supply in this era of "truth isn't truth" and "alternative facts".
1
What is a Hispanic? What is a Latino? The Census seems to think that all of South America speaks Spanish but Brazil, which was colonized by the Portuguese and has roughly half the population of all of South America, doesn't speak Spanish, has the largest Japanese population in the world outside of Japan, the largest population of descendants of Italian immigrants in the world, has a large black population but a small amerindian population and has a sizable population of descendants of German and Polish immigrants. Latinos are people who speak Latin languages? In this case are the French, Romanian and Italian "Latinos" or just Latins? I have German, Portuguese and Spanish ancestors, so what am I, according to the Census?
Perceptions of and fears about “whiteness”: do all generations share the same perceptions and fears? I doubt it. I suspect a post millennial “sees” “whiteness” in a far different way from a Baby Boomer.
Interesting article, thanks. But why didn’t it come right out and say that the Americans who are most worried about “whiteness” are older?
Your reporting here suffers a bit from the same problem as the reporting on health and fitness studies. You are making assumptions that data or theories about one age group apply to all all age groups. I don’t buy it, and something is turning me off, in the same way that I don’t buy your reporting that a fitness study of 18-25 year old male athletes has relevance to post-menopausal women—among your most loyal group of readers. Which turns me off the whole section.
As the article points out, “white” is not really a thing and race, as a category, is not really a thing. People are people; our DNA is virtually the same. What gets people worked up are perceived differences in culture, not really race. This is why fear of Muslims and Jews, ostensibly a racial difference from white people but really a religious difference, gets lumped in with racism.
What makes the current uproar even sillier is that American culture is so dominant and overpowering, and has been for many generations past, that there should be no fear that the “others” won’t be assimilated. American culture always wins.
This is why our stories are so full of the motif of the immigrant parents feuding with their children because the kids are abandoning their heritage, a heritage that is usually relegated to a few holiday traditions, some family recipes, and perhaps a touch of assorted words from the old language by the third generation.
The exception, unfortunately, is for black people, though they too have given their best effort to assimilate American culture. The persistent bias against what is only a surface reality, black skin, has hobbled the efforts of blacks to assimilate, much to our national disgrace.
Besides, “majority minority” is a fatuous contradiction in terms that serves only to amplify unfounded fear. American culture, for better or worse, is inescapable. It has always converted immigrants, often despite overwhelming odds, and we need not fear change now.
Well, I'm white and I'm not too worried about it. Can't say any of my WASP, here from the 1600's, pushed our way West, fought in the Civil War, etc. family is either. And if we aren't worried, why is anybody else?
4
The following paragraph from the article is undermined by the experience of German Jews from the Napoleonic to the Second World War. As German Jews assimilated more into German society, ethnophobic based anti-semitism increased, culminating eventually in the near total destruction if European Jews during the Holocaust. Similarly, forced and voluntary minimizing of ethnic differences in Yugoslavia, accentuated intra-ethnic hate culminating in the genocidal events of the 1990s. The same parallels can be made for Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Rwanda and other places. It actually seems that the more alike people become, the more some groups feel they have to accentuate differences - sometimes even differences that seem minor to outside observers (Sunnis vs.Shiites, Irish Catholics vs. Protestants), even to the point of trying to eradicate other groups. Probably the more insecure someone is, the more the desire to belong to a group and exclude others.
“Over time, however, Lavine argued, as
races and cultures become less distinct (more assimilated), Republican voters who are dispositionally intolerant of difference (e.g., authoritarians) will find the political climate less threatening and the category of race per se less politically relevant.”
Alan Rice, MD
I emigrated to this country in 1969 and eventually became a US citizen. Even though I am white (Italian) I have a strong feeling, if the pressure were to "mount", that I am a "full-fledged" American especially where I live, in the South.
If some of the "full-blooded whites" (and what does this mean exactly?) feel so threatened they should have reproduced more!
What compounds the problem is that they, or their children, are in some danger of eventually living in poverty. Poverty did not worry them when it was only the blacks being in that condition. Now that the many of the 1% are putting the squeeze on everything the poverty tide has reached the "low-end" white and they do not like it!
No kidding! Thank you for not reproducing so much!
And keep voting for Trump!
The issue with not regarding Mexicans or any other ESL citizens of the Western hemisphere who are not Canadian or American is due to the lingering hatred for the Spanish Empire. A lot of that has to do with the British propaganda against them as they fought for control of the seas.
Another aspect of ethnicity and race that few Americans and I suspect Canadians ever cogitate is that the rest of the western hemisphere was colonized or emigrated to by the same Pols, and Norwegians, Italians, English and Irish etc. So the "Mexican" or "Brazilian" or ?? person who is being classified as minority or not white are really as likely to be of an other than Spanish European origins. They have fully assimilated into the society they live in to the point we who do not look for it do not distinguish between them.
I am Italian Irish and it never occurred to me that white people would not regard me as one of them. In fact I endured years of prejudicial treatment I never realized was based on the fact that the persons doing it thought I was Mexican. Somehow in ignorant minds our fellow Europeans south of our border are not fellow Europeans which brings us back to the anti Spanish British propaganda and how effective it was.
Which is yet another reason/proof of why the FCC should shut down Fox and all propaganda outlets. They are an entirely destructive to society endeavor.
1
These same questions were being asked in 1787. The answer was a constitution biased against anyone not male of European descent.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose…
I have read the posts, the explanations etc and I need to comment one more time.
Politicians are and have been adept at pushing an agenda of hate, fear and racism possibly for as long as the U.S has existed.
Hate, fear and racism are wonderful tools for distracting the public, while our politicians enrich themselves and colleagues, roll back our protections, rights and abilities to fight back. It's as simple as that.
Case in point: Donald Trump.
Trumps base at the rally's makes me want to vomit in the same way that Nixon supporters yelled "4 more years" while I feared being drafted and sent to Vietnam.
"would the anxieties of whites fearful of a majority-minority America be lessened?"
No. Some people live to be put into a state of fear by Rush and the rest. The GOP capitalizes on that.
What if the question was "do you fear America becoming a nation where first-generation immigrants outnumber native-born Americans?" That's a vision that will never come true, but some of these "scare me more, please" types might consider that native-born Americans covers waaay over 300 million of our current population - it's just that some of the long-time natives are still treated as unwelcome others.
Just stop worrying yourself over where exactly people's ancestors came from. Reverse the stupid "one-drop" rule to where having one European ancestor anywhere in the past means you're white. Done. White majority here, now, forever in America.
Or require extensive genome testing of all the most virulent "whites only" types. That would be good for laughs. And the ones who are "pure" European can then reflect that Europe has a long bloody history that proved that a single, made-up "race" sure isn't a guarantee of peace and harmony. Ask the Irish who still have trouble over people who have been neighbors for 500 years.
The fundamental white supremacist attitude will guarantee its own undoing. As a matter of self defense, if nothing else, Americans as a country need to welcome people of all races and assimilate them into the society. The eventual reduction of the white majority to a minority is guaranteed, not merely a possibility.
If whites choose to relegate non-whites to second class citizens, the minority has no choice but eventually to rebel to achieve its rights under our Constitution, which recognizes all people as citizens, not just the elite white rich.
If, instead, we welcome and assimilate all races regardless of color or religion, there remains nothing to rebel against.
The violent catastrophes in North Africa and the Middle East and WWII Germany and Italy should serve as a warning. Dictatorships established to defend an elite minority, have collapsed in violence leaving an utter catastrophe behind.
It can and will happen in the US unless we embrace what our Constitution says and not what the elitist white, rich, mostly Republicans want it to say. Not tomorrow, not next year, but it will happen!
1
I’ve always found it stupefying that people blame the minimum wage dishwasher at the local breakfast place who is working three jobs to give a better life to his children for all of their problems, instead of the CEO that just got a raise from 15 to 25,000,000 a year because he cut costs by firing ten-thousand people and eliminating pensions for the rest. Like lemmings, they now vote GOP every time. This is largely because most CEOs and financiers turn a blind eye to all the racist dog whistles and relentlessly fund the politicians who work most tirelessly to benefit their interests. Why has it always been so ridiculously easy to get white conservatives to blame the poor person that cooks at the local diner for all of their problems? Baked in racism and tribalism are really the only plausible explanations.
5
My granddaughter is 1/8 Asian. Does this make her Asian-American ?
My reaction to this column, like millions of US citizens, is mixed.
The Census Bureau's labeling of people is unneccesary and ridiculous given how varied people's backgrounds are. Why does the Census Bureau even keep track of race or ethnicity? Because we're curious? That's hardly a reasonable justification for a practice that causes much more trouble than it is worth, is very unscientific and can be used for nefarious purposes.
As Bill Murray's character said in the movie "Stripes", we're all mutts. Enough with the silly labeling.
1
It should be loyalty to the Constitution and the basic tenets of democracy (rule of law and the same rights for all citizens) that we should care about, not race, ethnicity, or variety of cultural background. I live in a state composed of three cultures: "white," Hispanic, and Native American . . . and we're all Americans. We love and celebrate the mix. It's what makes New Mexico the only place I ever want to live. People who are afraid of a mix are missing out.
While this is an engaging essay, the fundamental challenge is that the nation is still reconciling an aspirational goal of representative democracy built on individual protection and equality under the law with a false construct of pseudo-science known as race. Most science recognizes that the idea of classifying humans in some socially consequential manner based on skin color, lip thickness or hair texture has no more factual foundation than doing so for eye color.
However, the economic imperative for inhuman labor extraction conflicted with the national and personal needs for our nation to project a humanist image. The solution led to the promotion of the race myth and the associated racism of institutions and social dogma to reinforce the myth of differing "degrees of humanity" exhibited, for example, by the 3/5's rule.
Until we can call the concept of race out for the nonsense that it is while still redressing the contemporary social inequities resulting from its enactment, we scarcely have any hope of getting out of this morass or of not digging ourselves deeper in it. Yes, the very idea of divesting ourselves of this construct is daunting.
Most of us are too invested in race as essential to our personal and national identities to even engage the discussion. But that anyone seriously considers him/herself to be "mixed-race" is a lamentable scar from a concept that should have been retired centuries ago to the same trash heap as the flat earth theory.
1
The challenge we face as the country becomes less white is whether we will continue on our marvelous 400 year experimental journey centered around the ideas that define Western Democracy. With the surge in race based identity politics it makes me wonder. The same thing is happening in West Europe where 50 million Muslims now live whereas in 1970 there lived essentially none.
We are at an inflection point the defining point of which is whether race/tribe or ideas/economics define human identity. I think we may not realize how close we really are to finding out the answer to this question.
3
Italians, Jews, and slavs were once not white. Drunken Irishmen were once not white. Dumb Swedes were once not white. To northern Italians, Africa begins south of Rome and southern Italians are not white.
In the South, anyone with any black blood at all was not white, and there was absolutely no concern for the white blood doomed to cohabit the same body with black blood; the white blood for some reason just did not count. Although white blood was superior, black blood was somehow stronger.
This whole thinking is not amenable to reason, and when or where it is important to our political thinking, democracy, fairness, and good government is endangered or impossible.
7
@sdavidc9
We also have a minority political party whom have convinced themselves they are a political majority and the facts that show otherwise are false. This has allowed outrageous behavior (gerrymandering, outright stealing elections, rigging the judicial system with the "right" judges), conspiracy theories about racism and invasion, and other equally outlandish conspiracies to flourish just to be able to maintain that dissociative idea in themselves that they are a majority being unfairly denied their majority rights.
1
My wife is Asian / Caucasian, several of our friends / golf / tennis buddies are Hispanic, Asian, AA or a mix, my kids friends are as diverse a group as there can be and our small company's workforce is the same. I think the "white supremacy" attention / talk is only applicable to a very small percent of the population, and the overwhelming majority of people reject it's beliefs.
But as time moves on, as the younger generations of today get older, the "white minority / majority" argument will fade - the overwhelming majority of kids and young adults today are colorblind. Are there pockets of racism - yes, impossible to wipe it all out. But everyday, we move towards a society where where your ethnicity and color is less and less of an issue. It's not a smooth glide path, but one year or one term will not change the long term attitude transformation, and I see it everyday with people I interact with socially and professionally.
In the end, the majority of Americans, left , right and center, are decent people.
6
I grew up in Chicago where there was extreme fear on both sides of the racial divide and I never want to go back there for that reason. I am now a white minority in my own nuclear family and also experienced being a minority as a teenage exchange student. Now I live in Canada where in many urban areas, white people are the minority. I am comfortable with it, of course, because I am still privileged as compared to non-white minorities, but hopefully things are becoming more equal as political power becomes more diverse.
1
White supremacy is dependent on a clearly defined description of what white is. The paranoia that when whites become a minority they will be overwhelmed by the rainbow mass of citizens. Bannon's race baiting is sold on the underserving suddenly being empowered by majority status.
7
I am a pro-multicultural white and surrounded by fearful whites. They act like they are being invaded. The invasion is slow and inevitable, they see its advancement in increments daily, the force by which it advances is proportional to how slow it is just like who powerful a slowly geared mechanism turns.
The white fear is so pervasive it feels like a cultural aspiration, they express their fear as a form of pride, they have "Fear Pride" and it's evident in all the ways they live: they congregate through segregation, they put messages on their vehicles, they wear clothes that speak for them, they blare noxious talk radio and infotainment from all devices, and of course they make themselves heard and seen in public rallies and warehouse churches.
Right now, fear is all they've got, and they're holding onto it for dear life. Fear is their identity, and without it they will have capitulated to accept that which they were afraid of. Without fear, they will have lost their image of who they are distinct from who they are not. They will hold onto their fear to reinforce that they are right about their upstanding morals defending this great nation from aliens, intruders and invaders.
Right now, the most ostensible enemy are the invaders from Central/South America, yet, the white people that surround me are under the illusion that the Canadians are coming and that the rest of the world, including China and Europe are seeking to steal the US from whom it belongs: "Real Americans."
12
The NY Times has an obsession with race. The problem is that the main problems the US confronts have nothing to do with race.
Population growth for example. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich published the Population Bomb, which argued that as population increased we would run out of resources. Living standards would drop leading eventually to pestilence, war or outright starvation. This was supplemented by the book Limits to Growth by four authors of 1972 which provided mathematical models of various scenarios, including environmental degradation.
For fifty years, this topic has been regarded as off-topic, as unworthy of discussion in the NY Times.
But one of the consequences of too much population growth is racial discrimination. And not always against blacks.
Zimbabwe, for example, has had 3% population growth for decades, a recipe for larger and larger numbers of poor. The poor were mostly black and as their economic conditions continued to fall they looked with envy at the white farmers, holdovers from the colonial period, and the government instituted policies of land redistribution, that simply forced white landowners off their land.
What will happen in the US if population continues to increase? The details cannot be predicted.
The US population has increased by 86 million since 1986 when we passed the last Immigration Reform Act.
Maybe the breakup of democracy is the first step towards our Malthusian future.
Why not discuss population growth without cries of racism?
10
@Jake Wagner
Thanks for posting, global overpopulation coming to your neighborhood. Do we as citizens have any say anymore
When it comes to limiting the growth of our country? The US is on track to become the third largest country on the planet before the end of the century. The shortage of water, the higher cost of food, housing, transport rapidly decaying infrastructure and the competition for finite resources like “harvard” are already turning the politics of this country into war. Soylent green is going to be our future. the answer lies in birth control which some cultures dont care to practice and in decreasing brain drain so that the world can help itelf become more modern, democratic and prosperous.
As a FL native, being born in the Jim Crow era and being in the deep south, I was born in a segregated hospital and I take glee in the picture (voters in FL) and the headline of a white minority. I am not even retirement age and if I were to relocate to FL in my retirement days to Florida, I am not afraid of a white minority.
The sad truth is that most of the state is still very segregated by race and class.
1
I think we need to adjust our language a bit: we will not become a "majority-minority" nation, we will become an all minority nation. "Majority-minority" preserves the centrality of the "white race" (if such a thing exists) by excluding white people from the definition of minority.
There will always be those that cling to a perceived status, particularly when that perception is threatened.
Those white people that believe race gives them higher status are, however, deluded. The only thing that confers status is membership in the ruling class. And that class is not threatened by immigration, birth rates, or anything else.
Those that rely on race as status are not members of the ruling class. They will be given advantages, and those advantages taken away, as suits the needs and whims of the ruling class. They will be told they are superior to others in support the divide and rule regime.
And they will be increasingly confronted by a reality that conflicts with their mythology, as the corporate power of 'minorities' (particularly Asians) increases.
The world will not stand still.
5
My son is second generation American, and me and my wife are Italian/Spaniard mix, so we are white (at least as white as Giuliani...). We are also highly educated. We never talked race differences at home while he was growing up.
So we were surprised when my son started talking about "acting white". Society qualified him, and he reacted accordingly.
4
@Numas
"So we were surprised when my son started talking about 'acting white.' Society qualified him, and he reacted accordingly."
It might that your son, like you and your wife, is also highly educated but the society he has found himself in considers education elitist and "white." Those aren't real friends.
It was a sad day when Americans, both black and white, decided that education for its own sake was for sissies and Oreos. You know, "Don't know much about history, don't know much about biology . . . ."
That's how we got a President Trump. Far too many whites voted for him, and far too many blacks didn't vote at all.
1
I find it fascinating to see foks discuss the notion that white hispanics might be considered part of the white majority in the future. The whole reason there is a “white” Hispanic category is that they used to be part of the white majority not too along ago. For example, it would have been impossible for Desi Arnaz to play the husband of a white woman on national television in pre-civil rights America (the 1950’s!) without the concept of a Latino qualifying as a white man being firmly established in our culture. It was true that his casting was controversial in that he wasn’t a WASP, but the marriage was not “interracial.”
It is only with the creation of the Hispanic category in the 70’s and 80’s to accommodate a large, growing population of non-white Hispanics (often having fled oppression in Latin America by white ruling elites) that the concept of an Hispanic being a white person disappears. Now merely having a Spanish surname makes one a racial minority, even if that person’s ancestry is 100 percent European.
The great irony of this is that a white Hispanic today is less likely to be “accepted” by the white majority than he or she was 100 years ago when white Hispanics had assimilation trajectories on par with Italians, Greeks, and Eastern Europeans.
8
I hope to live to see the day when people finally realize that everyone of one race is not the same.
All white people are not the same.
All black people are not the same.
All Asian people are not the same.
So, who's afraid of a white minority?
Only those who think race is the measure of a person.
3
I suppose there are situations where skin color can become important and a source of prejudice and fear.
For example, since Trump has been in office. I have developed a distinct aversion and dislike of men with orange color skin.
Right now, I only know one such orange man, but he is really ignorant, untrustworthy, rude, crude, incompetent, negative, and destructive.
Do not trust or vote for men with orange skin.
11
So-called pure white people better improve their behavior. What we do (i'm one of them) during the transition from majority to minority has vast implications in our future interactions with our fellow citizens.
We cannot fix the past, but we can do better in the present.
3
Republican voters fear minorities they don't really interact with; believe there is an ongoing wave of illegal immigration; think crime is increasing; feel Christians are being persecuted. All of these beliefs are demonstrably false and with the internet, it's never been easier to research these subjects. Is it any wonder who is responsible for our dysfunctional politics?
4
I do not know what the future holds for the USA, but I do know what happened in the Ivy League over the past 50 years.
Then, there were no women, a smattering of African-Americans and Hispanics, some Jews and Roman Catholics, but the vast majority was WASP -- as am I. As an indication, one fourth of my entering class were "nominal" (as we used to call "self-identified") Episcopalians.
All that changed, notwithstanding a number of alumni who were worried about a non-WASP majority. My university today still has WASPs but they are not anything close to a majority.
The university now is a better place than it was then, and it is my hope the same will be true of the USA.
5
The only thing that matters, and that should be emphasized, particularly in the face of Trumpoid racist fear mongering and paranoia, is that the vast majority of people in the United States, whether they emigrate to the U.S., are the children of immigrants, regardless of race, regardless of intermarriage, want to be and think of themselves as Americans, first. If the immigrants struggle with English, the children end up speaking English, and struggling to retain their parents' language. Regardless of race or ethnicity, people adopt the idea of America, and even the ideals of America (regardless of whether those in power in America, and the large majority they can apparently manipulate, do not hold those ideals).
This has been going on since people first started coming here from Europe. It didn't stop when more people started coming here from Asia and Latin America. And most Americans of African descent, in most cases people whose ancestors came here, unwillingly, and who have been most ill-treated, still want to live in America, as Americans. What better evidence is there of the power of becoming and being American?
White people who fear immigrants thus have little to fear. Their "life style" and "culture" are not being menaced. Despite their hostility, almost everyone else wants to be like them, live like them, share their better beliefs, values, even religions.
The White European world in America, for better and worse, continues to "win." Calm down, White people.
3
@Robert Henry Eller
I think your argument cuts in the wrong direction. Agreed, all that matters is that we all think of ourselves as American foremost. But what we "fear" is that it's not happening that way. What does constantly hearing "press dos for Spanish" tell you? What does seeing women in hijabs tell you? Too many immigrant groups are here for jobs and safety, but would prefer to re-create their old culture rather than fully assimilate into ours.
Us "fearful" whites are not asking these groups for anything more than we've traditionally asked of any other. Learn English, and adopt Western style dress and customs. It's no different from what a Japanese or Indian would say to someone wanting to emigrate to their countries. But if a white guy says it, one gets nothing but name calling in response.
5
@max
(1) "Press dos for Spanish" - It means that we live in a multilingual culture. What on earth is wrong with that? It is really that much of a problem? Are you terrified that you won't get your 2.5 seconds back? If multilingual instructions and ATMs bother you, you'd better not have any plans to go to Europe or Canada any time soon.
(2) I see women in hijab every day of the week. They're shopping, eating food, meeting friends and hanging out with their kids. Ohhh, scary. They don't bother me one iota; I think their devotion to their faith is beautiful.
(3) When the white guy says it, it's usual done in an insulting manner, e.g., calling somebody "towelhead," "sandn***er," "terrorist," all of which I have heard come from white guys and women, usually from a moving vehicle, usually directed at the wrong nationality. Honestly: If somebody is going to be a bigoted blowhard, at least get the epithets straight.
(4) If you're so big on assimilation dress codes, then adopt Native American dress immediately and learn Lakota.
The United States I live in is vibrant and alive and full of all kinds of different people. The United States you want to live in sounds like a boring, depressing place.
1
@eheck
"The United States I live in is vibrant and alive and full of all kinds of different people."
I like all kinds of vibrant different people...who come to the US because they want to be American (and Western). Amazing to think that it's even a controversial statement.
1
The message of this article is that a goal of our nation needs to be to soothe the insecurities of angry old white guys who are uptight because they no longer are the centers of attention in our society. Well, I don’t think using census data with its arcane classifications would even be effective in arguing with this gang. What might be a better argument is to point out how diversity is what made America the great country it once was. And, if we hope to be great again, it is once again our best and maybe only path to get there—more diversity is good news, not bad.
But note that this is our second experience with diversity. The first had to do with groups of immigrants mainly from Europe. And did the grouchy old whites of the time embrace these diverse people? Heck no! As recently as the 1950s you couldn’t even buy a house in some suburbs of New York City if you were Jewish or Italian. Now we’re in a second round of this, trying to at long last give equal status to racial minorities, women, and a wild mix of new immigrants.
Commentator TDurk argues that we need to bring about a “cohesive, inclusive culture.” Yes, let’s get to work on that. And, let’s market this to angry old white guys—but let’s hardly give them veto power over whether we can move ahead. We’re on our way—their only decision is whether they want to join us or be left in the dust.
Oh, I should have disclosed that I’m old and white myself—and increasingly angry that we even need to have these conversations.
3
In a recent NYT article the actors who appeared in Crazy Rich Asians extolled the film's diversity (it features ONLY Asian actors) and spoke glowingly of how nice it felt to work on a set surrounded by others like themselves, instead of by the usual white faces.
In another article the singer Beyonce criticized magazine art directors for only hiring photographers that "looked like themselves" and congratulated herself for striking a blow for diversity . . . by hiring a photographer who looked like her.
We are imprinted in our infancy with trust for our caregivers . . . and for others who look like them.
That goes for people of all races, not just European-Americans.
But I'm not saying that's a good thing. It's just something we need to be aware of; something we need to fight.
6
@Green Tea
On a related note, there was another NYT piece on "Crazy Rich Asians". Turns out people in Singapore (where the film is set) are protesting that the cast is mostly Chinese/Singaporean and that the Malaysian/Singaporeans and Indian/Singaporeans are under-represented. We need to stop taking inventory of color because no one will ever be satisfied.
2
Everyone get a clue: most of the world's population is not "white." Sure, there are countries (Scandinavia for example) where the populations are quite homogeneously white. These are the exception and, frankly, their whiteness has been protected by their governments. IMO these cultures lack a certain vibrancy due to their policies.
The U.S. may have been dominated by whites in the past, but this is going to change.
2
I am not sure when, if ever, we will give up on mythical notions of the USA as a melting-pot: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/meltingpot/melt0... (that essay is 20 years old). Does this sound familiar:
"The immigrants of today come not from Europe but overwhelmingly from the still developing world of Asia and Latin America. The are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation's population."
Those teenagers are now middle aged, so that shift by the mid 2040's might occur, as suspected in that 1998 essay.
Our over-the-top reverence for white Western European culture may yet be our undoing. This is a chronic illness we have not yet been able to shake. Wouldn't it be nice if the children of today's immigrants or citizens of color really thought this was the best country in the world, if they wanted to be called American, not preceded by a hyphen. Are we closer now than in 1998?
1
@JSK
White Western European culture built this country that everyone seems to be clamoring to get into (or stay in). The growing backlash to diversity is in part due to people not being allowed to say such things in public.
3
@max
Curious. Given modern social media and growing lack of restraint, being allowed to say things in public does not appear to be the major problem.
@max. Right. And the slaves who actually generated the wealth (via the plantations or profits from the "middle" passage) so that those rich white guys sitting down in London, Boston and Philadelphia had the leisure and education to generate that white western "culture" contributed absolutely nothing? And -- just out of curiosity -- is pointing out the inherent hypocrisy contained in your first sentence part of the "not being allowed to say such things" you mention?
I can't understand the fear of immigrants by some people. Maybe because I grew up in California with a large native Mexican-American and Asian population. And have lived and worked in the Middle East. And lived and worked in several states. I don't see the issue. The immigrant population is still small. Even the illegal immigrant population is very small - 3% or so. Almost negligible.
But the thing I really don't understand is why, considering the need for working age people for open jobs, we would want to keep out people who are super-motivated to come here to work and live. They give up EVERYTHING to come here and start from scratch and the vast majority do fine and contribute both to society is a very positive way.
Compare that to "native" born Americans who whine about not having a job but are too lazy or scared to move to where the jobs are. How pathetic is it that they cannot move within their own state or country to get a job - a very easy thing to do - while an immigrant is literally risking everything to leave their home country and come here to work and live.
The whining about immigrants or minorities is just people who need someone to blame for their own shortcomings. Grow up. Get a job. Quit whining!
2
When it comes to being "white" in America it's not about race or color, it's about attitude and privilege.
Who is white? What is white? According to white people, whiteness occurs when one's opinion of one's self and, concurrently, others' opinion of one's self, agree that whiteness is present in that self. So whiteness is an invented concept maintained by people who deem it necessary to create that category (it's a club!) and supervise & limit admission into it.
White people don't exist. Members of the human race -- the only race of homo sapiens wandering the globe these last two hundred thousand years -- each have ancestors whose presence on the globe can be pinpointed, during the recent past, to a geographic place on the global map. I happen to be ethnic Italian, but I claim that only because the ancestors I am aware of, going back ~150 years, lived in and emigrated from that region to the US in the early 1900s. I also have green eyes, which tells me that earlier ancestors probably came from northern Europe, so I have a mix of DNA from many geographic areas. Am I white? No. Is anyone? No.
My ethnic history places the social, cultural, and political touchstones of my known, recent ancestors in Italy. Yours places you elsewhere. So what? You're merely human. Live with it.
If you think you're white and you are a member of any ethnic group whose ancestors came to this country between 1840 and 1924, you need to read David R. Roediger's 2005 book WORKING TOWARD WHITENESS: How America's Immigrants Became White.
Wake up, America. Your invented nightmares are killing us.
1
Why do all and only white populations have to be diverse or multicultural? This is not demanded of any non-white people, anywhere.
15
@JM
This is where I suggest you take a closer look at American History -- and then Google the term 'Institutionalized Racism'.
I hope this helps to answer your question.
1
A theory has been advanced by political scientists, that the casus belli for major international conflicts - like WWII in Germany and Japan - were racially-based, rather than nationalist, expansionist-territorial endeavors as traditional analysis supports.
So, in Japan's case, they needed oil from the Dutch East Indies and minerals from Manchuria, but the driving force behind their belligerent behavior was to eradicate the white-man's hegemony in the Pacific Basin. A similar case could be made for the Japanese secret attack on the Russian Fleet in Port Arthur in 1904.
Race relations have become a significant plank in the Democrats platform for the Midterms which is welcomed by the Republicans. The GOP has been running - rather successfully - against Barack Obama for the last twelve years. Racism sells, and it sells good.
The recent racists remarks made by Ron DeSantis - right out of the gate after the primary - about his black Democratic challenger for governor of Florida, Andrew Gillum, ("monkey-up" all the GOP's handiwork in FL) is the opening salvo in the GOP strategy of stoking racist sentiments and fears, including the prospect of a minority-majority America - with proven positive results.
The Democratic strategy to undermine the GOP's attempts to exploit racial animus is less clear to me. I liked the plain-vanilla Gwen Graham better because she had a more realistic chance of attracting swing voters and beating DeSantis, the Trump acolyte and stooge, for governor.
1
There need not be any fear. Americans would know this if they were more interested in the rest of the world and if they traveled beyond their own borders. Just going to Mexico can be an eye-opening experience for White Americans. Going to India, China, or Africa can be mind-blowing. To sit in a restaurant and be the only White person there can make you realize that the color of you skin doesn't confer any special powers on you. Your arrogance slips away. To be in a country where you are in the minority is a lesson in humility. More Americans should experience it, and then maybe we wouldn't have these boring and never-ending racial discussions year upon year. We're all just people.
5
"This is important, because most partly white individuals behave like whites in sociological terms. They grow up in neighborhoods with many whites, have white friends as adults, think of themselves mostly as white or partly white, and marry whites." This is not remotely good enough for the White Nationalists who love Trump. These racists insist upon an America that is *white* white.
1
There is nothing wrong about being a minority.
What white people should be afraid of is how they are viewed by non-whites.
Whites are routinely portrayed as 'racists.' As 'oppressors.' As 'privileged.' Not on the basis of who they are- solely on the basis of their skin color.
People discuss how they are 'tired' of whites. How white people stop anything that might make the country better.
Not some- all. Not on the basis of statements of actions- solely on the basis of skin color.
The racial hate, directed at white people, is getting out of control. Not only is it becoming more common it is getting a lot more, blatant, support.
That is why white people should be afraid- the utter contempt entire groups of people have for them. Dehumanization begins before the killings.
6
@WillT26
There's a great YouTube video where someone puts up posters saying "It's OK to be white" and people literally lose their minds (white people included).
2
Yes dehumanization comes first. Great imagination about how the next part plays out, and to whom.
@Tiger shark,
Even defending yourself, if white, is considered distasteful.
White people (of which I am one) need to get over it already. The world is changing. Get with the program. Go with the flow. Etc!
1
The descendants of Southern slaves make up an immutable American caste. This may also be true for Hispano-Indian people in our Southwest. All immigrants, even those from Africa, can fall outside this fatal caste social designation.
1
Any white who is honest would admit some concern based how we have treated minorities in the past and present. Look at Detroit's bankruptcy as an example. The city's net worth actually declined by filing for bankruptcy.. This was the reverse of what is supposed to happen. ... http://lstrn.us/1TCHHJJ
I believe there is strength in diversity. Unfortunately, many people in this country are pursuing a chimera. I believe purity is a false god. There is no end to the search for racial purity. There is no end to the search for cultural purity. There is no end to the search for religious purity.
So, what's next? Testing for purity? Genetic tests to verify how white you are? Cultural tests to verify how American you are? Religious tests to verify how evangelical you are? If you ever thought IQ tests were inadequate and divisive, you ain't seen nothing.
Back in college, an Asian friend asked what I thought of marriage between people of different races. It used to be that miscegenation was illegal in most states. I answered that not only should it be allowed, it should be encouraged. We will be a better, more united people the more we intermix. I believed that then...I believe that now.
Cultural/ethnic/racial/religious purity is not a strength...it's a weakness.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
3
I look forward to the day when white people are the minority, when all the confederate statutes are toppled, when the schools, buildings and roads have all been re-named and when all elected officials are female, people of color.
What will the excuses be then? Can’t wait.
7
As a white male, I look forward to the day when intermarriage eventually brings the population to a consistent melanin level, so we can stop focusing on the irrelevancy of skin color.
2
Mr. Edsall,
I only wish you had completed and submitted this piece before Mollie Tibbett's body was found in that Iowa cornfield after going missing for a month...
Facts are: a Hispanic-Hispanic, who couldn't speak English was "competing" in our workforce by using false papers and living on the grounds of his (likely knowing) employer when he killed a white-white woman and tossed her in the trunk of his car when he was done using her for his own needs.
Assimilation to our cultural values? Learning English so you can communicate with big-boy words and not a knife? We can all hope for those days, but for today: non-English Hispanic underground workers ARE a threat to white people. I'd tell you to ask Mollie Tibbetts, but her voice has been prematurely silenced in this conversation.
Still, with well-written articles like this, chocked full o' facts, you simply cannot ignore the facts on the ground, and sadly that ground today includes the dirt field where Mollie's body lay exposed for all those days...
5
@Midway
What happened to Mollie Tibbetts happens to women of all nationalities and colors; women are assaulted, raped and murdered by men of all nationalities. Her assailant/murderer didn't rape and kill her because he was Hispanic and she was white; he did it because he is an angry, disturbed male and she was a woman. It's not a "Hispanic" problem, or an "immigration" problem - It's a "angry disturbed men who hate women and want to harm and kill them" problem. Unfortunately, there's a lot of those guys and they come in all sizes, shapes and colors.
"...most partly white individuals behave like whites in sociological terms..."
Am I the only person who thinks this entire line of reasoning is offensive?
1
The only positive the US has going for it is the accidental relative tolerance of many different cultures in one place. There is friction and racism, but compared to most places on earth, it's relatively minor, so far. The white nationalist, neo nazi stuff will fade as the soft fascism of massive wealth disparities increases.
1
This white peoples' "fear" of diversity is exactly why we must elect Democrats and get our public educational system back on track, teaching civics, geography, detailed history, and inclusiveness (and public secularism, as required by the Constitution.) These white people, you're talking about, are usually located in poor states, with poor education and poor social safety nets. The rich, and greedy corporations, will continue to prey upon these people to vote against their own self interests. Democrats must go door to door, in these places, and work harder to help the ill-educated to understand how they can help themselves, by learning new job skills, how the government works, and what are their rights and privileges. Their brown neighbors will never take any of this away from white people. Stop being afraid. It's stupid.
2
The hilarity of all this just leaves me gasping for breath. So, in such a short time, WASPs went from Der Master Race to flinching and panic-stricken at the thought of a future that doesn't look like Ozzie and Harriet. What these traditionalist whites are really so terrified of is the discovery that their vaunted superiority was a thin shell which crumbled at the first push.
*As a general rule of thumb, Mason argued, “people don’t respond well to being told that they’ll think differently one day. It comes across as patronizing and can cause them to stick to their original idea even more strongly.”* - Oh yes, so true. This subset of whites are stuck on stupid. They'll get over it eventually because they'll have to.
The scientific truth is: There is no such thing as race.
The scientific concept is: *genetics*. Skin color is inherited, but so are thousands of other phenotypes (body characteristics). We don't have "races" for tall and short people, blue and brown eyes, etc. Nobody worries whether the percentage of blue-eyed people is increasing or decreasing. Because that is of no consequence. Likewise, "race".
The cure for racism is: science education.
See my essay, http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/wcw/nationalism_and_racism.pdf
and the book it is from,
http://www.whycantwe.org.
Henry Lieberman
Research Scientist
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab
2
Who is afraid of a white minority? Whites who fear that they will be treated in exactly the same way they have treated minorities before them.
5
Are Arabs white? Are Turks White? Is it possible, after the Moorish occupation of Spain and Portugal to be connected to the culture of Spain and the various cultures it created around the globe during the Age of Discovery and still be white? Are those who live in the present day Caucasus Caucasian? Are all Caucasians really white? Are Puerto Ricans white? Or, perhaps more to the point, are Americans white? Do we have a real definition of what we mean when we say a person is white?
3
Here is the smartest guy on Wall Sts. views on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4spCsFESNkY
At 5:28 "The future of the United States is an Asian and Latin American story"
This article takes me back to apartheid South Africa’s race classification system and MP Helen Sussman’s withering annual Inquiry into official “race classification changes” at the beginning of Parliamentary Sessions. The Home Affairs Minister would have to report -‘white to colored’, ‘colored to Asian’, ‘African to colored’, etc. The red-faced minister would read through the report while derisive chuckles spread throughout the chamber.
1
People here seem unwilling to talk about the obvious. High-anxiety whites fear payback. They are infected with the fears of the south from the days of slavery and all through Jim Crow: the blacks will rise, kill all the whites. There must be a lot of guilt and projection in this.
And one doesn't need to look very far to see racial and ethnic animus so extreme as to cause genocide: the Hutu vs the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Rohingya today.
But if you bother to look you can see good reasons why this won't be true, and paths that can make for a very good future indeed.
Why not be Hawaii? Or why not be Queens NYC? I'm no obvious "majority" when I walk around Kew Gardens, and many of those who are identifiably "white" are more alien to me than the brown people I talk to every day. We get along. it's cool. And you see a lot of children from those who are getting along quite intimately, and that's the future too.
Today we've got about 40% of old white Americans who are so scared and angry they're just about fouling their underwear. But about 60% are more reasonable ... and here's the salient thing: we'll all be gone in 30 years. And if you look at our kids, all of them, they don't see a big problem. And that means there really isn't one.
3
Lets just be honest, white people in general are worried about becoming a minority because they are afraid of payback. White people are worried about systematic discrimination against white people. They're worried about being killed by law enforcement. They're worried about red-lining.
2
There is only one reason that white people refuse to accept becoming a minority in this nation: secretly, they fear that what they did to others will be done to them. They cling to power, using any means necessary, because the long list of terrible things that they have done to others is just too horrible to contemplate.
4
Mr. Edsal and his ilk still cling to the Country Club definition of "white".....which has never really ever applied beyond the tall manicured hedges of the Golf Course. 1790, our first US Census, compiled specifically to determine apportionment of Congessional representives .....indicated that 75% of americans at the time were "white"....and even back then, "white" was a pretty vague concept. As anybody who stayed awake during art class recalls....."white" is not actually a color....but is the combination of all colors. E pluribus unum.....see how it all ties together? In 2010, we collected our 23rd Census...and once we winnow past all the distractions of the rainbow "hispanic","asian","mixed race', "non asian hispanic""indian subcontinent" distractions......America remains 75% "white". The big difference is this.......we are teaching ourselves to accept the historicly segregated and mistreated "blacks" as part of the melange we call "white"...ie...."american". As Dick Gregory made clear...."I look foward to the day when I am seen no as a "black american" but as an "American".
Once upon a time Chinese, Greeks, Italians, Poles, Slavs, and Irish were feared and hated as un-assimilable. This Too Shall Pass.
Wanting to live in a predominantly white country is not something that only rural Americans "with modest educations" (sniff-sniff) do. When you ask a liberal where he's planning to move now that Trump is President what does he say? Botswana? Sri Lanka? Colombia? Nooooo. He says Ireland, Denmark or New Zealand. Arrant hypocrisy? Or just a tacit admission that white people build better countries?
6
@Woofy
Very well put.
1
@Woofy: it's not really surprising that "white" people build "better" countries when you consider the amount of wealth which they forcibly extracted from the "non-white" communities during the 18th and 19th centuries. Plantation economies, the middle passage and the Opium Wars, amongst other things, made it all possible. It's easy develop your economy and reap the benefits from that when somebody else is actually footing the bill.
1
@curious
Yes, we know, white people are bad and only succeed because of all the bad stuff they do.
Nevertheless, Woofy's point is that even when liberals pretend that they're tempted to leave (but they never do) it's always Canada, not Mexico.
Why is it that the "Alt Right" folks are so worried about whites becoming a minority in the United States?
Are minorities mistreated in the United States, or something?
1
White conquerors invaded the Americas, slaughtered the natives, stole and enslaved people from Africa for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, and after literally being forced to give up slavery at gunpoint continued to oppress anyone they can find in any way they can.
The fear of becoming a white minority is the fear of facing consequences for that.
2
I cannot fault Mr. Edsall for evading the truth: anti-black racism is the strongest motivator of the white people about whom he speaks. He speaks of asians and hispanics as though their whitening is a foregone conclusion. But white supremacists have no time for political posturing. They hated black people in the past, hate them now and will hate them forever.
Tiring (repetitive) mention of that isn't even news any more.
1
With non Hispanic whites already a minority in the US it is hard to see the justification for the several hundred point SAT advantage given blacks in college admissions. If the advantage is given because the blacks are a minority then the whites and the orientals should get the same. If it is given because the blacks have dark skins then the preference might be justified. But the preference is based, from what it seems, purely on skin color. So if my dad is an immigrant doctor from Nigeria who is practicing as a spine surgeon in Minneapolis and I went to Choate I have a better chance at the Ivy League than a white kid whose dad is a truck driver in Idaho just because I have dark skin. How is that fair? But that is exactly what we see. The "black" admits to the Ivy League often have dark skin and white credentials. A total disgrace. Admissions should either be random or test based. The rest is subjective. The names and photographs should be blacked out on the application. The references are subjective and the grades, as we know, are subjective to a significant degree. If we want fair admissions use a test. If we want to have a racial group advantaged unfairly do what we are doing now. The discrimination against blacks is at the parenting level not the college level.
8
Perhaps if so called white folks identified themselves by the actual colour of their skin there would be a lot less fear, anxiety and loathing. We so called whites are actually "pink & splotchy". Now wouldn't that be a great sign to carry around at a parade .... " I am a Pink & Splotchy Supremist"
1
I am afraid of a segment of the white population who are irrationally terrified about losing their special privileges based on their skin color and have armed themselves with 150 million firearms (half of all firearms in the country) to ward off this fear.
2
When I was a little girl, eagerly devouring the Time-Life books on science my parents acquired for us, I read the prediction that some day, everyone on the planet would look fairly similar. We would all have brown hair, brown eyes, and brown skin, because those are dominant human traits, and things like blue eyes and red hair are recessive and would ultimately vanish or become extremely rare. I remember thinking it was too bad that we would all be so similar, because I happen to like my blue eyes and red hair, but on the other hand, it also made me think that it might bring us all closer together and even possibly lead to world peace, because we would no longer be able to single each other out as members of different tribes and make war on each other because we don't look the same.
But then I thought, oh, heck, we're all human beings and we'll always find some excuse to pick on each other and fight about stuff. Skin color is just an excuse for belligerent, angry people to pick on others. If that difference didn't exist, we'd seize upon another one. Dr. Seuss and his book about the Sneetches (some with stars on their bellies, and some without) brought that idea home!
3
Skin color is just the tip of the iceberg, because unfortunately, hatred as a human feature isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
1
what a great column
How about just stop the obsession with who's "white" and "non-white", etc. as if your skin color determines everything about you? While the goal should be to treat everyone equally and accept them for who they are as individuals, we're being constantly bombarded with the writings of idiots who want to keep us divided into tribal groups. What's the purpose of this? The more we're being fed this narrative that we "must" think and act in lock-step with the group we "belong" to by some self-proclaimed expert, the more it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. The "threat" of white people (whatever that is) becoming a minority is being perpetuated by people who seem to have an interest in stirring up tribalism and dividing us further.
2
@MJL
I agree. My problem is that I'm not sure which political party pushes racial identity politics the most?
2
my 4th generation family on my mother's side came on a boat from itally to ellis island. after 2 genearations of discrimination from the irish and germans before them. mymother was the first in a karge family to marry a non-italian, it was a big blow to her mother. , the family now.... 1 brother married a native hawaiian. another narried a latina. 2 of us have gay children. i look at my family and see AMERICA. i hope a few more voting cycles will reflect this AMERICA i love andrespect
3
Racial equality, here and in Europe, will happen when there is economic equality. The rich want it all. The Trump base wants more. By hook or by crook the haves scheme to keep the have-nots “in their place” by controlling the purse. Economically successful minorities drive bigoted whites insane with envy (see Trump). The race issue may be about skin color but it’s also what the skin color means in dollars and cents.
1
The bosses have always known if they can get the white working stiff to hate and fear the black or brown working stiff they will have a much easier time stealing from both.
It is not the 1950's these people want to return to; it is the 1850's.
In the 1950's the U.S. was basically a socialist democracy with a top tax rate around 90%; and we were humming right along.
Black communities, while not integrated into white communities very much, were intact and flourishing.
It should be remembered that Irish and Italian immigrants were also seen as "non white" and were discriminated against. Although not as violently for sure.
The rise of fox not news and limbaugh and the rest of the propaganda machine of the far right republican/fascist party has led to much of this stupidity we see from the supporters of the so called man who soils our House.
If We the People do not get out in numbers that overwhelm all the gerrymandering and suppression, vote for Democrats in every office, in every county, in every district we will see the end of democracy and greatness in this Nation.
3
When the first slaves brought to America, we lost the right to remain a white culture. Those Africans built this country, they created the powerhouse economy of the South, they literally built the White House. this nation is their birthright, they have earned it with sweat and blood.
When America seized the western states from Mexico, all the land from Texas to California was inhabited by Spanish-speaking people, who contributed to the growth and economy of that entire area.
The strength of America is in its diversity, and that diversity needs to be embraced. This has never been a white country, and it would be a poorer place if it was.
1
@Patriot
And Spain conquered Mexico, so by your logic any descendents of the Spaniards have no more right to the southwest than we do.
1
“All over the world hearts pound with the rhythm
Fear not of men because men must die
Mind over matter and soul before flesh
Angels hold a pen keep a record in time
Which is passing and running like a caravan trader
The world is overrun with the wealthy and the wicked
But God is sufficient in disposing of affairs
Gunmen and stockholders try to merit my fear
But God is sufficient over plans they prepared...”
-Mos Def
If we ever stop to consider what white Americans consider white it would leave any number of people out. Jews are not considered white. Catholics were not considered white. Hispanics who are white are not looked as white. Any person with a drop of "black" blood is not considered to be white no matter how blonde or light skinned they are.
The failure to accept that whites will become a minority in America goes back to our history of slavery and how we view those who do not look like us, think like us, or see the world the way we do. When we had slaves it was easy to see who ruled. Once slavery ended, the Klan and Jim Crow laws were used to oppress blacks. There were quotas against Jews in America. We were suspicious of Catholics because of the Pope.
Whether white Americans like it or not, the majority is not going to be white for much longer. We can try to have an American version of apartheid with all its attendant problems or we can accept the reality of being a racially diverse country as well as a religiously diverse country and a country of immigrants. Or we can slam the door shut. It's up to us and how we vote.
4
Love Edsall and his detailed columns. I'm Latino and find the difference in various communities across the country both interesting and disheartening.
I live in a rapidly "bluing" area. 15 years ago there were maybe 3 restaurants where ordering in Spanish was the norm, now there must be 50! My very liberal colleagues are often at pains to prove their "wokeness" which i guess is nice if awkward when they talk about sending their kids to the "right" schools (i.e. not where mine go).
That said, the issue is that intermarraige won't solve our cultural conundrum if we are encouraged to keep the cultural flame of our parents burning. It will lead to highly fragmented communities, with minorities being given air time by the media but not folded into the community. It is this dissonance that energized Trump voters and will be a powerful, if declining, force for unrest for the next 2 decades.
1
Why do we white people fear this? If we have treated all Americans with respect, we have nothing to fear. Oh, wait--now I understand why many white people fear this. The fear people of color will treat whites the same way we've treated them.
6
I think the "whiteness" issue has more to do with a perception that whites are becoming the minority due to illegal immigration more than any other cause. I think it is further fueled by a perception that Democrats are in favor of open borders due to their failures and refusals to openly and vocally condemn illegal immigration and reject the idea of open borders.
3
The Trump administration has made it clear that the demographics themselves are the concern, and this is a frightening position.
It is also a doomed one. Government in the USA thankfully cannot do much to dictate dating, marriage or childbirth, and these will be more decisive than NIMBY policies, biased drug enforcement and whatever other levers politicians use to appeal to xenophobia.
America is a big place. Plenty of areas are extremely white, plenty are not, and we are mostly free to move where we want to. Why shifting demographics causes enough anxiety to hijack a major political party in a country that has very serious global responsibilities is on some level a mystery to me.
1
What many are afraid of is cultural change, this is not fear of minorities, nor is it racist, because the minorities growing in the american population do not share a common race, religion, language or culture.
Fear of cultural change is rational fear. It must be addressed and dissipated using reason, not statistics or simple slogan thinking (yes, a lot of political correctness is as dumbed down as the Republican arguments).
If you are not comfortable in a cultural environment other than the only one you've ever known — you will be uncomfortable when it changes, perhaps for the rest of your life. Why would anyone look forward to that.
For myself, I've lived in Anglo, Italian, Polish, Black, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican and mixed neighborhoods in different cities across America. Several of those groups I hope never to have as neighbors again, others I would love to see move in and displace my current neighbors — because I have cultural preferences regarding mostly the way they behave. Attitudes toward noise, trash, drugs, minding your children, being polite, caring for the elderly, homophobia, racism, misogyny — all of these affect my quality of life. It's not bad to prefer one culture over another.
7
As a white person who identifies as a person of color, I find it extremely difficult to sympathize with conservatives’ fear of becoming a racial minority.
First off, there’s the diversity. Studies show that diversity is better for creativity, compassion, and well being. But you don’t need to look at these studies, just take a trip to a place like Sub-Saharan Africa of Southern India, each with its own abundance of languages, ethnicities, and cultures. These places are amazing! And far superior in every way to our stale and pale white North American and Euro societies!
Secondly, there’s the food. Oh. My. God. The food is wonderful. Enough said.
Finally, with the whites being a minority, not only will they not be in a position to discriminate and hurt others, but the victimized majority will finally have the ability to put them in their place. South Africa is already starting to do this, and I feel like even here in the USA we’re approaching it too. In the past, the death of someone like Mollie Tibbetts might have generated weeks of sensationalist coverage. But not today! Now, the attention of both the media and the DOJ goes to people like Mike Brown, who are more representative and more sympathetic victims. And then we have stories like BBQ Becky and Permit Patty. In the past, these wouldn’t have even been stories or news worthy. But in a world where whites are minority, when a white woman calls the police on a member of the rising majority, its news.
It’s all good!
@Trans Cat Mom, Yet 'forced' diversity rarely has has a positive outcome.
1
When you see the barbarism in certain countries but not others (compare Somalia and Sweden, for example), I'd say there is quite a lot to be concerned about.
8
@JackC5
Have you not considered that the "barbarism" might be a result of war, genocide, climate-change, starvation, piracy, and other such causes rather than the skin color of the "barbaric" and "non-barbaric" nations?
We may not be living in a state of complete anarchy, but considering the gap in this country between the haves and have-nots, we're not nearly as closely aligned with Sweden as you might imagine.
It's telling that white people rail against the notion of becoming a minority with such desperation.
It's almost as if when you are a minority you might be treated less than fairly or something.
6
How special being white is and how important to fight over just what's white and what's not and by how much. We should go back to fractional whiteness, explained in Wikipedia: "a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African and three quarters European ancestry (or in the context of Australia, one quarter aboriginal ancestry)....Similar classifications were octoroon for one eighth black (Latin root octo-, means "eight") and hexadecaroon for one sixteenth black."
Being white put you on a pedestal where your integrity, decency, morality and the like are of only marginal concern. The nobility of the litly-pure white race is everything.
A century ago Italian immigrants were not considered white, but rather "swarthy," a term that also took on a derogatory meaning. So when did Italians become white?
The problem lies with small minds, not skin color. And America is obsessed with it for no good reason. It's a disease.
4
Racial demographics are based on family tradition and history that usually goes back very few generations. I believe that most of us would be surprised by the results of a DNA test?
If the consequences of racism weren’t so often punitive or even deadly, the idea of racial purity in this age of genetic science should be merely quaint and laughable.
1
Unless we adopt a “one-drop rule” for ethnicity, the “majority-minority society” will never come to pass. All this talk is promoted by two ideological poles: primarily by the white nationalist fearmongers who see themselves as the only real Americans, but also to a lesser extent by the self-important, and often self-appointed, ethnic leaders on the left trying to exaggerate the size and influence of their group.
In my daughter’s class of 2018 at a Texas flagship, graduates with the names Garcia and Gonzales each outnumbered graduates with the name Smith, grist for fearmongers’ mills. But with first names, it’s “No Way Jose!” Jose enjoyed a run of 14 years as the most popular baby boys’ name in Texas, But it has seen such a decline since 2010 that it is now barely in the top 10.
The American mainstream is as seductive as ever, and so-called minorities beyond the immigrant generation are abandoning their ancestral languages and identifying with the mainstream and increasingly marrying into it as well, just like they did when most immigrants were white.
America is becoming a nation of muts :-). BTW cross pollination is good for human kind!
3
"as threats to the nation’s culture will perceive those coming from Asian, Latin American, African, Middle Eastern and North African nations as part of the American mainstream — even as more of those migrants intermarry."
I don't think it matters how many people think of themselves as white, the people opposed to immigrants have a wall that has been built up for them in this country that reaches back to the country's founding that says they are not white and will never be. Trump was no anachronism. but a welcome sight to those who used to lament how they wanted their country back when Obama was elected. This was really laid bare a couple weeks ago when trump praised a hispanic ICE officer for "speaking perfect english". To many of his supporters that was proof of his lack of racism.
1
To further distill this article down to its salient point(s)...white supremacy is alive and well in 2018. What really shook whites that fear losing their perch in society was the fact that a black man even though he was biracial could win the highest office in the land. Now they are seeing another black man being on the verge of being the first black governor in Florida. Which may be a stepping stone to the White House come 2020 or 2024. The greatest fear in this country by whites as a collective is ceding power to minorities. Because whites that voted for Trump out of fear and because of deep racial resentment believe they own this country and everyone[minorities] else is merely paying rent.
5
Identity politics is hurting this country on both sides. The left love to crow about white privilege and guilt. One of my friends just the other day blurted out that "being a white man is the new original sin." On the right, we are back to 1860s / early 1960s levels of ugly, outright racism and fear-mongering that seems to be close to outright violence—and now even "liberal" is a nasty label that seems to be almost racial. The two sides of identity-mania feed off of one another like yin and yang. You'll be laughed out of the room in 2018 for saying "I don't see color", like that's a bad thing or even impossible. I get implicit bias—I do—but framing everything in terms of identity only makes the right crazier, and ultimately just divides us further. I'm not sure it's possible, but we need leaders who will appeal to us as Americans, not as "white men" and "Hispanic" etc. Labels stink.
6
Fact is, whites (by this I mean the commonly accepted U.S. settler population from northern and Western Europe and their descendants ) have always been a minority population on the planet, and for a lot of human history, a pretty backwaters one, at that.
That being the case, consider that the overwhelming majority of trauma inflicted on that demographic has come not from foreigners but at its own hands.
From prehistory (those weren't MS-13 members filling those mass burial pits that dot the neolithic European landscape with bashed in skulls of entire family groups) to the two great wars and the multitudinous occasions of organized bloodshed that preceded, and interspersed those two monumental episodes of "white genocide"---it has been whites killing whites, not whites being "persecuted".
Even in colonial Asia, Africa and North and South America, wherein whites constituted very small minorities of their respective colonial populations, they generally lived safe and privileged existences until their abuses against the native population became too excessive and flagrant to be suffered.
This irrational fear at "becoming" a minority in a world where they have always been a minority is based not on fact or experience but on internally driven angst and alarmism.
1
This is why talk about "race" is ridiculous. There is no "white" race. And no one is "pure" anything. There's only one race--the human race—and the variety we all come in is what makes the world fascinating. And with "mixed race" children, there's even more variety, and they are beautiful, indeed!
1
Whatever group wants to be the majority will need to have more babies.
1
@David - they already are, and it's not whites.
@David, As are those who are members of the Muslim religion. In Europe, here and other nations they are the fastest growing group.
1
@David
Gaaaah! Do NOT encourage people to reproduce. We're already destroying the planet faster than it can replenish itself.
1
I beg you NYT, enough of the focus on race and ethnicity. Enough of conflating legal with illegal. Enough of the amorphous “diversity is our strength.” Focus instead on who will be contributors to the American society. We are a postindustrial technological society, that infers education and an understanding of work conventions. Start with who will likely be contributors, as in net taxpayers over their lifetimes. Really race and ethnicity fade away when masses of immigrants prove their worth to society. Recast the tired, vapid, and divisive platitudes to something along the lines “excellence is our strength.”
6
Structures generate cultures, not the other way around. There was no "white" culture akin to modern American culture 500 years ago, or even at the Founding of the Republic 230 years ago.
People interact with their environments and accumulate technologies within a historical context, and people generally want to be free, and sometimes they grant this to others, and sometimes they do not. America had the good fortune to be founded by a high percentage of European bourgeoisie, and so legality was a large part of our system from the very beginning -- legality and a contract system of social order that kept spreading the idea of "rights."
Capitalism is only "white" because it first developed where "white" people happened to live. Obviously, once it spread, those who adopted behaviors consistent with capitalism have done well within that system. (They "acted white.")
Native Americans who reified a moment in their history as their "way of life" have not done well. Blacks who reified the ghetto as their "essential selves" refused to "act white" and have had problems. Most people of most complexions come to America to succeed and to be free (to "act white").
As long as people act (stupidly) as if there is some "essential" culture to a race -- stupid because humans of all colors existed for 2 million years, and the latest iteration of humans for 100,000 years, before capitalism and democracy emerged -- then "race" will be a topic for political entrepreneurs.
1
The categories are just too crude and absurd not even to mention vicious. Are Argentines naturalized U.S., with their commonly Italian or Jewish or German "blood" lines, Hispanic just because they spoke Spanish before they spoke English? Some liberally-minded blue blood Argentines might like to think that they and the Cubans are hermanos thanks in large measure to their Che connection. No small number of persons born in Argentina will nevertheless blanch -- and I mean that literally as well as figuratively -- at the thought that any fictitious hispanidad gives them kinship with Ecuadorans or Guatemalans. And how about the many many Brazilians naturalized U.S., Census Bureau? Yeah, Brazil is in South America. It borders Spanish-speaking countries. But here the colonizer was Portuguese-speaking Portugal. (Gilberto Freyre made a case for the hispanidade of Brazilians. But the average Brazilian on the street, Avenida Paulista in São Paulo or Fifth Avenue in NYC, won't buy that.) Last time I was in NYC I had a driver one day of East Indian descent -- from Guyana. He was a U.S. citizen. His native language was English. But Guyana is at least geographically in South America. Is he, for census purposes, Hispanic? Just too absurd and maddening. Need anyone at this late date observe that it's all merely about the social construction of otherness? It's emotional. It's political. It's prejudical. It's poisonous to the minds of people who batten off of it. And it's not going away.
7
I have asked these questions before but no one answers
them, so I will ask them again:
a) If "Race" is a Social Construct then why does the Government, the New York Times and others classify people by "Race" ?
b) How does Immigration whether Documented or Un-Documented help Poor Americans, let alone Poor 'African-Americans' - who must compete with Immigrants for housing, government aid, Affirmative Actions placements?
[ Do note that Asians and Hispanic Immigrants feel no guilt over Slavery and will one day be the ones who end any sort of Affirmative Actions for 'African Americans' as they have
no 'White Guilt'. ]
c) Do people of Portuguese background qualify as being Hispanic ?
d) Why do people who have 'white' skin, blue eyes and blond hair but a Hispanic last name, inherited from a Great Grandfather who was a Caudillo in Cuba, and who live in
Los Gatos, California in a 3 million dollar house - qualify as
Hispanic according to the Government ?
The Census should stop asking about Ethnic background
and Race.
It should ask about income/worth as the most assured way to be discriminated against in America is to be Poor.
9
@John Brown There is a small amount of validity to the points you raise. But tell me, why are not poor, unarmed whites being shot in the same proportion to their total population as are poor non-whites (or even middle-class non-whites)? Race is absolutely a factor in this.
@John Brown: this is your lucky day! The answer to each and every one of your questions is "cultural baggage".
This article nicely sums up one reason for eliminating minority set-asides: they require arbitrary distinctions.
1
Who knows why some humans love to target, demean, and hate some particular group for possessing some general attribute, such as skin tone, gender...
1. A lot of this paranoia over "whiteness" by whites in the U.S. is regional, especially in the Old Confederacy where culturally the Civil War is still being fought in many white people's heads, and among rural areas in the Midwest where there are few people of color or "people from away," both of which are perceived as different and dangerous from the locals still holding sway.
2. How many politicians and demagogs have used some demographic characteristic to divide the citizenry and employ hatred of the other as way of coalescing political support and authoritarian power? For Hitler, it was the Jews and gypsies; for George Wallace, it was race. My aunt was a suffragette, and it was being born "male" that was superior, while being born "female" was defined as inferior.
3. Growing up I remember how the parent generation was so uptight about religion and that we teenagers were expected to date within our own religious group. We thought it was ridiculous and paid little attention, and religion is no longer THE dividing line it once was for dating.
I am optimistic about the significance and status of "whiteness." The younger generation today appears to feel the same way about skin color, gender, and sexual preference as my generation did about religion. Generational replacement should take care of white bigotry eventually.
1
WHO CARES???? What difference does it make? White Americans and black Americans and Asian Americans andLatino Americans share 99.9% of DNA, so for all practical purposes, we are all the same (with very subtle differences) so that what makes us unique as individuals is what we do with our lives, not the color of our skin. Discriminating on the basis of skin color makes as much sense as discriminating on the basis of hair color, or how long our middle toes are. Wake up, people. Race is a fantasy distinction.
2
Are Jews white? They were not just 70 years ago. Are Irish white? Not in the 19th century. What about Iranians and Arabs? My friend from Teheran has ivory-colored skin and my Palestinian students are mostly blond. When I lived in Hong Kong, I was a minority but not because of my color: southern Chinese are proud of their pearly white skin. The racial classification in this country is arbitrary, old-fashioned and unscientific. This said, anxieties about race are a displacement of anxieties about culture. And these are often justified. I would not want to live in a Muslim country (and many cultural Muslims, including my Iranian friends, don’t either). I was happy in Hong Kong with its low crime rate and cosmopolitan culture but I would not be happy in South Africa where crime rates are astronomical. Stop obesssing about skin color and start asking real questions about cultural mores and habits.
7
The fetishization of ethnicity and soft racism on the Left enabled the hard racism of the Right. For decades we’ve been told to affirm our ‘roots’, told that race wasn’t merely skin deep but was essential to identity, that assimilation if not absolutely impossible, was a bad thing. That we should reject the melting pot in favor of the multicultural salad bowl.
So why be surprised that after the endless well-meaning propaganda in support of multiculturalism people came to believe it. Why be surprised that the Folk believe that culture is in the blood so that the children, grandchildren, and remote descendants of immigrants will remain culturally alien? Why be surprised that white working class Anglos worry that if immigrants increase and multiply that their own language and way of life will be under threat?
I told you so. From the shameless advertising division…
The Multicultural Mystique: The Liberal Case Against Diversity https://www.amazon.com/Multicultural-Mystique-Liberal-Against-Diversity/...
2
Why are whites afraid of becoming a minority?
Many of the people who believe “racism no longer exists” (ie when they argued for the end of the voting rights act) are also afraid of becoming a minority group. Maybe it’s b/c they know but don’t want to admit that POC are treated differently in our country and that they benefit from white supremacy
While Robert Wald Sussman (in the myth of race) makes a convincing argument, I suspect we are years away from a Theodor Seuss Geisel moment (star belly sneeches).
A segment of the human population seem to need to create a threat, and a group of people to hate. If it wasn't "race" as indicated by skin color, it could be hair color, or weight, or height... Oh that is already a thing....
Only solution is (liberal) education, educated people think.
Can we please stop using the phrase Majority-Minority and use the less cumbersome White-Minority. It is less cumbersome and more honestly reflects the fear that is lurking.
3
@Roger , Majority minority is an oxymoron.
1
This is really absurd, Edsall. It may come as a surprise to some of you, but here in Sunny California, white people are already not the largest portion of the population. In fact, Latinos are the largest minority, edging out Caucasians. And when it happened, around 2014, California joined Hawaii and New Mexico in which the above had already happened. It really didn't hurt a bit, by the way, and if you want to see your future, come and visit.
My problem is that in today's culture - there is some kind of assumed story that white people have been holding down people of color since the white person entered the world. This is not true.
Let's take a step back and think about this for a few seconds. Whites have been the majority in this country since it's inception. It doesn't matter what or who - majorities of any kind dictate actions - whether this is good or bad, that is simply a fact.
I am white and I did not choose slavery. Nor did my family members. We did not wake up and say "yeah, slavery is good." Do I absolutely believe that slavery was a horrific and disgusting representation of the evilness of human beings? Yes - without a doubt.
But do I think that now people of color should be given a free ride over everybody else? Full scholarships, extensive support systems, special opportunities for the rest of their lives because of slavery? No. If my answer were Yes, then it would be necessary to do this for Jews as well. Haven't they been just as persecuted? Hard to say that concentration camps are less evil than slavery.
I just think we are swinging to extremes and I think it is dangerous. Americans are always so bipolar - it is frankly exhausting. We never seem to be able to get it right.
5
Whites are already 12% of the world's population. They are already a minority. The only minority who has their homes demographically transformed by the other 88% and are told it's good for them.
2
@Charles Dailey, Why do all and any white populations have to be diverse and multicultural? This is not demanded of any non-white people, anywhere.
3
"In other words, Hispanics who describe themselves as white are classified as minorities, not as whites."
Two nights ago, National Geographic aired a program that described how, through genetic back-mapping, ALL races originated - derive from - Black African descent, albeit, 200,000 years ago.
Across 200,000 years our facial features and skin color have changed as populations adapted to their environments.
It's "white" cultures that seem to want to use race and ethnicity to place value on one race over another, when in fact, we are all bothers and sisters and may all be of Black descent.
"Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times."
1
We just saw Spike Lee's Blackkklansman, and it does a great job of breaking down some of these issues into easily digestible pieces. Anyone interested in race relations in this country from any angle ought to head down to the movie theater and check it out.
1
Many inhabitants of the furthest reaches of the frozen north are largely somewhat dark in skin color. Some speculate that the earliest writing of humanity was placed on a birch tree, though at a considerably lower latitude.
My personal test for inclusion in the family of man in this political state we call the USA is a love of the land & a reverence for nature. If an individual has that, they're in the club.
"One could do worse than
be a swinger of birches."
2
When I took Sociology about a decade ago, it was pretty widely accepted that America would be majority-minority controlled in government within a matter of years. This was not some point of policy contention, merely an issue of facts.
It was also made clear to me that 'conflict theory' was basically a matter of reflexive group impulse. The "old way," or 'conservative' mode of thinking will nearly always recoil at the notion of any real, substantive change, unless that change is in a direction which is quintessentially retrograde.
The only people afraid of a white minority are the people who conflate being "white" with some 'special', hierarchical status.
1
If scientists' predictions about the effects of climate change are close to accurate, then it is likely that hundreds of millions of people will be forced to move from their homes to escape drought, heat, rising seas and lack of food. How will the human family react? Build walls to keep the 'others' out and spiral into violence? That appears to be the direction advocated by white majority proponents. Better to recognize we are all in this together (without going into the history of who stole land from whom, and who caused what pollution where), and use technology and planning to prepare a welcome for those forced to move by conditions we are failing to prevent. This is not rocket science. We all know that judgment of our fellows is best based on character, not skin color.
3
Last year I worked with an IT technician who had been born in Cote d'Avoir and spent most of her adult life in Europe, Canada and the US. We ended up discussing the Rwanda disaster and I brazenly asked how one could tell the difference between a Hutu and a Tutsi. She said it was easy and produced a number of cell photos pointing out the difference between skin tone, facial features etc. She also noted that many Africans can identify each other's country of origin by appearance. I asked her about African-Americans and she they didn't look like any Africans, they looked like Americans.
"They look like Americans". Too bad so many Americans haven't noticed or accepted that.
1
Unless the government plans to write some laws targeting specific ethnic or racial groups (which is a dicey subject at best), why are race/ethnicity questions on the census in the first place?
Better question, who cares what race and/or ethnicity someone identifies with? Why is this relevant information?
Why ask questions that attempt to divide Americans from one another?
3
Let's have more categories in the census! I suggest we collect DNA (x23andme) from all citizens to categorize them. So, in my case, I would be in the 42% German and French, 38.0% British Isles and 17% Scandinavian category. This system would create so many categories that Americans would finally realize that we are more mixed than most would like to believe, that race does not really exist and it is futile to categorize people. I suppose the only time race existed was when we all started up in Africa?
Separately, one way for this country to minimize prejudice would be to have an actual immigration policy, one that maximizes diversity in its sourcing. Anti-immigrant eras were marked by waves of people coming from one specific area and too often the target of racist politicians.
I feel as a person of mixed background that these kinds of pieces over simplify my experience and are almost pandering. No ethnicity likes to be viewed as a simple block. Just because we are a certain ethnicity is follows we act or think a certain way. Lately while I appreciate acknowledgement that we are increasingly a country of many diverse peoples, I find myself feeling manipulated about who the 'good' guys are supposed to be. Common sense tells me that whoever is the majority, this country is and will remain a mix of peoples in large enough numbers that we better get along or it is bad all around. I can also add, and realize that even if whites were only 50% or so of the population that is still a very large number for the foreseeable future.
"misleading statistical artifacts used by the Census Bureau..." ----- the people who fear those "artifacts" refuse to hear anything else the govt says, e.g. inequality in america is largely a function of environmental forces (systemic racism over time being one) vice character deficiencies across an entire demographic. but if that same govt tells them that people who self-identify as "white" will be outnumbered by a DIVERSE collective cohort who do not by a date all but uncertain, suddenly, and uncritically, they're all ears and true believers of anything the govt has to say, when the truth is “whites” will still be the largest SINGLE collective cohort by a lasting substantial margin. just another example of “reinforce my irrational fears & prejudices and i’ll believe anything you say.” it worked for trump.
As a mid-50’s bi-racial American having grown up in the 60’s and 70’s, I find race a far less important factor among mainstream Americans. I live in what was a restricted community and was the first person of my background to have moved their. I have found the real definition of comfort is around social norms and not race. My community is heavily Republican, Christian, intact families, with very traditional stated values. In the last 15 years, first came Jewish residents, then a few Asians, a few Hispanics, a couple of gay couples, and most recently a black man with a white wife. There have been no issues. It is a combination of improved tolerance and a set of normative cultural consistencies within this group. It is the reason that Colin Powell could have run and be elected as a Republican whereas Al Sharpton is an anathema. Instead of a racial census, a cultural census is more relevant
3
That's exactly how I feel about it. My neighborhood is pretty diverse racially. But we're all middle to upper middle class, with the same concerns about property taxes, schools and the HOA. But San Antonio really is a melting pot of a city. It's income that stratifies here.
1950s New York City: each borough was loosely divided into ethnic or racial enclaves—e.g. in Queens, where I grew up, Forest Hills was predominately Jewish, Richmond Hill German, Flushing Italian, Jamaica Estates wealthy whites (Trump family), Jamaica African-American. Fast forward to the 21st century, where over the last 50 years the influx of families from Korea, India, China, other Asian nations, and the Caribbean has changed the cultural dynamic—all for the better. In 1950s New York you rarely saw a black and a white walk hand in hand down the street, much less mixed race children of these marriages. Fifty years later all has changed—for the better. These changes are reflected in culture, music, movies, TV, politics, business and the professions. We are enriched by diversity, not threatened by it. I am glad for it—it brings energy, new and more tolerant attitudes, and wonderful new perspectives to American life.
While a majority of whites voted Republican
in recent elections (for Bush, McCain, Romney and Trump), it is only now that the question of a 'majority white-minority' has cropped up. In my mind there are two reasons:
First, Trump. Here is a man who knew he was unfit for the office of the President and clearly tacked on to a divisive strategy of portraying non-whites as the 'Other,' to get his party's nomination and a narrow victory in the Presidential election.
Second, the Republican party wrongly perceiving that all non-whites would vote Democratic is supporting Trump's continuing invective against non-whites.
Looking ahead, Trump is not going to change as this is his only MO for winning elections. The Republican party could however tack on to a different course so they could win now and in the future but they are not pursuing it due to a leadership vacuum. Apparently their strategy is to follow Trump and retain power by appealing to the fears of a minority of whites on the issue of majority white-minority. This is going to backfire, maybe as soon as the next Presidential election.
1
The hyphenation of the word American must be reined in when identifying us. I have never been called or considered or remarked upon as a Russian-American or a Scottish-American.
Why aren't 'whites' referred to as European-Americans?
The labeling is separating us, not uniting. We should be more color blind yet are constantly being reminded of our racial differences. Can't have it both ways.
4
What is the real game here? Perhaps bait and switch. Ten years ago the country was largely united in its outrage at the 1% who profited off the financial pain of millions, not only in America but around the world. But now the narrative has changed, and the anger is against minority and immigrant underdogs. "They're taking our jobs, they're keeping our wages down, they're criminals. If only they were gone, we could be happy." Really? How short our memory!
1
Tom, with full respect to you, the deeply researched social scientific data analysis you quote, and your own earlier column "The Democratic Party Has Two Futures", the only sector that should have anything approaching 'fear' of a "majority-minority" America is the pro-Empire sector --- which is not a division on a party basis, nor a racial, ethnic, religious, sectarian, nor any other division --- as Empires for time immemorial have used to divide and abuse 'we the people'.
Our founding fathers, as well as yeoman farmers, trades-people, conscripted sailors, 'minute men', and most who though of themselves as Americans well understood by what they experienced between 1763 and 1775 under a near-global Empire.
In fact, according to Justin du Rivage's deeply researched and definitive new history of our American "Revolution Against Empire", the British subjects favoring 'Radical Whigs' felt the same about being ruled by an Empire of 'their betters'.
IMHO, if Bernie Sanders and his progressive fellow Americans, had run under the banner of a fully and fairly described "Peaceful Political Revolution Against Empire", instead of the too short and vague two-word sound-bite (without an 'object') of merely "Political Revolution", even 2016 might have been recorded in history as a date akin to a peaceful and politically decided 1776.
But significant changes in history can't be rushed, as the brilliant Francis Fukuyama, learned and successfully revised.
Now, "We can't be an Empire"
1
Missing from the article is the fact that many, if not most Hispanic-American/Latino advocacy groups support the government's continued characterizing of them as a separate group in the census, as their spokespersons have said on various PBS talk shows. Why? Not for any cultural, ethnic or racial reasons, they recognize the farcicality of it...but because as they they point out it makes them eligible for various federal funds and programs they would not otherwise have access too, money they don't want to not get.
1
The very terms Hispanic and Latino are responsible for much of the census panic among those fearful of majority-minority status. As noted, 53 per cent of Hispanics identify as white, yet they are routinely (esp. in the media) lumped with a looming non-white majority; that stokes popular fear of too-rapid social change. There were similar fears during the early 20th century immigration boom, as East Europeans arrived in large numbers through New York and other Atlantic ports. It takes decades to integrate large-scale immigration and for mentalities to evolve. Why misrepresent that wave?
1
So the birthrate from white parents hasn't declined, it's just that their children are not classified as white even if they self-declare to be? And that's the basis of the majority-minority theory that has become a mantra of Democratic political thought and a target of hatred by Republicans?
The article convincingly explores what will happen to Republican theory when they come to adjust their concept of 'white'. It really ought to be followed up with one that explains what will happen to Democratic theory when they come to adjust their concept of 'brown'.
It is not clear to me why we should make projections of what the ethnic distribution will be in the future. Our political system should be color blind and if people are making color based projections, they are implicitly using color to make policy decisions, which defeats the goal of a color-blind system.
If someone is worrying about whites becoming a minority, it is their problem, not mine (I am white), and certainly not something I want my government, or my political party, worrying about.
3
Excellent article Mr. Edsall. The Russians and the Chinese (to name a few enemies) have found the way to destroy us and U.S. It's right there in Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." Divide and Conquer...older than the Romans who perfected the technique. Foment discord among the various factions of one's adversary...let them destroy themselves and then just waltz in and take what's left...Racism has always been the Achilles Heel of this country...It almost destroyed us in the 1800's and it will finish the job in this century...
1
One can easily spend an entire day in Beijing, Mumbai, Seoul, Mexico City, Manila, and Cairo - modern cities with tens of millions of residents - without seeing a single resident of white European descent. Spend some time surveying the faculty profile of elite Asian universities and you will find a similar absence of diversity.
So why is that western nations, and their people, have to accept demographic flows that are exceptionally imbalanced?
2
"But despite the fact that most of those children have a white parent, inadequacies in the census classifications mean that the great majority of them are identified as nonwhites."
Translations: the census demographers are using the notorious "one-drop" rule from the slavery era, where any nonwhite ancestry was considered to "poison" the "blood".
2
White people are going to have to get over these antiquated fears. Even England's royal family has entered the post racial future. It's no longer about white versus everybody, it is, and always has been, about physical beauty. Beautiful people, even if they are purple, will attract other beautiful people, end of story. I live in a southern state that shows in a myriad of ways how bigoted the human still is, but then I see all the white grandparents walking around with these beautiful mixed race grandchildren and I realize that time, and beauty will defeat history and ignorance.
1
So sad.
We're 98.8% identical to chimpanzees when you look at our DNA. We're even 60% identical to bananas!
And yet the TINY physiological differences that differentiate our bodies from each other so overwhelm our vision of who we are.
2
So, what’s the issue? California has been M-M for quite some time and whites are now not even the plurality. Yet life goes on the economy grows, the sun comes up in the morning.
1
The issue of whiteness is just point of leverage--it is used to amplify a siege mentality--YOU are under attack, and YOU must fight back or die.
The same argument is made with religion for evangelical Christians. Only just earlier this week, Trump invited evangelical leaders to the White House to tell them that they are in danger of actual physical harm: “They [Democrats/Progressives/Liberals] will overturn everything that we’ve done, and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently.”
It only takes a few minutes of watching Trump supporters at a Trump rally to see what is going on: Yes, they are all white, but the currency being circulated is fear and the desired response is siege-mentality fueled fear, blame, and hate. Dehumanize and attack the enemy because we are under attack. It's Two Minutes Hate.
3
I’m going with the emoji skin tone color chart for classification since this is how people are identified and judged in our country anyway. Human is human. The USA is a treasure trove of culture from all over the world. Why not embrace them and learn. There should be nothing to be afraid of.
1
If whites do become a minority, they will still be the largest minority for the foreseeable future. Fears that they might become persecuted by a larger majority are entirely unfounded.
That said, let's talk about population. Apparently the whites are having fewer babies and are aging. Good. The world is overpopulated. If everyone else can get on board and do the same, human beings might have a chance at a reasonable future. If not, whites will be a minority in a world that is overcrowded and depleted of resources. Maybe they'll disappear altogether and leave everyone else to fight over the scraps.
Now let's talk about the economy. Given the current paradigm, the economy must continue to expand to avoid recession and depression. The big question for population hawks like me is how we can maintain a reasonable economy with a shrinking population. Once the shrinkage has begun, an aging population is a given. If we can figure out how to get them through old age gracefully, the rest of the world might get on board and enjoy a future with fewer people and less crowding.
Importing workers from other places fixes the economic problem but negates the effect of population reduction. Immigration should remain a reality in America, but we should control the pace, and not use it to replace the shrinking population, or the population will not shrink.
Raise your hand if you want the population of America to continue to increase.
1
The left usually puts immigration into one of two scenarios. The first is the thinly veiled "whites are terrible" (especially straight white males) and anything that diminishes their numbers is good and "diversity no matter who it is, what they believe or where they're from, is always good". This unfortunately feeds the rights paranoia and causes the over reaction and over racism that charaterizes their worst behavior. The problem with both these points of view is that they totally miss the far more important issue, and one that is never discussed by anybody, but is far bigger issue than what will the racial make up of the country be, but what kind of country will it be when we add the hundreds of millions more Americans that our present policies will lead to. A national discussion of population and the effect of adding all these people, no matter what they look like, could lead to a future where we control our destiny or one where we look like most countries. Crowded, polluted, resource depleted and dealing with problems that will make race relation issues look like the "good old days". Look at most of the places we get most immigrants from. I suspect they wish they'd had this discussion decades ago.
4
A number of comments express a wish to see the end of categorizing people as "white," "black," "brown," etc. And I can see a point in this. But, and it's a very big BUT, I recall a Black woman being interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! several years ago. I can't recall her name, but one thing she said was that in response to anyone who says to her, "oh, you're Black, I didn't notice" she says, "Really? Because I notice it every time I look in a mirror." And her point, with which I agree, was not that she herself had a problem, but that this is a society riddled through with racism. One example of how this society was built on the enslavement of Africans is this: Africans were slaves; Irish were indentured servants. And there was a difference. The children of Africans were torn from their parents and sold. I have not heard of this among Irish indentured servants. It probably did happen, but not on a mass scale to the extent that there were slave auctions of Irish in various southern states, auctions which included children.
So there's that in the US's history. And there's this: I keep records where I work. The number of "Hispanics" who check that box and nothing else is noticeable. But the number of "Hispanics" who check that box and then scroll down to "white" is significant. As Mr. Edsall's column hints at, but not strongly enough, these "Hispanics" are considered something other than white by, let's be honest, the racists who support Trump.
1
Mr Edall - once I calm down I hope I thank you for this numbers based fictional account. If academics don't deconstruct terms like 'race' than they are lazy or complicit in keeping people divided thru dangerous illusions. It does not matter if we go back six or nineteen or three hundred generations in Trump's bloodline - at some point maybe closer than we imagine - he turns out to have african ancestry, as do all 'whites'. While we are at it, we could pass an "American' law that measures skin chromatophores per square millimeter and say over X number you can't come into our glorious democracy. And when you say thru the skin of an academic that 'they' are not like 'us' please indicate that you mean culture, not the illusion of race.
Some might say, "All such matters are tribal." Perhaps. Perhaps not. I am white. My ancestors are Scots, Scots-Irish and some Welsh on my mother's side.
I do not fear the reduction of whites in America or elsewhere. This entire issue has been ginned up by Republicans (mostly) to drive fear into the hearts of whites who do not want to share, and share equally.
Racial and ethnic disharmony play into the heads of the white majority in control of Congress and many cities. It is divisive. It is, simply stated, nonsense. We have a shared earth duty and requirement. Heaven knows, white men (mostly men) have been the most detractive of our species throughout the centuries.
1
It appears that we are moving in the direction of other countries in the Americas: rich cities and poor suburbs, growing inequality with little social mobility, and colorism instead of racism. It is easy for some to welcome colorism because it benefits them, but it won't help dark-skinned people who are indigenous or of African ancestry.
In case you’ve missed it, the current Republican Party is leading the charge to preserve white privilege, using any and all tools to hold onto power.
While the news media worries about the Democrats (too radical, too leftist) they have all but ignored the many ways the Republican Party has morphed into a radical right-wing nationalist movement that uses fear of the future as its baseline motivation.
It’s doing well at this, to our imminent misfortune.
1
1. Many Trump voters also voted for Obama
2. Ethnic does not equal Democrat
3. None of this captures the ~10% of Independent Voters
2
I am reminded of an argument I had with a relative over affirmative action, which has been proven to discriminate against Asian applicants. I asked my relative: "What is so wrong about eliminating racial quotas against Asians?" My relative said: "Because then every elite university will be 30% white and 60% Asian!"
This type of thinking is what is wrong with our country. Many people are totally fine with whites being the majority, because whites have the luxury of being viewed as distinct individuals. But the idea of nonwhites becoming a majority is suddenly scary because nonwhites are viewed as a monolith of robots who are all the same.
1
" unflagging support for Donald Trump among white evangelical Protestants nostalgic to resurrect the cultural world of the 1950s."
Mr. Jones is just reading his own opinions into the matter. As far as I can tell, the reason for their "unflagging support for Donald Trump" is the hope that he will dismantle Roe vs Wade.
I have little doubt that the world will remain majority-minority minded. The planet will simply find new criteria to replace race as the benchmark. Humanity has always felt compelled not only to categorize and organize itself into understandable groups, but to establish ways in which select groups can feel superior to others. Yes, I realize how cynical that sounds, but I believe it to be true. Perhaps it will be based on genetics. Perhaps it will be a physical mutation caused by the chemicals we're constantly introducing to our systems. Maybe technology will become entrenched somehow with bias. But after the population racially melds, some sort of permutation will rise up to give future generations the excuse they need to hate each other.
As someone from a minority-majority state (47% hispanic, 10.5% native-american) I don't understand the anxiety--and also find the ethnic categories less than reliable. My son-in-law by marriage is categorized as hispanic (his family has been in New Mexico since the 1850s). He doesn't speak Spanish and his DNA indicates a lot of Native-American ancestry--no surprise, the Spanish did not BYOG (Bring Your Own Girls ). His children also have Swedish, Scottish, and German lines. Some of their cousins are part African- or Asian-American. Will they all be categorized by others as hispanic because of their surnames? This is silly stuff. One of the great pleasures of living in New Mexico is its ethnic diversity, which I see daily in the faces around me and when I visit my doctor or favorite plant nursery--and appreciate anew when I attend a feast day at a pueblo or just sit down to a plate of huevos rancheros with a side of carne adovada.
3
I’m a Cuban/American that came to this country in 1960, as a young woman full of hopes. Back in those days there were rental signs that read: No children, No Cubans, No pets. That’s when I realized there was an underlying layer of racism in America that saw us as intruders.
I began working and got married. Like most decent families, we’ve worked all our life; paid our taxes; obeyed the laws and raised a decent, working family. Inasmuch as our daughter was raised the American way, she married an American. Though, our grandchildren are as American as apple pie.
Years ago, I was watching George Lopez, a well-known Mexican comedian on TV; he warned his audience that by the year 2020, Hispanics would be the majority in this country. Now, I know what he meant; how President Trump; his Administration; Republican Congress and his racist base as well as his Republican followers want to sweep-clean all Hispanics from this country.
How sad that after 50+ years, I still don’t have a place call home.
1
@Cira
Venezuelan here 40 years. I feel same as you.
If we look at the world, and how we judged whiteness, the earth is not a white majority. Colonialism which is certainly not the cause of this preoccupation with whiteness, is about power: the power to take land from anyone on the basis of race, religion and color. It is the power to rule over a subservient class determined by who is in power. Rome created a slave class based on lots of reasons. Each conflict in the US is one of territory and ownership. Our past is one of chronic intermixing anywhere or anyway those who had power could rape and pillage Native Americans, African Americans and South Americans. Most Anglos in the SW have intermixed families. So this notion of racial purity is nonsense. It is a fabrication of power. The myth of whiter superiority is just that. We as settlers have become rich or not. We continue to self promote whiteness. The world is a vast and complex place. People have created from all walks of life if one paid attention. The current administration seems focused on seeing education as elitism. I think Pol Pot have some of those ideas. While I can walk most anywhere because I am blond and green eyed..that isn't enough because this administration is also set on power over women and destabilizing the financial resources of most of the country....so it is clearly not just race.
Not addressed in this essay is why liberals feel it is important to manage their fellow citizens’ feelings about demographic change, while working hard to accelerate it through increased immigration.
What’s up with that?
3
Human civilization began 10,000 years ago in The Levant. For 98% of history, the dominant race has been people of color. We are merely returning to the natural state of the world.
1
I’m a Cuban/American that came to this country in 1960, as a young woman full of hopes. Back in those days there were rental signs that read: No children, No Cubans, No pets. That’s when I realized there was an underlying layer of racism in America that saw us as intruders; against our culture.
I began working and got married. Like most decent families, we’ve worked all our life; paid our taxes; obeyed the laws and raised a decent, working family. Inasmuch as our daughter was raised the American way, she married an American. Though, our grandchildren are as American as apple pie.
Years ago, I was watching George Lopez, a well-known Mexican comedian on TV; he warned his audience that by the year 2020, Hispanics would be the majority in this country. Now, I know what he meant; how President Trump; his Administration; Republican Congress and his racist base as well as his Republican followers want to sweep-clean all Hispanics from this country.
How sad that after 50+ years, I still don’t have a place call home.
I think that "white minority" is a lot like "war on Christmas". Just another largely-made-up story designed to whip some fear into the gullible GOP base / Trump supporters, and make them feel like they are being persecuted.
I used to live in a very white-majority city in the midwest. Now I live in a white-minority town on the coast. And you know what, the people here are basically the same as the people there. Shocking.
This is a refreshing column on a couple of levels, not least of which is good lead burying note at the end about our misconceptions about the makeup of opposing parties. That cuts many ways, while most white people vote for Republicans, the Democratic party is still majority white. Of course this shouldn't matter, but it does because there are still a fair amount of racists in this country.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963.
Lucky for Donald Trump a working majority of Americans still care more about skin color than they do character.
Oh, please. . . . The history of humankind has been written in mass migration since our first ancestors walked out of Eastern Africa and began to populate the rest of the world about 75 millennia ago. Read some history--Persian, Assyrian, Turkish, South Asian, Roman and on and on. And maybe some anthropology. We are all the same. Both representative government and the Christian religions teach this. We have enough real threats to worry about without taking headcounts of who is what color, ethnicity, or culture.
2
Here is a wild idea - there would be no political implications if one particular party stopped catering to only one segment of the population.
Nobody is forcing that political party to nominate racists, bigots and xenophobes, but they keep doing it and over the past few election cycles, they are finding the worst of the worst of those types. And when the leader of country is amplifying it and making it a political platform, of course there is going to be political implications - how could there not be!
The problems that arise from being white or nonwhite in America can be traced to the human belief system, not to fact-based reason. Racial prejudice is only one harmful consequence of human beliefs. We will continue our losing battle against the symptoms of beliefs, but we will make no significant inroads until be take a really close look at the belief system itself. In the near future, we will program the human mind in a computer using a survival algorithm, and will finally see how we have confused our minds with our ridiculous beliefs about just what exactly is supposed to survive. Thus, the survival of white supremacy becomes more important than the survival of the individual. The irrefutable proof offered by the computer brain will enable us to begin the long journey back to reason. At that point, one's race will cease to be so important in our lives.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
1
Come now what difference does it make? We are all humans and we live in this great nation of immigrants. I thought /perhaps with the election of Barack Obama we finally achieved a level of tolerance and acceptance but apparently and unfortunately not so. It seems that the Trump supporters are really being played by Trump and particularly by the despicable and hateful little person, Stephen Miller. It's all about fear and ignorance and for one I can not wait till the upcoming elections in order to get back to some sense of normality.
3
The only thing we have to fear is — the fearful themselves. Opponents of Trump would do better to try to allay the fears of many whites rather than to simply deny that they have any basis. They quite legitimately fear that minorities will treat them the way that they have long treated minorities. Trump’s recent lie about huge land confiscations from whites in South Africa is a good example of his recognition of this.
I'm a native born American in my sixties. I have Middle Eastern ancestry (Assyrian Christians from Iran). I have fairly light skin and green eyes. Because of my appearance, whites assume I'm "one of them". This has provided me a fascinating, and often frightening, glimpse at how many whites think, as they say things to me that they'd never say, if they knew my ethnic background.
My appearance has given me a front row seat to a show that many darker skinned ethnic minorities will never see -- how whites think and behave when they think they are with "their own". I can't tell you how many slurs I regularly hear against Middle Eastern people by whites, but I can assure you that not a month goes by that I don't hear at least one. And slurs against African Americans or Hispanics? Again, too numerous to count.
The notion that this nation is a melting pot is a nice thought, but wholly unsupported by what we see in American life today. We have an avowedly racist president who incites his equally racist white base and stokes their hatred and resentment every chance he gets.
Who's afraid of a white minority? I'm not. In fact, I'm sorry I probably won't live long enough to see it. America under Trump has shown me that I have a lot more to fear with a white majority.
2
“It’s certainly a problem we keep coming up against.”
We keep coming up against it, in part, due to a perpetual stirring of the pot with “reality opinion” pieces like this one.
Granted, news outlets face difficult times in our current economy, and making big problems out of smaller ones helps garner clicks and readers. But at some point the line separating race-related analysis from graphic video of a white police officer killing another innocent black youth becomes uncomfortably thin.
To the TImes’s credit, detailed analysis of Trump’s Latest Tweet has been limited of late, and some would argue graphic disclosures move the public to action. They have a point. They also widen the gap - they move racists to action, at a moment when, since the Civil War, Americans haven’t been so divided.
At some point it will be entirely silly to categorize people at all. What will it mean? People will be genetic blends that average towards the current mix and influenced by immigration. You will have to contrive a method of identifying people as different that will be so convoluted as to approach the ridiculous. But then, most of what we now consider important relative to culture and race is already ridiculous.
I always thought cultures were quaint little creation stories similar to comic books and about as equally believable. The one thing I know about my ancestors and yours is that they believed in a lot of stuff that was just made up garbage. Let's grow up and stop believing in unicorns and fairies.
Isn't it obvious who is afraid of a White Minority? When you have been at the top of the food chain for so long it has to terrify you being the Minority. Nothing in our society is wieghted for the Minority from education,justice and housing. When you have ignored the cries of the minority the fear of being in the minority is real.When the current majority becomes the minority it will not automatically cede power to the new majority. The rush to stack the courts for the next forty years is not by accident.
1
Gentrification of inner city ghettos is a good way to diversify and Americanize immigrants, as long as you do not push out all immigrants in the process. Large one ethnic group immigrant communities are not good for America.
I once put this issue to a Progressive friend and she said "the current majority will go down kicking and screaming."
Worst case: South Africa's transition. It could happen here.
In remembering an old saying, "labels are for we for jars, not people", I adhere to the wisdom in this. We, whites included, all originated from the same area and same parentage.....we are all human.
I'm mixed race Asian/Caucasian and was raised in a white family and in upper/middle class western culture. I'm fully western and I'm fully, proudly Asian. I think the white majority who fear losing their majority status need to embrace those of color who equally cherish and uphold western culture and their racial identity such as I do. The real threat to western culture is not us, it's the decline precipitated by the far right and far left. They are the ones changing our nation into something that resembles a backward, third world nation,a model that even many third world countries and formally third world nations have rejected.
The west leads the world but when hate, ignorance and white supermacy leads the west, you can understand why we have declined. All in the west should stand up for traditional western culture- civilized and advanced values, attitudes, mores and policies, democratic socialist views and history and shared aims for prosperity and a pleasant culture. Western whites are tearing this dream down equally or probably more so than immigrants and people of color. We need to look beyond race and find our commonality within our love of, respect for, and abiding by traditional western culture.
177
@Una Rose
Racism will always persist. It happens even among blacks with lighter skinned family members favored. The same happens among Asians. It happens in Latin America with Hispanic whites increasingly a minority as marriages between European immigrants with Native Americans and Africans brought as slaves increases. The difference is that in Latin America, for example, there's reverse discrimination against whites as it is starting to happen here in the US. Racism is not about equality, it is about a shift in power. Racism is not about color, either. It is about cultural preferences.
1
@Una Rose
Although I agree with your distinction between culture and ethnicity, I find your exclusive promotion of "western culture" as rather uninformed. There are many eastern cultures that are civilized and advanced, have been in existence longer than western cultures, and have led the world during prolonged periods of history. I don't think romanticism of "western" culture is a framework to hold the US together. Individualism and reliance on science and technology (often considered "western" values) should certainly be a part of the mix but so should respect for family, societal cohesion (not uniformity) and respect for education (which frankly is currently more of an "eastern" than a "western" cultural value at this time.) - all identified with "eastern" culture.
I really don't know what to make of your description of traditional western culture as leading in civility and advanced values, attitudes and mores: as compared to what, other cultures? This is not a prescription for finding a common national identity for a country of immigrants from all parts of the world.
For what it's worth, my ethnicity is white, my ancestors' culture western European and I am 4th generation American.
@Una Rose - very well said. I also perceive exactly the same thing. Western culture as I knew it while growing up is being undermined, and it is not immigrants or outsiders who are doing it.
3
It's still amazing that we orient our political discussions about fairness, inclusion and associated grievances around ethnicity and race. Aren't there equally important distinctions? eg, poor vs. rich, educated vs non educated, young vs. old, etc, etc.
You can slide the cake called America an infinite number of ways. Its depressing to see the same slices re-appear.
Whatever happened to our "melting pot" philosophy? That offspring of "inter-racial" marriage mostly identify as "white" is not surprising and disturbing. It's not surprising because it reflects the continuing assessment that there is somehow more status in being "white" than in being "non-white." It is disturbing because scientists have been saying for decades that race is a sociological not a biological concept. There is no significant biological difference among "white", "black", "Asian" or "hispanic" people other than skin color. I hope we will evolve to the understanding that we are all Americans regardless of how we look.
153
@Richard Walker
"Hispanic" is not a race, a culture, or a color. What Americans call Hispanic or Latino are mainly Native Americans with Spanish names and the language of those who colonized the southern part of the United States and the rest of America south. Many residents in Mexico (in North America), Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, are Europeans who migrated to those countries where Spanish is the official language. Africans were brought in to those areas to work in plantations. And Mexico City has a large population of Korean immigrants. "Hispanic" therefore, is a linguistic group with many ethnicities, races, and cultures.
@Richard Walker "Whatever happened to our "melting pot" philosophy?" Turns out that only applies to northern European immigrants! Even then some are still not welcome - Irish, Italians, eastern Europeans, etc all vilified as being sub-human when they originally came.
@ART You are exactly right which is why I put the word within quotation marks.
There is something perhaps in the collective white consciousness in the United States that has made a number of white people therein fearful of the emergence of a United States (over the next 3 to 4 decades) in which they will no longer form the majority share of the general population.
White people in the United States need to make conscious, concerted and constructive efforts among themselves to mitigate or purge their longstanding racial biases and prejudices. And if they any of them should feel incapable of undertaking these efforts alone, their fellow Americans of color will be glad to assist them. Just ask. (Besides, all Americans benefit when we can better understand and learn to respect and value each other. We've already proven - through war and peace in years past - that there is strength in diversity.)
The racial animus and hatreds that are now stoked by white supremacist groups (as evidenced at Charlottesville last year) --- and tacitly condoned by the present administration --- must be continually challenged (as is the case today).
I believe that we Americans can embrace the disaffected elements among us, make them feel valued, while stressing that in helping them (through innovative educational and job opportunities) to lead positive, secure, and purposeful lives, that they have to bear the responsibility of helping their communities --- and the country as a whole --- to flourish and prosper.
47
@Wes "White people in the United States need to make conscious, concerted and constructive efforts among themselves to mitigate or purge their longstanding racial biases and prejudices. "
What all people need to do is look at reality instead of wished for utopian fantasies and deal with that reality. You are asking people to devote themselves to a never ending, unwinnable battle against reality.
Way back in the early 90s, the first prediction of a "majority minority" America put that date at ~2020. That prediction was, apparently, amazingly accurate. And, way back then, I began predicting that this would cause anxiety and an existential dread among many Whites, leading to increasing social and cultural unrest. This, too, was an accurate prediction. So when Edsall says that this "has" (future tense) profound political implications, he is actually a tad late: it has already HAD profound political implications - the most prominent, of course, being the rise of White nationalism and the election of a blatantly racist president. These "hard-core" Whites are acting on the no longer existential but REAL fear of a majority minority country, and are lashing out like cornered animals. And while it saddens - and in some ways frightens - me, it does not surprise me, and we can see this is a "last gasp," since nothing will stop the inexorable future of the demographics of the U.S.
95
@Maani Rantel...The fact that the first prediction you quoted - maj-min by 2020 - was amazingly inaccurate, beles your "accurate prediction" .
1
@Maani Rantel
But the whole point of the article is that the predictions were WRONG. It is NOT happening now, unless you believe that people with a Spanish name who are white, and talks and acts like an Anglo-white, is in fact NOT white.
So, were those predictions about a bogus majority minority? Then if so, they were correct. But not otherwise.
The people you mention are reacting against a false perception of reality, not an accurate one.
1
The column leaves me uncomfortable. Even if Mr. Edsall didn't intend it that way, it feels as though the subtext is "Don't worry, we're going to be mostly white for a long, long time, so it'll be ok". But it's ok if we're mostly not white. It's ok if we're mostly whatever we mostly are or will be. What matters is for everyone to be respected and to receive all of their rights and have a fair opportunity to do well in life according to their own (obviously non-violent and unbigoted) ideas of achievement, prosperity, etc. Problems regarding who gets to be counted as white or not mostly underline that we don't have a fair society right now, no matter who's in the majority.
3
Whites fear that when they are no longer a majority all of the Other will get together do to them what they have done to the Other for the past centuries. Trying to assure them that they will have legal protections is ineffective, as they know how legal protections are circumvented. Pointing out to them that they will still be a plurality of America is pointless, as they view the Other as united by a history of white privilege and oppression. They fear revenge.
There are times in my heart I wish I could see those days of revenge. Then I feel shame at how I have allowed white oppression - a white man who goes into a church and slaughters innovents, white men shout "Jews will not replace us", politicians use dog whistles to stir up their white supporters - to destroy the flame of love.
It is hard to love those who hate.
5
My husband and I grew up in Kansas in families with Christian, Scandinavian-UK (Welsh-Irish-English) roots. Today our grandchildren and nieces and nephews and their children’s backgrounds also include Korean, Chinese, Mexican and Jewish grandparents. No one was being political, we just diversified by individual choices. More persons watch HGTV than ESPN, and HGTV regularly shows us families who are pluralistic in heritage and family makeup. Their programs, and the ads that support them, show people building family lives in healthy, hopeful and creative ways. They show us both the future and the present.
1
Michael Barber's comment is very important. Perceptions do count for much more than reality for people who support Mr. Trump. The difficulty with researchers reporting on their data is that they have an intellectual bias. Researchers and New York Times readers read a lot and partly base their decisions on the information they've gathered. However many people in the country are not readers. These folks make their voting choices based on TV, social media, radio, and word of mouth. Their news source choices tend to reinforce Trumpian positions. Whether there will actually be a white minority is not their focus.
4
Sad to think that with the inevitable mixing of races and ethnicities we cannot move on to focus on inculcating “American Values” through our educational system while embracing cultural and ethnic differences. As a 76 year old white guy whose grandparents emigrated from Scandinavia I am as white as they come. Each year I make a point of returning to my northern Minnesota home town to attend the festival that celebrates the foods of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. My neighbor has a Hispanic mother, white father is married to a very white man. When her Hispanic relatives visit we enjoy the wonderful ethic food and visiting with these warm wonderful people who want the same things most of us do. Peace, prosperity and family. Tonight we walk to the center of our town to the Lions Cub beer tent and enjoy German food and music that is part of the annual art fair. While the emigrants who founded the town were German I am confident current residents identify as American regardless of ancestry.
7
I live in LA, which has been minority/majority for some time now. No one has come into my house to remove the Shakespeare from my bookshelves - life goes on. There are just more interesting restaurants, cultural events, cool people to get to know, etc -- multiculturalism is a plus for everyone, including this old white woman. I really believe once the dust has settled people will realize it was a lot of fear over what will turn out to be a positive change.
16
@Ann Williams
But they might remove the Shakespeare from your children's schools. I want my kids reading the Western Canon.
I don't see that multiculturalism is a plus. I do see that openness and kindness are pluses. But I see not much causality between multiculturalism and kindness. Furthermore, I have zero interest in other cultures. My PhD is in English literature, and I like Philosophy. Politically, I am liberal, but educationally I am conservative. I think it is way better to read John Locke than to read some Latino writer (just because Latino). the primary goal of education is increased intelligence and reasoning ability.
I'll support the Left's agenda, so long as every kid still has to read Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson.
I judge a culture by its literature. To my mind, Europe is still the reigning champ. I've read Amos Tutola. It's unfair to compare his work with Thomas Mann's and Alexander Pope's.
Any discussion of diversity must start with the acknowledgement that the West produced democracy, atheism, feminism, surgery, science, skiing, and tennis.
All of which leads me to question, why are we tracking skin color to begin with. At this point, as noted, many are multi-race and so the numbers are going to be off. We can track, for instance, how many of which group is attending which school, but is it the race that is a factor on how school is doing or is it the poverty level of the students.
I believe we are tracking the wrong info.
16
@Kathy
Because race/skin color is the system by which Democrats in 1965 decided was the best way to re-distribute tax monies to states or over the head of each of the states. That hairball was always destined to be a mess.
So much talk about "race", but no working definition anywhere of what the word or concept actually means.
Frankly, I've come to feel that blood type and a host of other invisible factors (which can vary between full siblings, much unrelated individuals within a "race") constitute distinctions which are far more important than melanin levels. This leads me to reject the very concept of "race", at least as the word is traditionally used.
Which raises the question of why so many Americans still insist on defining themselves and their neighbors on the basis of complexion or other insignificant (although usually visible) genetic factors. Or could it really be that this entire discourse (and discord) is based upon a simple knee-jerk rejection (conscious or otherwise) of anybody who isn't "just like me"? Surely we're better than that. Or at least I hope so.
4
Bringing up bi-racial children in north Florida where one was either black or white, we had to send our children to Hawaii to visit my parents during the summer, to give them a better perspective of the world. As one child said to me: "When I'm with my black friends, I'm black; when I'm with my white friends, I'm white." WEB Dubois believed that the legacy of slavery was the issue of the 20th century. It continues and should be honestly confronted as deeply affecting all of our perceptions about each other in the 21st century.
4
The battle over how to project the future population of the United States has profound political implications, as most of us do not want America to become the latest third-world nation. But, not to worry as the population will actually remain pretty much as it is regardless of pundits and projections.
2
What will make the US a third world nation is poverty caused by low wage jobs or no jobs, not the color of people’ skin.
This piece seems to be missing the problem. While the census distinguishes between "race" and "ethnicity," those concerned about a "white-minority" or "minority majority" population make no such distinction. "Hispanic" is not listed as a race, according to the census material quoted here. That means that "Hispanic," for the purposes of the census, is an ethnicity. But for those concerned about maintaining the hegemony of white power this is a distinction without a difference.
And what is one to make of statements like, "partly white individuals behave like whites in sociological terms"? Thinking like this suggests the kinds of mathematical equations used by Spain during its colonization of the Americas, of abhorrent terms like "mestizos," "quadroons" and "octaroons," and other notions of blood purity. If determining such issues is the purpose of the census at this point, perhaps the entire project should be restructured to reflect a more inclusive concept of America.
3
The census could count human beings in households and dispense with categories invented to maintain white supremacy. Race is a construct for dominance base on fear and self-aggrandizement.
My history in the U.S. begins when William White and his family, stepped off the Mayflower in 1620 at Plymouth Rock, in what was not yet Massachusetts.
White isn't an ethnicity; Irish, German, English, French, Swedish, are considered "white" ethnicities. We don't break down white ethnicities in the census.
What is the purpose for the census? Does it help our country in any way or is it just a way to divide us?
7
@Ineffable
Ineffable raises an interesting concept: what would happen in the Census if we counted just the numbers of humans living at a particular location? This might require re-assessing what we base school enrollment and financial support upon, as well as other agencies, entities, etc, which now depend upon ethnicity delegation.
Racial identification does not explain the character of any given individual. We are a long way from a society where we are judged by the content of our character.
I shudder to think that anyone would judge me by the character of my fellow ethnic German, Donald Trump.
7
Mr. Edsall, as always I enjoy your in depth analysis. So the melting pot is gradually melting and we are slowly becoming "hybrid" Americans. Maybe the day will come when we all just think of ourselves as humans and Americans.
6
The Brazilian adage "money whitens" reminds us part of the uneasiness about race has to do with its relationship with economic and social status. And in a somewhat different fashion the country music song "everybody's got to have somebody to look down on" reminds us of the same. To the extent minorities strive to occupy the position I currently occupy will I or my children be forced downward in status and income? As a member of the 1% am I better served by reminding the other 99% I have benefited from public policies enhancing my position or by pushing them to fight among each other? Should I care whether Asians fight with Hispanics for access to Harvard as long as the share of admissions for legacies and donors remains intact?
Mobilizing conflict around identity politics rather than class politics serves at least two purposes. First, it provides a significant bloc of adherents who can provide the operative currency of democracy, i.e., votes. And my supporters have a built-in motivation to find ways to reduce the voting capacity of the "other", or to accept voter suppression. Second, to the extent I can persuade my supporters the threat is racial or cultural I can continue to pick their pockets via economic manipulation. Overt bribes might be costly but posing as a defender of the faith (protecting evangelicals) or traditional cultural values means little in economic terms but yields political dividends. White men profit when white men rule no matter who's the fool.
7
I'd like to examine Bonikowski's point a little more. The idea that opposition to ethnic and racial diversity generally originates in homogeneously white neighborhoods.Think about that for a second. The people who most vocally oppose diversity don't generally experience diversity on a day to day basis. The threatened "white minority" are self-segregating. They choose to live in predominately white neighborhoods. That should tell you something. Actual real world diversity isn't the source of their grievance.
Barber's comment regarding perceptions seems the most poignant here. I grew up with three immigrant families as direct neighbors. I'm referring to shared property lines. There was an Indian family, a Russian family, and a mixed-national German/Canadian family who were also bi-racial. Additionally, there was a Greek immigrant and his family across the street who taught at the local university.
Here's the thing: I didn't consider my neighborhood diverse. No less than 5 languages were spoken within a few yards of each other. If you had asked me whether I lived in a diverse neighborhood though, I would have said no. We were just neighbors. I would have described my home as decently well-off and middle class. That was my perception.
So where are these anti-immigrant perceptions coming from? Media and politics certainly play a role but that's not enough. There's got to be something deeper. I don't think we'll find an explanation in statistics either. We'll need to try harder.
6
@Andy
I enjoyed your comment!
I live in San Diego which has a rapidly changing demographic. Unofficial figures say we are already a minority white city and I expect the 2020 census to confirm this.
Relax, it will be OK. There will be enclaves of different people, but there will also be this incredible mixing of cultures and ideas in the city. In a few blocks where I live there is a halaal grocer, a Vietnamese herbal shop, a carniceria and an fast food chain store. There are different festivals every week that celebrate the incredible diversity of our city. Yes, we have problems, but we also get a wide range of ideas on how to work on those problems.
America has always been more of an idea than a place anyway. We have, so far, been able to make a nation out of a diverse mix that has torn other countries apart. If we keep to the idea of America as a place that welcomes new ideas and people, we will be OK.
12
Trump, the GOP candidate for this election, was not the typical GOP candidate which is how he was able to win the election over the Democrats.
Acting more like a Democrat, Trump put American jobs first over the wealthy billionaire company owners and that is how he won. He won by just a few thousand votes in key states that had lost lots of jobs thanks to Democratic trade policies such as the original NAFTA agreement which he swore to renegotiate and he kept his promise.
Clinton lost the white women's vote. She won only 51% of university educated white women.
The Democrats totally forgot to emphasize jobs placing other issues first. They seemed to forget that people need to feed, clothe, shelter, and pay for their university educations whether they live in coastal cities or in middle America.
After Trump's second term the Democrats can very easily win the election by following Trump's strategy of emphasizing American jobs over the wishes of billionaire company owners. I am guessing that the Democrats will continue to put jobs as a secondary consideration to other issues.
4
@David MD
Trump lied about jobs, took credit for overheating the economy, which will result in a blowout that will dwarf 2007-2008, and helps his wealthy and powerful colleagues get more wealth and power.
He is the ultimate cowardly bullying conman, making claims he hasn't supported.
Real wages have not increased in decades, and most particularly, recently the spoils have gone to the top. The emphasis of shareholder value over employees and customers is draining the economy of real value in favor of the kleptocracy, which includes CEOs etc. who are rewarded for short-term profits at the expense of the future. All too many of them don't seem to care for the principles of, for example, Ford who said everybody does better when the population at large can afford his products. Nowadays, living wage is an anachronism for far too many of the population. Trickle-up is the rule.
Fact. Here are two amongst the vast data on the subject:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/upshot/income-inequality-united-state...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/opinion/wealth-inequality-families-ch...
8
@David MD Trump may have talked about jobs, but it was all hot air. Some of us realized that before the election, and all should know that now. That some don't shows how dysfunctional a fair number of our citizens are.
6
@David MD
DavidMD's analysis is exactly correct. Please, Democrats, please, please, emphasize bread-and-butter issues during future campaigns. Don't campaign on immigration, diversity, or identity. Talk about jobs and health care, livable wages.
3
"White" is a skin color.
It is not a race, a culture, or even an ethnicity. The perpetuation of any kind of stereotype based on skin color is nonsense.
Where it does make sense to refer to skin color is in regards to bigotry and the way that individuals, even whole societies, define themselves and "the other," in order to preserve in their minds, the illusion of their superiority, and a bogus justification for maintaining their group's power and privilege over all others.
The idea of America, however you want to define it - "the American Dream," "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," "all are created equal," etc., is not about skin color, but about ideals, rights and liberties, civic responsibility in a representative democracy, equal opportunity for all, and more.
That there are still so many in this country who want to perpetuate the founders' hypocrisy in excluding people whose skins aren't white from inclusion in the idea of America, is the continuing price that we pay for their sins.
Isn't it time for us to stop paying that price? The number of people with white skins living in America is irrelevant. What matters is that we all share in the dedication to liberty and responsibility and decency, working for a "more perfect union" with "equal justice under law."
And that can't happen so long as we keep surrendering our better angels to the forces of bigotry, division, and authoritarianism.
23
I think the point of the article is that white is not an objective thing, even skin color. It is more of an idea. For example, Jews, and before them, Italians and Irish Catholics where not considered white. Plus many African Americans are lighter skinned and/or have more European ancestry than many people who consider themselves white. I still agree with your general points, of course.
I'm a white male living in a very diverse place called California and my job entails interacting with many Spanish speakers and also Chinese.I certainly admire and respect the hard work and positive attitude that most display.Many are not born here and English is not their first language.Invariably it can and does get frustrating to communicate at times and I'll admit that it's a lot easier and more enjoyable to interact with a fellow Caucasian....because like other ethnic groups whites also have a shared experience and things in common from our experience growing up in America that creates a certain way of communicating.I'm happy that many immigrants want to work hard and be successful here but we must have a common language and that language is English.Too many immigrants now don't seem to care about learning our language.
12
@James: I part with my fellow liberals/progressives in agreeing that we should all aspire to speaking the language of the country of aspiration. If you move here, you should try to learn the language.
OTOH, actually, in much of the country we are not the "natives" even in the shorter term, since "manifest destiny" took over hispanic territory. Certainly we all refuse to accept that the real native Americans were persecuted and disenfranchised.
Our traditions of exploitation are reaching the end game as earth's apex predator is getting too big to continue the game of "dominion" over nature.
4
@James...the United States does not have an official language. Your point about the challenges of communicating is fair and valid, but the concept of "our language" doesn't exist in this country
6
@James - on the frustrations you claim to encounter in your communications with people not born here and with those who English is not their first language, what do you consider as 'learning our language'? Do you consider someone with an accent as not caring about 'learning our language'? If so, there's nothing an immigrant can do about their accent. Look at our First Lady, with her millions of dollars and decades spent living in this country.
2
I do wonder about the impact over time of DNA testing. I'm "mostly European", but with a very broad ethnic background. My extended family, "White-Hispanic" according to the US census, turned up 30% Native American. Culture and ethnicity are real. Race, not so much.
5
The people I know who voted for Trump did so for a couple of reasons. Of those not in the higher-income brackets there is a distinct belief Obamacare adversely affected the raw price of medical insurance, and that the quality of such insurance, in terms of the level of service expected from medical providers and insurance companies, is no better than before—the last being a promise most of us took to be implicit in the enactment of Obamacare.
Second, and this applies across the board to all Trump voters regardless of socio-economic status, a sense that big-city, blue-staters are intent on dictating how those of us in the hinterland live and the distinct impression that blue-staters look down their noses at the rest of us for our traditional paint-your-house and keep-your-lawn-mowed mores.
I voted for Obama both times, but would not vote for HRC (and did not vote for Trump). If there is a racial panic going on, I guess I missed it and I live in a deeply “red” state.
6
I agree w you. I would've voted for the neighborhood dog over HRC and her arrogance. Thus the election results...
The question is: what's the problem with being a "majority-minority" country if that's actually a reality and the direction in which we're headed? Just seems to me we become more interesting, more humane, more talented, more skilled, and more authentic. Not sure I get the downside -- unless, of course, the new majority decides to do unto the old majority as has been done unto them for, oh, two hundred-plus years.
18
It's not the "minority", it's the disenfranchisement of "those people" (including but not limited to "Jim Crow" policing, court, and prison tactics and voter suppression), the bile and otherblaming and violence that is a danger.
Unfortunately, these fearful cowards are arming themselves at speed, and persuading each other that "second amendment solutions" are appropriate if they cannot "win" by fair means.
Foul means indeed.
15
Once more, we seem to be having a debate with the minority of white people who fear any sort of change in the balance of race identification. I am a white person, second generation American, brought up in the 50s and 60s believing in the melting pot concept of America. Silly me, I bought into this lesson. And now I'm an increasingly aging white person who does not fear any sort of change in this balance. I am thrilled to see more and more under-represented groups - whether defined by race, ethnicity, gender - running for office, and winning. I think it's great to see more Muslims seeking representation in their communities and nationally. Finally, we're seeing Native Americans seeking national office. I read yesterday that Nevada may have a majority female state legislature (of course, I hope they are of many races and Democrats, but, whatever, it's a start). And on and on. Call me a Pollyanna, but I think we should embrace this change because it really does represent America as it has developed, and, yes, changed, over its 240-year history.
23
If the Census Bureau did away with all questions about race and ethnicity the only real objections would come from academics, especially statisticians.
Since, evidently, the official obsession with race is making the levels of hostility around the issue worse we would all be better off if these academics found some other subjects to study and write about. It's a straight forward question of moral citizenship.
Also, racial mixing is so common that the classifications are quickly becoming meaningless (and a little bit comical). And, as this essay clearly demonstrates, the experts aren't agreeing on any conclusions.
So the question is meaningless and the experts are confused. Great.
16
@laurence "If the Census Bureau did away with all questions about race and ethnicity the only real objections would come from academics, especially statisticians." Don't blame the statisticians! If you do a little more digging into this, you'll see it's the politicians who are to blame. It's all about "who" ("racial groups") who get the benefits in the federal budget. How often have you seen the phrase "people of color and low income" conflate "race" and economic status in establishing categories of need for federal assistance programs?
1
As expected, and thank you, a wide range of thoughts on the subject of White.
My concern for migration is more about whether we manage it or not. And by that I mean having clear laws on it and insisting on their being some control of the process. It is the seeming indifference to this issue that keeps my pot near the boiling point.
On color my family is mostly white although we have native American genes along with many other; on marriage and children there is brown, black and while no modern Asian, we do have some Asian content in the DNA.
The family has embraced openness to race; but if the DNA testing is accurate, that happened a lot a long time ago.
So for me, fix the immigration system and stop ignoring it and we can go on with what our natural instincts have done for eons. Mix the gene pool, improve future generations.
2
An anthropologist told me one time that no self-respecting anthropologist recognizes such a thing as race. I understand that individuals, institutions, political economies etc. use the concept but I believe it's not as much your own identification but others' that matters. How about sending out a census worker with a set of paint chips to record your skin color? Maybe record hair texture too? if people are so determined that it is an essential, biological condition that must be recognized, recorded, acted on, what else can you use? A family's "race" is changed in one generation! I dream of a day when a scientist's first cut at analyzing a dataset doesn't start with the variable "race."
11
Tribalism is a basic human evolutionary trait. We evolved in groups of 25-50. Outsiders were feared for good reason, although we live in complex societies now, we're still embedded in that biological reality. Obviously, humans are tremendously culturally flexible, but this trait is clearly very hard to overcome, unfortunately.
11
Thomas Jefferson wrote “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence which sounds very noble yet the irony was he own hundreds of slaves.
America has had a long and ugly history of racism which the country never came to terms with and is clearly manifested in our current times. Although the country has made progress, racism is still deeply imbedded in our culture and societies. Until the people deal with America’s history and atrocities surrounding racism, the country may never heal. This is a far deeper and more complex problem than a census depicting race and ethnicity.
8
I don't think most people care about numbers. They care about how numbers are used. That's the issue.
9
The US did not have an aristocracy to organize the society around, so wealth, and eventually, whiteness, came to be the country's social markers for status.
Status brings personal security in a society. The fear-mongering of cable news (led by Fox), especially as it relates to people of color as "the other", reinforces this feeling in people of needing to protect themselves against an imaginary enemy.
I can't bear to watch cable news anymore. It is not news. It's dark entertainment that has become increasingly destructive to our society.
8
Perhaps if the author hadn't been apparently set on only citing men, he would have happened upon an excellent article published by Brenda Major and colleagues earlier this year in the journal Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, "The threat of increasing diversity: Why many White Americans support Trump in the 2016 presidential election". From the abstract: " Reminding White Americans high in ethnic identification that non-White racial groups will outnumber Whites in the United States by 2042 caused them to become more concerned about the declining status and influence of White Americans as a group (i.e., experience group status threat), and caused them to report increased support for Trump and anti-immigrant policies, as well as greater opposition to political correctness. Among Whites low in ethnic identification, in contrast, the racial shift condition had no effect on group status threat or support for anti-immigrant policies, but did cause decreased positivity toward Trump and decreased opposition to political correctness. Group status threat did not mediate these effects. Reminders of the changing racial demographics had comparable effects for Democrats and Republicans."
4
I do not understand the census category of white. To what purpose is that? What does it add to how our government services the people who live here?
The questions of what you do, how you make a living, if you make a living, how large your family is, how many generations family members have lived here are much more useful questions. Levels of education, male, female, married, parents, living conditions, registered to vote are much more meaningful and useful questions.
What is the purpose of knowing how many whites live in the US?
What is the relevance other than bias?
26
@Carrie Beth
Because since the 1960s, race was how tax money got re-distributed instead of by need. Congress and LBJ purposefully enacted as part of their Great Society a conscious bias for brown and black 3rd world immigrants while slamming the door on all Europeans. That did nothing to stem the high birth rates and destitute living conditions in those 3rd world locales and merely gave a new stream of low wage labor to American businesses, while making those of educated caucasian European ancestry more in demand.
1
The idea of Whiteness and who is white and the difficulty in making that determination are rooted in the fact that "Race" as a scientific construct does NOT exist. There are cultural and ethnic differences to be sure but they are fluid. My family is of Italian descent, my grandparents coming to America 1900-1920. It wasn't until the 1950"s that we were "White". Before that Italian was considered a separate non white, southern European race. No other country, except South Africa, is so obsessed with officially classifying people by race. Let's get over it.
56
Whether or not America becomes a white minority country is not the point. The point is whether or not America has a cohesive, inclusive culture based on secular classic liberalism.
Without a cohesive culture based on shared values, the center will not hold as others have noted. Diversity for the sake of diversity is one of the most vacuous commandments put forward in our time. Racial purity is one of the most evil commandments experienced in our time.
There is no denying that the US has a history of racial oppression. Only by honestly admitting that reality and ensuring that it is never again embedded in any structural aspect of our governance that affects individual opportunity can we heal those sins.
That states such as Texas would classify "slaves" as "workers" indicates that we have a long road ahead of us. That social pundits preach "unconscious racism," and "white privilege" serves no other purpose but to antagonize whites and obstruct progress.
The political issues of illegal immigration and the cultural assimilation of immigrants can be addressed by consensus if the facts are dealt with honestly. Typically they are not. Typically, both progressives and reactionaries lie about the facts and alienate those who want a pragmatic approach to the problems. Both lie in order to "rally" their electoral bases and both have their media resources whose reporting too often verges on outright propaganda.
We lack honest discourse on these matters.
368
@TDurk
Thank you. This is well put and reasonable. Your points could serve as a guide for a constructive conversation to replace the interest group manipulation we now have. And so they will be ignored.
@TDurk The Civil War from 1861 to 1865 didn't indicate much of a cohesive country, did it?
The divide is along the lines of people with Conservative, Slave State Confederate mind sets, and the the rest of us who think the racial composition of the country is at best, a footnote.
These are the people who are still fighting the Civil War as the Culture War, thanks to Pat Buchanan, a proud member of the Sons of the Confederacy.
The Culture War is just the Civil War redux.
2
@TDurk
More important than race or skin color (which is hardly important at all) are numbers. Without importing a million persons a year through immigration, America would have achieved near zero population growth. ZPG is the definition of sustainability in our impact upon the natural systems of the earth, especially global warming. When I was a lad in the 1960's, America had 200 M persons living here. Now America has at least 320M, almost all of this growth being due to immigration. That is unsustainable, and why Democrats seem keen to convert a million persons a year into the highest carbon emitters on the planet baffles me. What is also baffling to me is how the GOP demonizes immigrants of brown skin while taking no steps at all to change the aggregate numbers of new immigrants each year. Are they all insincere, or do so few people understand numbers?
Over the past 30 years, the economic pie for ordinary Americans has been shrinking. It is not simply the fear of loosing the majority status for white Americans that unsettles them. Economically disadvantaged non-Hispanic Whites do no get the same opportunities in life (quota / reservations for college admissions, government jobs etc.) as the white Hispanics (or Blacks). It is inexcusable that while Hispanics enjoy the privileged status, the rural poor Whites and Asians are held to a different standard.
13
Since the last half century, the wealthiest Americans have gotten a lot richer, the number of Americans in poverty has grown, and the middle class, struggling as it shoulders more and more of the tax burden even as wages lag behind inflation, is shrinking. Those at the upper end of the middle class are getting richer. Those at the bottom end of the middle class, such as teachers, are falling into poverty. Our economy has become a monopoly game in which wealth gets concentrated in few hands. That's what's unfair, and it needs to be addressed.
14
@Mary M Very true. It is more important that we help those who have very little access to opportunities in life, especially those growing up in inner cities and rural areas. Family income should be the major criteria for assistance.
1
@Mary M
The economy will always shine brightest on the educated, civilized and productive. The wheel of immigration via socialism in the U.S. has been spinning for 50 years and has not benefitted the nation. Most of the population growth since the 1960s has been at the economic bottom, while the middle and top became more educated and limited their fertility to 1 or 2 kids that they could guide into adulthood and similar high levels of education, civilized behavior and productive lives. Those at the bottom who did that have climbed the ladder of prosperity with quality lives, as well.
If the war between Mexico and the US was supposed to ensure Caucasian dominance - it was a complete waste of time, effort, money and most importantly - lives. The South Western border states have adopted and embraced Hispanic culture, and to a degree language, which sets the region apart from say - New England or the Mid-West.
Pro-creation, it turns out, is a superior tactic to gunpowder and bullets (or a wall) when it comes to isolation and annexation. Add intermarriage to the mix and a brand new America begins to form. Racists don't like this trend because it's antithetical to their sense of self-worth... 'I'm white and that makes me better' - or enforced as it was by Megyn Kelly who declared on her Fox News show - "...both Santa Claus and Jesus were white.' Santa's genetic origins (Greek, German, Slavic) are clouded, and, as Kinky Friedman once pointed out - 'They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Any More.' What a mess we human beings have made of being human.
23
@Tom Storm: The Southwest states have adopted language "to a degree" partly because the treaty that ceded those lands to America after the war included a provision that required the governments of those territories to do business in Spanish "in perpetuity".
@Tom Storm
The problem is there are too many breeding humans - double just since the 1960s. That was always destined to crash and burn in every way possible, and it has.
We know about racists. We know something about Mr. Trump's notorious base. We have a pretty good handle on the Venn diagram between the two.
Both groups are so single-mindedly focused on what they fear that they are blindered and unable to see reality in all its complexity.
Its unbelievable these people are so blind, so full of themselves, they can't recognize their hate for minorities is the reason changing demographics frighten them so.
They fear being treated the way they've been treating people. They can't tolerate giving up the false security of being a statistical majority (however you parse the term) because they think they know what's coming. They've been doing to others as long as they've been alive.
Coupla subsidiary questions:
If these racists and Republicans fear being treated the way they have been treating people, why not change their behavior, make nice, and coast securely into a more just and peaceful future?
Why not learn from examples like, oh, Israel. A state created for people who suffered discrimination, hatred, violence, fascism and who, having been given power are now despising, discriminating against, and confronting with violence and fascism victims of their own.
If these frightened white people could get over themselves for just a minute, they might become their own best solution, their own source of safety and security, and the beginnings of a brighter, more successful society.
5
Race—in America—is the single-most potent determinant of social behavior. It always will be, even if a distant vista of whites-as-minority comes into fruition.
Race—at its most basic face value (if you will), had always been and always will be the index of any political discussion; this doesn’t necessarily predict hostility or animosity, it simply means that coming to accept the reality of a another’s ethnic preferences should be seen as a “ground zero” but minus the “zero-sum” equations that demagogues like Donald Trump employ with undisguised enthusiasm.
Perhaps because, as a non-white American, I have never known any other political/social dynamic in whites have not been in the majority, I have accepted the situation at one level. I don’t see whites as inherently evil (like some Pan-African movements here have). This is probably a complex involving individual experience and education. I have never envisioned an America in which whites were relegated to “second-class” status. In spite of all my negative experiences as a black man over 74 years, I would not desire this—to go about my daily life and feel empowered because another ethnic group is anxious about, wee, everything. In short, I like my sports teams to win and dominate, but not a particular group.
White America has been like the New York Yankees for much of the 20th Century—frightfully dominant and unapologetic about it. But things change, and so will America, from within. It needn’t be catastrophic.
19
Missing from this otherwise thoughtful piece and associated commentary is any serious challenge of "race" as a scientifically valid concept with any biological basis for the unequal,usually harmful treatment of other humans. See the special issue of National Geographic (April 2018) and especially Elizabeth Kolbert's article therein (p. 29).
14
@Ken Casey - I like your comment very much. I'd also add two others for anyone interested in understanding how the fiction of race continues to effect us today.
Sara Ahmed's essay "A Phenomenology of Whiteness" (2007) and Linda Martin Alcoff's book The Future of Whiteness (2015) examine racial identity as a performance. Though not a biological fact, it continues to shape our perceptions of how we believe we should act and how we perceive others.
The good news about these studies is that they demonstrate the ways that our performance of identity is malleable, and thus open to change. Alcoff is especially useful in this regard as she offers white ethnics new models for constructing identity in the 21st century.
@Ken Casey - Ken, simple fact about the New York Times. There is not one writer sufficiently well informed about genetics and about the USCB system to be able to challenge the system. My submission just after yours point to books that Edsall and others should have read. Since no one mentions them, I assume books by Kenneth Prewitt and Dorothy Roberts are yet to be read by a Times columnist.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
1
Slave State Neo-Confederates have been preaching this since the founding of our country.
Slave State conservatives have always been afraid of miscegenation and racial equality.
Now those Slave State Neo-Confederate Conservatives thrive on fear of not being the majority in the United States.
Big deal.
4
I’m White and will some day probably be a minority. So what? We’re all humans. This isn’t a contest. No one gets a prize at the end of life for being a majority.
12
I see most of the anxiety and outright viciousness towards "the other" coming mostly from older white Americans - like me. We belong to a swim club in NJ and there is a nice mixture of people there, but it is dominated by older white people who congregate at one end of the pool and sort of take it over. Last week, one of the men in this group approached us and asked if we would sign a petition to keep the pool club from being opened up to other NJ counties. His argument was that it would get too crowded. My husband and I agreed and I started to put my name to the petition. Then the man said, "These people just don't share our values." I asked him how he knew that and his response was, "Well, they're savages. The last time we opened this pool all we got were a bunch of thugs and gang members." I crossed my name off the petition. But I realized that most of what he was saying was a coded message between white people that we should have instinctively understood. "Them," "opening up the pool," another one was "we don't want people who don't share our values." Well, years ago when a Catholic family moved into our neighborhood, someone burned a cross on their lawn and put feces in their mailbox. Several of my parents' friends left our church the minute one black man joined the church choir. I've got a million of those stories. We've got to practice what we preach and we really don't.
11
"Whose Afraid of a Return to a White Minority America?" might have been a better title.
"White" Americans were far outnumbered by Native-Born Americans prior to the Great Wars on Native American nations and their near extermination. A minority status might help White American come to its senses and realize of foolish, petty even, all this stuff is. It's easy to administer power from a majority, privileged position. Better to put all that stuff behind us.
6
I'm afraid of an atheist minority.
6
@richguy
Well, that is guaranteed. There were more agnostics and atheists. Jefferson and Madison style, in the 1700s than today. Once the floodgates were opened in the 1840s, the U.S. was destined to be ruled by Bronze Age desert peasant cults - and it is.
1
@richguy Would you be afraid of an atheist majority? If everyone was completely honest, we would probably have an atheist majority now. Many people go to church and claim to be religious for social, business, and career reasons.
Again, Thomas Edsall sheds like on another one of the perplexing issues of our time. Unlike other op-ed writers who base their op-eds on their own opinions, Mr. Edsall bases his work on facts, on sources written by experts; this lends much credibility to his ideas. Above all, he usually ends his pieces with questions rather than conclusions, allowing the reader to seek out more information and form their own conclusions. Thank you.
14
@Southern Boy - Not quite. Edsall only cites political scientists and at least one sociologist.
He fails - always - to mention to experts in those fields, Kenneth Prewitt and Dorothy Roberts - who want to end USCB race system, and he does not even show he has sampled the genetic anthropology literature, Svante Pääbo, for example.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com.
There really are no “Pure Races” anymore. Even the so-called Yellow, Red or Black races are not pure anymore. All are mixed. The White race is also an amalgamation of races if it is traced back hundreds of thousands of years.
Regarding America, it’s the FACT that we’ve had this amalgamation that makes us who we are today.
9
@Eric Cosh, even the so called whites, are nicely mixed over thousands of years. Take the anglo saxons, "Before Roman times 'Britain' was just a geographical entity, and had no political meaning, and no single cultural identity. Arguably this remained generally true until the 17th century, when James I of England and VI of Scotland sought to establish a pan-British monarchy.
Throughout recorded history the island has consisted of multiple cultural groups and identities. Many of these groupings looked outwards, across the seas, for their closest connections - they did not necessarily connect naturally with their fellow islanders, many of whom were harder to reach than maritime neighbours in Ireland or continental Europe."
1
@Eric Cosh - Well at least there now are 1 for every 100 comments that know what is well known except to Times columnists and the other 99/100 of comment writers.
See my comment if it appears.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
“Times they are achangin’.”
Instead of worrying about the loss of unearned white privilege that obviously underlies fears of loss of majority status, maybe it would behoove whites to channel some of that energy into learning to accept reality: Whites are simply one of many “races;” all of which, of course, are social constructs; and a minority “race” on the global stage.
Whites need to learn to see themselves as equals, and to teach their children and grandchildren the same, in order to function in the world of tomorrow.
This is just reality.
10
At 64 years old, I am horribly embarrassed to be an American citizen. There is no question that all this racist, ethnic etc talk is a political device for division among the population. After all "A House Divided....". The people controlling the Trump puppet are excellent at using it for such and we, the suckers fall for it, fight over it, create unnecessary hate and violence and keep it in the news cycle almost daily.
The irony, we are all Homo Sapien Sapien (the name of our biological classification) and are %99.999 person exactly the same, black, white, Asian, Latin etc.
While this national hatred is allowed, make that encouraged to grow, the Trump syndicate is rolling back our civil and constitutional rights, endangering us, our children and descendants and robbing us blind.
Really horrifically disgusting.
24
One major problem is that older conservatives of northern European ancestry identify themselves as the only “true whites”. For them hispanics (even those without any indigenous south American blood) are not white, and they do not consider them as equal. Do not forget that at the beginning of the 20th century even Italian immigrants were not considered “white” by the anglo-saxon elite!
Living in Europe, I can tell you that people would laugh if you tried to distinguish “whites” from “hispanics” - Spanish or Portuguese citizens are just as “white” as anyone else, just because they look different from Norwegians doesn’t classify them as “different”.
This entire distinction is entirely a fictional creation of an old, conservative and deeply racist part of white anglo-saxon American culture, which tends to sneer at everyone that looks “brown”. For these people, “White” is really a code word for “we are the superior race and culture”.
Eventually these retrograde racists will find themselves in a dying minority, and these ridiculous distinctions will be a thing for the history books.
13
@Andy
Oh, where to start? Did every millennial in Europe and ther U.S. fail world history?
The preference for white UK and northern European ancestry in America was baked into the emigration process and operation of all states - which ran the show, not the federal government until post WWII. It is in part based in the reality of WHICH European nations were under the control for 1500 bloody years of Vatican Inc. Those that weren't came to America and made a new country based in secular or Protestant democratic values specifically to obviate any chance of the subjugation and overtake of U.S. government by those ancient violent religious cult power and money grabbers.
@Andy - Europe is a little more advanced in this field than is America, at least as concerns systems for classifying people and journalists - Karin Bojs, Swedish science journalist, two books on Swedish lines of descent has no counterpart at the Times.
I have been trying since 2013 to persuade one Times columnist to write what you write. Nobody will touch the subject.
Over the past 18 years I have probably talked with a 1000 asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. Not a one ever knew she belonged to a "black race" until I told her what she would face if she emigrates to America. Chimimanda Ngotze Adichie has written about this also in "Americanah".
And just this year Swedish author Ola Larsmo has published an extraordinary novel, "Swede Hollow" about Swedes who landed in bad hollow (valley) in Minnesota. They were seen as blacks by the Irish and Italians who go there before they did!
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
2
@Andy: From where in Europe are you writing? In Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, a Spaniard or Portuguese person is usually considered a 'foreigner' (with a negative connotation) because of darker hair and eyes. Slavs are considered 'worse', regardless of hair and eye colour, because they come from 'the east' or the Balkans (that word has very negative connotations in Northwest Europe).
Here's the massive elephant in the room:
The white men (read: GOP) running the government see this coming, and will do everything in their power to manipulate the system so that current minorities don't benefit from population increases that make whites the minority.
The GOP will continue to gerrymander and electoral college and voter suppress minorities from here to kingdom come.
I'm not certain how you solve a problem when it was created and is perpetuated by our "leaders."
292
@Sarah Your reaction to this article perfectly mirrors the point: when a group (be it white men or women or any other) is told they are losing power or influence to another group, they predictably react defensively and aggressively towards the perceived threat.
You read this article and take away that white men (read: GOP) are a threat, you comment on the article a short list of how white men and the GOP are the problem.
How is your reaction towards your perceived enemy of white men (read: GOP) any different than the white people that perceive a loss of power to immigrants or minorities and fear them?
1
@Sarah
As the brilliant cognitive scientist from Berkeley, George Lakoff, wrote to make people remember, "Don't Think of an Elephant".
If, George, who is highly progressive politically, had given it more thought, he might have done his same cognitive 'thought experiments', and written the same book with this title:
"Don't think of an Empire"
1
@Sarah The current GOP didn't create the Electoral College, or for that matter, gerrymandering. And Democrats do their share of gerrymandering, too, when they can; I live in the state that is the worst example.
Majority minority—who cares? The place where I live, Montgomery County, Maryland, has been majority minority since 2010, and we’re doing JUST FINE. We have the tenth highest median income in the U.S., our schools are nationally ranked, and our crime rate is low. We do have traffic congestion, but not nearly as bad as some counties in this area, and we have public transportation that works. Overall, we’re doing pretty well—in fact, much better than average.
Based on the experience of living in a majority minority county, I don’t understand this concern over being a majority minority nation. A county, a state, or a nation is what you make of it, on what you vote for and what your public officials actually do; not on the percentage of different kinds of people who live there.
11
I don't understand why this xenophobia never goes away. A white and a non-white person can sit in a bar over a few beers and discover that they share the same values and desires out of life.
A Trump supporter I recently met from Jacksonville said, "We don't have a race problem. They stay in their neighborhood, and we stay in ours."
The cultural fabric will survive only if people accept each other and mingle. Segregation hasn't worked. As we can see, it has only perpetuated meanness, fear and discrimination. So what if the colors mix and your descendants are darker than you are. Your genes and the better parts of your way of life can still endure.
7
The outstanding characteristic of many people on the political right and also the religious right is fear based on ignorance. Many of our right-wing friends are afraid and worried about everything. They hate: liberals, elites, dark-skinned people, Arabs, Muslims, LGBT, poor people, people of other religions, etc. you name it. But they are really worried about people with dark-skins.
The rise of the tea party came about to a large extent because of race -- that is specifically a hysterical hatred of President Obama. Which is strange because if you look at President Obama's policies rationally, they fit the policies of what I consider a moderate republican. And he did not propose the ACA (Obamacare) as a dodge to give goodies to black people as some republicans claim to think.
What I hope will happen is that we have interracial marriage (some of the old line bigots call it miscegenation) on a massive scale. I saw a person on television one day whose father was from Korea and the mother from Germany and the family seemed perfectly happy. If the races, cultures, religions, nationalities, get all mixed up then maybe that will end the discrimination and bigotry based on race. If we did do away with race, then what would people squabble about?
What would the republicans use to turn out the base on election day? Oh, I forgot that would still leave abortion, guns, gays, … etc.
12
Intermarriage between Hispanic whites and non-Hispanic whites is so common that the distinction between the two ethnic groups will probably vanish within a decade or two. In our most populous states—California and Texas—it’s becoming as much the rule as the exception. Does it really makes sense to treat Hispanics as a separate population group simply because their grandparents or great grandparents spoke Spanish instead of some other European language? Should someone who looks like Hispanic actress Cameron Diaz be eligible for affirmative action?
On the other hand, ethnic labeling creates diversity. If the Census Bureau asked all Americans to designate ethnicity on census from, we could achieve tremendous diversity overnight. In addition to Hispanic Americans, we would have German Americans, Irish Americans, Anglo Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Swedish Americans, Norwegian Americans, Russian Americans, Greek Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Jewish Americans, etc. Instead of being a minority, Hispanic Americans would be our second largest population group, trailing only German Americans who they will soon outnumber.
4
A couple of comments.
First, the concept of "Hispanic" is bogus. Pope Francis is Hispanic despite having two Italian parents. Mitt Romney could be labeled as Hispanic since his father was born in Mexico. What we call Hispanic is really a varying mix of European and Native American, with a small amount of African ethnicities.
Second, mixed-race individuals will likely identify with the race that gives them the greatest advantage. Thus, Elizabeth Warren can claim Native American heritage, but individuals with partial Asian ancestry will likely identify as white to avoid discrimination if they are applying to an Ivy League college. In my personal case I have one great-grandparent from Syria. Although it never occurred to me years ago, today I would probably emphasize my (minimal) Arab background.
Finally, when there is enough racial mixing in the US, perhaps we can get rid of all programs that provide any racial preferences to any group. That would be the best outcome.
3
At one time the "white race" almost exclusively meant WASPs--maybe some Germans, if they could trace their family roots back more than a couple of generations in the US. Irish, Italians, Jews, even Swedes and Bohemians were not considered fully "white" in the Anglo-Saxon sense. But today, all of these groups are regarded as all-American whites. Inter-marriage helps, but so does political incorporation, which takes about three generations. (By the way, they have also become less Democratic in partisanship,) I foresee the same happening to white Hispanics, Asian Indians, and possibly Chinese and Korean Americans over the next fifty years. I am less optimistic, however, about African Americans and Native Americans due to the deeply embedded structures of racism.
1
I am pessimistic. Of course Trump didn't start the fire. But tell me why politicians will want to abandon the strategy. God, gun, gay marriage and race are so convenient. At least 40% of voters are locked in no matter what! Stupid, it's human nature. Generally speaking, I don't have high hopes when human nature is involved. Unfortunately, Western democracy is not working. But China's "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is not working either. Having said that, a smaller and more homogeneous population definitely works better. Therefore, moving forward, some kind of federalism might be a better solution. Tell me why CA and NY have only two senators? It makes no sense to me. If WV wants to burn coal, just leave us alone and take the consequences. Why should tax payers in Oregon subsidize their health bills?! I rather spend my tax dollars in Oregon to make Oregon more beautiful. Similarly, if Mississippi wants to ban abortion, gay marriage and interracial marriage, why should we care? In fact, like-minded people should stay together. As I said before, Trump doesn't affect me. But local issues are very different. They affect me.
The solution is very simple. Segregation is the only meaningful solution. People can make their decisions by feet (and some of them are doing it already). Afterwards, take the consequences. Simplicity is beauty!
“46 percent of white Democrats and a whopping 74 percent of Republicans expressed anger or anxiety when reading about the impending white-minority status."
And that, in a nutshell, is why race-based identity politics is a losing hand for liberal Democrats and has cost us the White House and at least two Supreme Court seats.
Race is an artificial category created by racist slave holders to protect their privilege and justify human bondage. It sickens me that descendants of slaves cling to race as our defining characteristic while continuing to be oppressed by racists.
A plurality of Americans are either working class or poor. We need:
Better public education
Better public transportation
Single payer universal healthcare
Criminal justice reform
Stronger protection of the environment
Higher taxes on the wealthy
We'll never reach these goals as long as we let 'The Man' divide and conquer us.
19
Pretty logical to me--nobody wants to be a minority, look at the history of pretty much any country in the world. At best you are tolerated, at worst--well, Schindler's List is coming out again, so you can see for yourself.
Probably the informal definition of 'white' will be expanded gradually over the time to include people who are more than half white, or to include economic factors, as is seen in Latin America.
Most people south of the Border are white, between 20 to 40 percent Native American the rest being European.
1
Excellent article. But I don't accept the view that most Trump voters are racist. After all, many of them voted for Obama twice. Most of his voters felt that the country wasn't working for them, and here was someone who would at least shake things up. And, yes, people who attend Trump rallies, a small minority of his voters, cheer loudly at racist dog whistles. But they also jeer at white news people, Amazon, and the FBI. I'm no expert in the sociology of demagoguery, but I think some people find it cathartic to be mad together. Their anger won't change one way or another based on their perceptions of what the racial makeup of this country will be ten or twenty years in the future.
4
Ideas and commonly held beliefs don't every go-away. They may get repressed for a time, but they always come back.
Fear of the foreigner, the other, is engrained in human society from its earliest days. Add in modern elements like Eugenics and Absolutist ethno-Religious beliefs about being chosen by the divine and the other is always a serious threat.
America doesn't have a single genetic root, there is no "Blood and Soil" argument. America is an idea that has become inclusive rather than exclusive. The absolutists want to draw ever-tighter boundaries around who is a "real" member of the group. The problem of this is that the circle can only get smaller-and-smaller as the definition of who is "real" gets progressively narrowed. In the end, only one person can stand inside the circle.
These ideas aren't going to disappear but we must address them and the abject fears that arise from the beliefs. Unfortunately, the fear is emotion, not logic based and displacing an emotion is very difficult.
The threat to America, particularly the idea of America comes from within and is based in fear, not logic. That some will use fear to further their pursuit of power is the real problem.
How to solve that problem? Anything but threats, hatred and revenge. Empathy and love can win the day.
4
Who's afraid of a white minority? Not me. I am "white"...and I am getting tired of white people. Why do we even have these classifications? Aren't we a "melting pot"? That's what I remember being told we were when I was a kid. I love the little differences I see in people around me...like the stunning, beautiful not-exactly-white young woman in the photo. "Imagine" by the Beatles is swirling in my head right now....
296
@Cindi T John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band, rather than The Beatles, but you are right on!
@Cindi T
"Imagine" was really by only one of the Beatles: John Lennon.
Other that that you are spot on.
@Cindi T
500 years from now (if people still exist), scholars will scoff at the construct "race" that existed in our times. The similarity between the "races" vastly overwhelm the differences between them, to the point that there are virtually no differences. Like Cindy T., I too am "white", and I too am getting tired of "white people".
1
The US should not classify people by race, ethnic origin longer any longer unless it is cor a compelling reason like breaking out statistics on diseases like breast cancer. No forms of affirmative action should be allowed. If someone is discriminated against the remedy should be to litigate and get damages. No one should get a benefit because someone else was discriminated against. Today, people who were not subject to discrimination get the benefit of affirmative action while other people who did not discriminate against anyone are held back by affirmative action to favor those getting race or sex based benefits. The notion that whiteness has some type of special meaning is specious.
5
I am a white Immigrant from Latin America and I can’t wait for America to get over its obsession with race and whiteness. The pro- white system works for me (no one can tell I’m not “really” white) but I am disgusted by our reactionary fixation on racial categories.
270
@Leonick
While it can be used for political manipulation, it will never end.
Btw, I'm not only disgusted but ashamed of what this country has become.
2
@Leonick
Another vote for America to get over it’s obsession with race and whiteness, it’s embarrassing and a mystery that so many ignorant people still exist.
2
@Leonick: It sounds like you might be a criollo - a descendent of white Spanish immigrants to the Americas. I've heard that they enjoy a level of privilege in Central America greater than (for example) an indio or a mestizo.
I can’t avoid the memory of ante-bellum racists in this country who could point to distinguishing physical characteristics used to nail down racial make-up across a couple of dozen classifications, from “white”, which required freckles and blue eyes, to stygian “black”. There still are a few holdouts in our South who can do this, as well as reactionaries of a certain generation in Britain’s former Caribbean holdings.
In the end, who cares?
But there’s value to Tom’s cud-chewing ruminations that could be opposed to the value he thinks he offers. If white-something that lives white is actually increasing as a percentage of the U.S. population, even modestly, then it could cause non-whites to cease seeking their lives’ justifications in racial identity … and start thinking in terms of personal accomplishment as human beings irrespective of race or ethnicity. That would be a very American outcome.
As to a strategy to water the “deplorable” vote by dialing-down their concerns over waking up stark naked in the middle of a vastly expanded Harlem or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s future Hispanic Queens and Bronx district, I don’t find it compelling. You cain’t fix stewpid: our “deplorables” will remain as susceptible to dog-whistles about race and ethnicity as berserker-liberals, of any economic class, will remain committed to demonizing those who don’t look like THEM and who bind the mouths of the kine eagerly awaiting slopping of limitless quantities of free cheese.
Yearly Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that whites have the highest rates of volunteerism. Hispanics have the lowest rates. With spending on our public estate set to fall due to massive budget deficits, who will step forward to volunteer the time and effort to save what we have in common? Who will keep us from becoming just another failed country?
1
Inciting a mob isn't based upon reason, it is based upon an appeal to irrational fear.
One needs no more proof than a country that immediately went from having its first African-American President to its first White Supremacist President.
Fortunately, the "mob" consists of less than one-fifth of Americans who have awakened in much of the other four-fifths a revulsion to what they are witnessing.
We've already seen it in primaries throughout America and, hopefully, we'll see it again this November.
6
The fact is, America already IS a majority-minority country. As the reference to "Celtic" and "Hebrew" classifications in 19th century census makes clear, many ethnic groups now considered "white" were previously considered distinct minorities. In many cases these were considered by those with Anglo-Saxon ancestry as being undesirable as immigrants. If Irish-Americans, Jewish-Americans, Italian-Americans and Slavic-Americans are counted separately, then America is already majority-minority. America has a "white" majority only because today, these groups are subsumed into the "white" majority, to the extent that some of the members of these groups (Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, etc) have taken on the same prejudices and bigotry that was once aimed at their own ancestors.
8
One wishes that the studies here on racial prejudices had compared it to other kinds of prejudices, reflecting still lingering prejudices against not just immigrants and non-whites but against religions and classes. “Poor whites” is not a choice that most whites would claim elevates their social status, although it, like the self-identity as “red neck,” may be a defiant badge of cultural pride in some regions or race car events, with even Canadian visitors, ignorant of its history, calling themselves “red necks.”
Racialized or no,performance generally defangs “the wages of whiteness, “ as W.E.B. Dubois described the need for racial hierarchy in our so-called classless society. And so the same whites nevertheless cheer their mixed race local sports teams and black athletic stars. Performance is authority, authority is power. And money, as they say in Brazil, “whitens,” just as white rappers engage in cultural adaptation identifying themselves by the racist slur. Nothing so much breaks down racial barriers as the perception of a common foe in politics and race.
1
Hispanics can be of any race. Depending on the country, there are many "white" hispanics -- descendants of Europeans/ In some countries there are many Asian hispanics. So? If asking about hispanic, why not ask about other countries or cultures? The categories make no sense.
4
Whites may become the minority in the ranks of the great unwashed, but will remain dominant among the elites of business, law, politics, science and medicine. In other words, where it counts.
2
Edsall is absolutely right. "White Hispanics are Non-white" is the silliest of the infinity of silly Federal diktats. Does anybody in the Census Bureau know what a logical contradiction is?
Does anybody in the Census Bureau know that logical contradiction is the worst form of error in an argument?
A rough calculation to back up Edsall;
We are told that around 2045, white vs non-white populations will be 48% vs 52%. Which means that by 2045, current minorities will become the majority.
But, this includes the silliness of "white is non-white". Now, Hispanics will be about 24% of the population, and like now, they will be about evenly divided between white and non-white.
Thus, in 2045, about 12% of the US population will be Hispanic white. If this 12% is moved over to the white population, where logic and common sense say it should be, then we shall have: 60% white vs 40% non-white. That is: 60% = 48% plus 12%, while 40% = 52% minus 12%.
So, fearful whites: settle down. For better or worse, you're going to be the majority long after 2045. Or 2050. Or 2060...
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The impending white-minority status is a myth. The establishment media's bizarre, gleeful, & premature rush to proclaim the end of white America, is fueling racial backlash politics. It's as if if being white is somehow evil so lets pop the champagne corks & celebrate it's demise. Truth be told most pundits have gotten the facts wrong. The Census Bureau has estimated that by 2044 whites won’t be majority. But that same census report projects that by 2060, 68.5% of the population will be white. It’s just that a reasonably large share of the white population will be partially descended from Latin American immigrants. A further 6.2% of the population will belong to “two or more races,” Many of these people will be of predominantly European ancestry & have skin tone and other facial features that fit comfortably within the conventional boundaries of whiteness. If you use this view and let anyone who identifies as white be white, then America remains majority white indefinitely. Reflecting these trends, many whites still claim that they are now or will soon become a minority group. This is only true in the numeric sense. Whites will continue to be the majority in terms of wealth, power and prestige. Whites have amassed large amounts of wealth and other resources that will not become depleted with their declining population counts. While increasing numbers will translate into some political gains among people of color, it's unlikely to change our politics dramatically.
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I am one of those white Hispanics; I am both white and Hispanic, not either or. From my point of view there is no such thing as a the possibility of a white minority, that's just a fantasy, it requires that whites believe others are different than themselves, it's all in your head. Instead we are heading towards one human majority where ethnicity fades away and we all see each other as the same. And, it will be painless, it will happen slowly, we won't even notice.
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@PNBlanco
It has already happened in some communities
@PNBlanco Excellent observation.
@PNBlanco When legal immigrants and illegal aliens flood our country and refuse to assimilate, we are no longer a 'melting pot', a phrase I also learned as a child. The German, Italian, Irish, Polish, English, et al immigrants who came here after World War II wanted to be Americans. They learned English, American History, American traditions, and became American citizens. T h a t is why the term 'melting pot' became popular. The millions of illegal aliens and people from the Middle East and African countries are not assimilating and have no desire to become American citizens or learn American customs, which is why allowing them to come here must be stopped. In my opinion, open up a new "Ellis Island" and go back to those standards of immigration. It worked then, and it will work now. Our country and its citizens will benefit from selective immigration because that is what made us so strong back then. The immigrants knew the horrors of communism, and they would never let it happen in America. Now, our children are being indoctrinated in school about how terrible we are and how great communism is. We have to balance our society in order to keep our values, traditions, and way of life free. What's wrong with preserving American ideals? If you don't want to, leave - you have the freedom to go anywhere you want.
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The problem is not the accuracy of racial or ethnic studies. It almost sounds as if the writer believes we need to assuage whites by telling them they are really not going to be a minority. Ridiculous. The problem is blatant racism. We need to attack the problem, not hide it.
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Sadly people only see black or white. When Nature thrives in multiplicity and diversity of colors languages cultures clothes food etc. imagine if everyone was plain vanilla? Ironically vanilla beans are black but people associate its essence with whiteness. Strange. If only people were educated enough to understand human race is ONE homonsapiens species that itself came about with a lot of intermixing with human like species. Ignorance is bliss and people kill each other for that, witness global incidences of genocides ethnic cleansings right before our eyes!
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how any minority (women, people of ‘color’, non Christians) could support and vote for Trump is beyond me.... and yet there are those among them that voted for him and support him. There is nothing to be done but live through this and hope that it ends without destroying our country.
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Exercise your rights of franchise or shut up about not being represented! If you want to be a member of the silent majority then life will be what it will be. Is it really that difficult to grasp the fact that we as nation were formed by individuals who were disenfranchised and taxed beyond reasonable levels. Wake Up!
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The powers that be will never allow whites to be in the minority. First, look at the laws curbing immigration; which groups are affected? groups from non-white countries, Second, the classification of "what is White". Some Hispanic, persons from Arab/Indian descent, will classify themselves as white. If someone who is Asian marries someone white, how will they classify their childern? most likely as white. As long our society classify and treat whiteness as being advantageous, the more others will seek to classify themselves as white. So it is safe to say the white majority isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
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Dear Amie,
A message to let you know that Georgette Heyer has arrived with her Infamous Army, and apparently we are 'packed' here. Our history teacher in France never mentioned Boney's last battles and had you told your American friend that Hardy's last words to Wellington were to give him a parting kiss, I would have believed you.
Moving along, should you wish to flee Paris, highly recommend that you pluck from your British ancestors a document proving they came this way on The Mayflower.
True, this Presidency has tried for some dashing French words for our populist country, but cabal and carnage only lasted a short while, before an attempt was made to resurrect Spanish, as a second language.
There appears to be a growing fear that "Othello" is plotting to do us in, and that we should be prepared to give up the Melting Pot in exchange for battle weapons. Our president is holding strong in his self-imposed strait-jacket, and I am surrounded in this neck-of-the-woods by witches (?) and evangelical persons. The latter wish to convert you to their way of thinking, and this is the right time to ask them first to make a donation to the nearly four million refugee children wandering our planet, with no hope of any schooling.
There is much talk these days about Democracy in America, but little is mentioned about Diplomacy, and it is only natural that China feels that we are barbarians. On this note, I leave you none the wiser but America continues to grow like a Rainbow.
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I choose not to see the world in black and white, and that choice reflects my love of freedom. White, as a category, is not only a minority it is non existent.
I thought about this throughout the Obama Presidency, every time he was referred to as a black man. He was, let us not forget, as white as he was black. The backlash from career racists such as Donald Trump seems ironic in this light. Why do they never choose to celebrate Obama's white half? It doesn't profit them to think on a deep level.
The 12% or so of African Americans has provided a hugely dis-proportionate contribution to our culture, most notably in music, but also other arts and sciences. This despite every effort at repression. Oppressed minorities have always contributed disproportionately to their culture because they had to to survive, but physically and spiritually.
But it's always been an amalgam; America's strength is in its alloying of disparate cultures. Louis Armstrong was fostered by a generous Jewish couple who gave him insight into the broader culture and different forms of bigotry. Christianity, for all of its flaws provided a splendid backdrop for African American music. (Think of Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Jesse Norman.)
So, is Obama white, or black. Am I? Are you? Who cares? It only matters to those who benefit from division.
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This issue is impossible to do assess in any scientific manner. Take the example of immigrants from the middle east. A century ago, many Christian Syrians and Egyptians came to the US and for the most part were accepted as white. So were muslim Turks and refugees from Armenia. But while accepted as white in Northeastern cities where they looked little difference from Italians, Greeks and Jews, they also remained in some way part of the various darker skinned people who live in the middle east. Iranians came later on, and for the most part became white, at least in urban America. We simply cannot find any useful data that is definitive, instead we have a series of different answers depending on the question.
The whole concept of race is cultural not scientific. The more science the more fuzzy these categories; with enough science they go away. There's your solution: education.
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Maybe it would be better if we stopped making racial, ethnic, and religious designations and simply counted people for the necessary tasks of establishing voting districts and apportioning public resources!
Other than ideologues, demagogues, and bigots of the right AND the left, who really cares about the myriad distinctions now baked into the census? We experience life only as individuals, not as groups, even though we are inclined toward tribal feelings as an evolutionary matter of self-defense.
We have rights only as individuals, not as groups. What my ancestor did to your ancestor or yours to mine is NOT what I have done to you or you to me. To conflate the two is to create a new injustice!
So what now? Particularly in this age of division, it is time to move beyond identity politics, which can only lead to conflict, which in its logical conclusion can only be violent. We need to stop competing for the status of "most-victimized" as groups, and instead find justice under the rule of law for the actual, living, breathing, individual human beings whose experiences are far too diverse to be defined by the color of their skin, religious or ethnic background, sexual preferences, or any
other such difference.
We need to find the common ground of decency and fairness among ourselves as citizens of our republic, and of public policy that finds each and ALL of us as equal before the law without distinction.
And we need to do so soon, before our republic collapses in shards.
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Maybe the census should include DNA testing. We already know that back in the time of the hunter-gatherers, a mere 70,000-100,000 years ago, different types of hominids were interbreeding. Many of us have Neanderthal genes. Should we include that in the census? Or should we just get over it?
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@Susan Recent research hints at possible interbreeding of Homo sapiens with other hominids, but it has been firmly established that modern humans have roughly 1.8% to 2.4% of Neanderthal nuclear DNA, except for African populations. Homo sapiens had been determined to have originated around 200,000 years ago, but that date is being pushed back all the time.
See the current issue of Scientific American, Humans
We also can't bind ALL non-white groups together. Different cultures/ethnicities have different experiences/issues. While we all face discrimination of some sort as a minority group, it comes both from within various minority cultures (whether your own or outside) and the so-called "majority." And who says that white people = WHITE PEOPLE? Is there REALLY only ONE "white" culture? The US is a huge country and culture varies by region already - culture shaped by various parts of the world. Scandinavian culture is more prevalent in, say, Minnesota than New Jersey, for example - even if people settled there years and years ago.
At the end of the day, everyone will be a minority. There won't be ONE majority (nor has there been one for a very long time...if at all).
If Norwalk represents the future of the USA, then we should embrace it.
If Bridgeport does, instead, then we should all move to Switzerland and leave the USA touts dystopian future.
Let’s remember that the population of the US is only a small percentage of the world population...about 4.3%. Demography is destiny....
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Maybe one of the strongest factors in thinking we are all white is the fact that people of color are not seen in many communities at the local grocery store, public schools, churches, libraries, etc. White flight from the 50's did its job and now still keeps out a non-white presence. Also, most doctors are still white in hospitals while menial laborers are non-white. Opportunity for multiculturalism is lacking in this country. Look around.
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The conservative mind is always fearful and craves order. To think of those from Latin America as from non-Western cultures is a cultural conceit. Samuel Huntington indulged it, but his view of the world was rather narrow.
Our ethnic categories also imply a certain cultural rigidity. My wife is Portuguese which makes her not Hispanic, but Lusitanic (this category also includes Brazilians). Both groups, along with the Italians, make up the Latinos, by definition.
America, like any culture, is a framework - not an ethnicity. The Founding Fathers understood this all to well and debated how to implement this framework at the Federal Convention of 1787. This is because they believed that democracy and freedom are universal concepts, irrespective of race or culture.
Huntington, like Pat Buchanan in his "The Death of the West," could not accept this. Both regarded our system as the result of Anglo-Saxon culture.
The real danger is to allow too much immigration too fast, preventing assimilation. The last thing we want in this nation is to see a kind of ethnic enclave proliferate, where loyalties are to their countries of origin. I get this sentiment among some first-generation Americans. But this usually dissipates when their kids mix with the other Americans.
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It’s depressing to see scholarly minds and effort wasted on this topic.
Putting aside for the moment the fact that “majority-minority” is an obvious oxymoron, the flaw here is the American obsession with “race”.
“Race” is a meaningless term; there is only one race, the human race, to which we all belong.
Racism exists, of course, predicated on the erroneous assumption that we can somehow be classified into different racial groups. There are obviously differences in language, culture, religion, and superficial physical characteristics, but those differences don’t make us different “races”.
The entire discussion is reminiscent of the medieval question which asked how many angels could dance on the head of a pin - pointless parsing of a non-existent belief.
The best solution - remove the “Race” field from all census documents and personal records - as information, it’s less useful than classifying human beings by hair or eye colour.
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I am as Caucasian as they come and my ancestors came during the colonial period to Virginia first, later to the Carolinas. There is a mansion in South Carolina that was once owned by my family and I myself am the great-grandson of a slaveholder, my roots are about as deep as anyone likely to be reading this.
By all the statistical projections I should be a Trump voting, Bible thumping evangelical Republican, yet I am an Independent Progressive who worked as a volunteer on the Sanders campaign. I opposed both Daddy & Dubya's wars of choice in SW Asia, have long supported Marriage Equality, supported the rights of our GLBTQ family/neighbors/friends, am an ardent environmentalist, a devout civil libertarian and an unwavering Freethinker.
If you say everyone should be equal before the law and have equality of opportunity that means every one of us- the entire American family. I do not care who or what you are or identify as, where you worship or if you choose not to. Equal means equal.
What I do care about is divided loyalties, and that can come in people from any background, of any race or ethnicity and of any faith. By that I do not mean blind allegiance, but active citizenship in this country. As Jesus once said- a man cannot serve two masters and no person can hold dual citizenship or loyalty and be worthy of it to either. If the other country is so important to you, please feel free to move there.
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@David Gregory: Very well said David, I would add to that we are in the throes of that divided loyalty right now as so much of our own nations and it’s citzens needs are ignored to support, financially, wars for special interests in The M.E. If the lobbyists and those who pay them put other nations first they should move there and allow Americans to spend the few available tax dollars on our own nation and its own citizens, we can’t afford to nation build and provide endless security for others as our own nation crumbles.
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@David Gregory I really object to your use of Jesus' words to uphold your less than Christian opinion.
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@David Gregory
You can't really be a Progressive, if you have such a critical stance on dual citizenship.
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Immigration is one of our greatest strengths but traditionally has also been a cause for conflict.
Whether it be Germans coming after British, Irish after that, Eastern European and Chinese after that, freed slaves, the rest of the world after that, fear was always stoked and countless demagogues came out of the closest like Trump today.
The key is to go slow with progress. If you go too fast like today with gay marriage instead of working un to it with civil unions, identity obsessed candidates instead of carefully addressing injustice, etc. you end up with demagogues like Trump.
If you go too slow, you end up with areas like the Middle East in constant bloody conflict and oppression forever.
The ultimate teacher on how to follow this rule was Lincoln.
He first saved the union and then ended slavery because without the former, he could not get the latter.
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Mr. Barber wrote:
"The actual date at which the U.S. becomes majority-minority is probably irrelevant to the typical Trump voter or Republican in general. My guess is that perceptions matter much more than reality."
Exactly. My experience is that the typical Trump voter, and Republicans in general for the past quarter century for that matter, have little if any perception of nuance, whether it comes to matters racial, cultural, or whatever. They seem to only be able to see things in - *ahem* - black and white.
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What is a "majority-minority nation"? This term sounds like an oxymoron. I wish that Mr. Edsall more thoroughly interrogated this term and the racist underpinnings that the hyphenated word perpetuates. I assume that it refers to a majority of citizens of color, but the compound itself implies a hostile takeover rather than a rethinking of long-outdated demographic categories.
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Ah yes, the persistent bugaboo of American history carries strongly into the present day: who is "white" and what is "whiteness". Historically, there have been two basic categories to the answer to this consideration: the first harks back to the seventeenth and eighteenth century colonial slave codes in British North America. You're not "white" if you're in anyway descended from a slave or former slave. The second is more cultural and, by definition, constantly shifts with the passage of time: you're not ":white" right now if you're a recent arrival, or at least of your parents or even grandparents, are from elsewhere, not from here. But this classification changes with the passage of time. Eventually, with the succession of generations, the "not from here" and its facile equation with "not white" elides into "from here" and "white" provided, however, that superficial skin color overrides all other matters. So, there are gradations and absolutes. Interesting country we inhabit, isn't it?
This article suggests with all the intermarriage and diverse immigration it is time to get away from "race" in both the census and in our political discourse as soon as possible. The biological basis for race is confused at best. The "melting pot" was a good goal though in the past it left blacks out, with the progress in recent decades even that can be assimilated too.
With regard to immigrants, I don't care about skin color, what I care about is that they are reasonably supportive of American ideals - acceptance of democratic values, tolerance for religious diversity, a free press, rule of law, non-discrimination that includes rights for women, gays, religious minorities, atheists.... There is a legitimate concern that many would-be immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees etc come from places where they are taught to hate those ideals.
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Of course second and third generation descendants of multiracial unions will be accepted as white. That has already been happening for centuries.
Whiteness in the West is overwhelmingly about physical appearance. If you look white enough, you'll be considered white, which is why the US will remain a majority white nation for a long, long time.
The hope is that as more and more people of mixed racial background intermarry and openly claim their full mixed heritages, the socioeconomic significance of whiteness - and of race in general - will continue to diminish. I, for one, am very much optimistic that it will.
Surely, surely, the only rational conclusion from this discussion is that the concept of race that we're operating with is utterly incoherent. We do not even know what we're talking about when we talk about 'white' or 'minority' populations. The "strength of the divisions" is inversely proportional to their sense.
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Race is an artificial construct. It has been a grave mistake for the US Census to give any credibility to the concept of “race” because it perpetuates the notion that skin tone matters. Most countries perform a census; few focus on ethnicity like the United States. I recommend everyone who is sick of racialized politics mark “other” every time their efthnicity comes into question on an application, form or questionnaire.
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What confuses me about this article is that it plays to the white nationalist contention that being an American has more to do with your ethnic and religious background than it does as to whether you promise to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and will abide by its laws.
I am not so naïve as to believe that we are not shaped by our backgrounds. And as LBJ said, as white Americans we must "overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice." And that legacy is very real. That notwithstanding, to suggest that the electorate, white and otherwise, cannot understand the real and complex issues in play and instead votes predominately on race perpetuates a view that will impede, not accelerate progress.
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We need to consider where people live in this conversation. As millennials leave rural areas for suburban and urban areas, they come in contact with more diversity. This allows them to see people for who they are and less through the lens of race and ethnicity. This will change how they vote. The problem then exists in the structure of how seats are proportioned for the House and the electoral college. If we still give the rural areas too much power in elections, we will see the GOP remain strong until the baby boom white generation passes away.
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That the only choice for representing an ethnicity on the census is Hispanic has always confused me. Why have this as a question at all if it is so limited in scope? As people intermarry and raise increasingly mixed children, this question becomes ridiculous. What about all the mixed Cuban, Jewish, White, African-American children? How many boxes can a person reasonably be expected to check before the whole exercise becomes a farce? Why don't we simply count the people and be done with it? The Liberals who insist on classifying everyone and bean counting for diversity are not helping anyone in terms of cross-cultural understanding and coexistence. Children left alone are much more successful at appropriately appreciating and negotiating difference than those whose parents and teachers step in to point out possible racial and cultural biases, etc. We should be learning from the children rather than the other way around.
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I'm afraid we all might just do ourselves in before humanity has the chance to evolve to the point where we realize we are all truly just one human family, and that racism is an artificial construct invented to elevate one group over another.
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Plenty of food for thought here, as usual. The primary takeaway for me is that an awful lot of white people, and not just Trump supporters, appear to be conscious or unconscious racists. The one thing that gives me some feeling of optimism is the rising rate of intermarriage. More "race-mixing" is all to the good and may allow the issue to fade away over time.
I worry about political extremism (from right or left) gaining real traction in this country. But I don't worry about the "racial" profile of the American population. Racial diversity can only strengthen us; political dysfunction can destroy us.
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The Republican adherence to the scare tactics of Donald Trump bring to mind the Race Committees of South Africa during the Apartheid years of 1948 to 1994, when for nearly a half century the minority white population imposed a complicated segregation.
There were many categories --- not just white, colored and black – and a decision of what a person ‘was’ controlled where he or she could live, where and in what jobs they could work, who they could marry and how the children of marriage would be classified. Identity was recorded on domestic passports and the documents determined where a person could travel in the country.
Violations were criminal offenses, and the South African courts enforced the laws, often imposing Draconian penalties. Beatings and imprisonment were routine, and families were torn apart.
If you think about it, that is precisely what Donald Trump and his Republican base of racists – including the white Evangelical ministers – would like to do in America.
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From an ethical and moral point of view, the answer from all quarters should be... Who Cares?
Americans cherish our ideals, not the race, gender or sexuality of the person. Period.
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If the face, looks or skin color of the nation changes, the blame for such a development can only be placed on the laws of the land that allowed this to happen. If one were to give priority of dominance to the first settlers of North America, the US would still be a nation of migrants from Siberia and East Asia.
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Back in 1968 when I started high school, the school that I went to required every student to take two years of foreign language classes. My father suggested I take Spanish because he said he believed over the course of decades more Latinos would be migrating to the US and he thought it was a good idea for me to learn Spanish. I opted for French. In retrospect my father was right.
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This issue is only a subset of the Republican currency of fear.
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Putting aside this fear as a tool to maintain political hegemony for "white" people, it's baffling to me why the demographic makeup of the country matters to anyone. We all came from the same place (nothing), we're going to the same place (nowhere), and in a few centuries or so, those alive (if any) will still be human--and hopefully more peaceful and happy (if Steven Pinker is to be believed).
I suppose from an evolutionary perspective, this ridiculous fear arises out the urge to propagate and ensure the survival of one's lineage. That this urge paradoxically leads to extreme (racist, violent) behavior and threatens the species as whole seems lost on many.
The cynic in me says, "good riddance!" The world will be better off with out us (see George Carlin's riff on this). But the parent and educator in me holds out hope that this, too, shall pass.
I recall a magazine cover some years ago that was a composite of what people will look like in the future after we all keep mating with each other--we looked great! Let's just hope that the urge to love (and make it) will out-compete with the urge to hate and vanquish.
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Thank you Mr. Edsall for this important piece. The myth of race has been around for centuries, each iteration of prejudice and discrimination different in every country and era. Here, in the United States, slowly we have been overcoming the terrible history of race mythology; thanks to Mr. Trump, we are taking steps backwards into ignorance.
As Albert Murray wrote decades ago, in his famous book, “The Omni-Americans,” “The United States is in actuality not a nation of black people and white people. It is a nation of multi-colored people... Any fool can see that the white people are not really white, and that black people are not black. They are all interrelated one way or another.”
Somewhat unpopular at the time, these reflections on race are welcome at this time. I’m sure that were he alive today, Mr. Murray would be keenly aware of our racial diversity and how important it has become for our nation.
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I disagree with a quote in this article by Nathan Kalmore that said, "I expect the views of many white Americans would shift if President Trump and other leaders who deploy ethnonationalist messages collectively changed their tune, at least in terms of attitude intensity and priority."
I disagree wholeheartedly because this is very naive in scope. In talking to my fellow White citizens in my predominantly White state about exactly this topic, xenophobic FEAR is experienced by sight, not statistics. Going into stores and seeing white women pushing Black babies in shopping carts that they can't ever remember seeing growing up sends signals of emminent change. But the main visual is television. Count the COMMERCIALS today that feature Black actors, and they dwarf the stats for the percentage of Blacks in this country. The Black-White couple having a baby on the Cheerios commercial years ago was the harbinger and it has increased exponentially in all commercials.
As a student of sociology, it doesn't take a genius to understand that what we SEE influences us more than any head games with influencial political speeches or census geeks.
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"They" are ruining this country, the "real" American's said about the waves of German, Irish, Jewish, Italian etc., that rolled across the U.S.. The lesson of history is that this isnt true and we are a better country for it. In 50 years we will probably be an even larger polyglot of races and ethnicities but I'll be long gone so why worry about it?
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America was not willingly a "melting pot", certainly FDR did not want those Jews from eastern Europe in America. But the reality was over many decades Europeans, Asians, Latinos and many others came to America seeking the promise land. One that would allow them the success of the fruits of their labors for themselves and their families.
Currently, under trump's megaphone, we have a renewed fear of those others, the oldest con game in history. Certainly, immigrants contribute much to America and in reality are not mobsters or thugs. Which brings us back to that megaphone, the insistent drumbeat of white supremacy over those usurpers. The Mafia Don, his family and friends are alive and well and require the stoking of his bases fears to continue their self-enriching.
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It's a simple fact that while racism clearly is still a problem in the U.S., in many parts of our country "white" is essentially a synonym for "bad".
You can read it right here in the NYT comment section almost daily. White people are responsible for everything that is wrong with our world: oppression, climate change, war, you name it. And there is a very strong movement on the left to blame white people who have otherwise done nothing wrong, simply because they were born white. President Obama made a point of not using the language of this movement, and it got him the votes to win despite the claims that most white people are motivated by racism.
To blame Trump and the Republicans for the alleged fear of a non-white majority complete fails to take into account this vocal, public and unapologetic crusade against whiteness by certain intellectuals and politicians on the left.
3
Being appreciative of your in-depth analysis of politics, and culture and economics, as time goes by we do not seem to be more enlightened about our on-going ignorance, ant the prejudices it entails, about who we are. To begin with, the concept of "race" is all wrong, as there is only one race, the human race; so, why keep hammering on it? So, then, ethnicity is what we must be talking about, and the richness of it's diversity, not the other way around, this awful and absurd thinking that 'whiteness' does confer special privileges (it does not, especially shameful when we consider our invading a country and destroying the livelihood of the 'natives' for our benefit; and further, importing slaves from Africa to go on exploiting them, for which some humility is called for, and apologize). Can't we see that we all stem from our mother country, Africa, then spreading around the globe and changing our characteristics according to geography, climate and newly acquired cultural and technological skills? Those, republican or not, still tribally hateful of 'the other' must be kept at the fringes. Too bad we have the vulgar discriminator in-chief sowing fear, hate and division...where reason dictates otherwise. Arrogance, along with greed and intolerance, may still survive, but we humans ought to know better, as we depend on each other. Trump's worst 'crime' has been the loss of trust in each other and the trust in democratic institutions. Shameful to no end. The enemy: 'Us'?
As a Black American I don't fear the possibility of whites becoming a minority in America. The narrative of white demographic anxiety, however, is being used in very counter-productive and dangerous ways by both political parties, especially the progressive wing of the Democrat Party.
Progressives frequently argue that, as the country becomes browner, a coalition of minorities, self-marginalized identity groups and extreme left whites can impose a politically correct socialist utopia, without regard to the views of more moderate Americans. Unfortunately, this sets up blacks and other minorities as the villains in the plot to transform the country into something it was never supposed to be and is anathema to what most Americans view to be the country's fundamental tenets. In other words, the anxiety and its resulting "backlash" may not be racial, as much as it is ideological.
By and large, Blacks do not represent the more radical elements of the progressive movement. Few Blacks want socialist economic policies or the extreme policies of the liberal culture warriors. And when progressives win elective office they tend to push Black interests to the side in their pursuit of their higher priorities with regard to gay rights, women's issues, trade unionism and the environment.
In reality, Blacks and other minorities are portrayed as the public face of progressive aspirations and, as always, the lead horse takes the first bullet.
1
Well, there were a lot of "assimilated" Jews in prewar Germany -- living in Germany for generations, speaking German, educated in German schools, veterans of the German army in WWI, fully engaged in German life and culture rather than Jewish traditions, many non-observant or even Christian converts, many high achievers.
But when the Germans got scared and angry, and under the sway of a cult leader, it really didn't matter that Jews were not very different. They were Jews, and the Germans went back through generations of records to look for them.
We cannot fix our white anxiety problem by assuring whites that other people will soon be like them. That just isn't how hate works. My father saw this, and left Germany in 1932, before hate transmuted into action.
10
The concept of "race" remains a big problem in the US; and, it is utter nonsense because, at the level of DNA, any two people are ~99% identical. We have so much more in common that we would like to admit. Time to understand this simple fact and embrace our shared roots.
5
I find the fear from conservatives over hispanic immigrants to be puzzling. In Mexico, there are many people who would be recognized as white by even the most ardent white supremacist, the same for Argentina and Chile.
There is no clash of civilizations here, there is a shared set of values and history, as Spain is part of Europe, and if anything conservatives who fear being replaced should be asking for more, not fewer, immigrants from Latin America.
But no, we are all doomed apparently.
What a sad column, which seeks only to label people and then hope that those labels will divide them. There is much talk today about implicit bias, but it strikes me that progressives like Mr. Edsall show a pernicious form of implicit bias by their assumption that, once they figure out who the non-whites are, the progressives will will election after election.
1
@Uysses
So, by your calculation, the racism of Donald Trump and his supporters is all the fault of Thomas Edsall? That logic is as puzzling as your name. What the "L" is missing?
What a great 'forensic' study on the topic of race in America. Of course for those who'll never read it there's Chicago. The stories of shootings are all the analysis they need to never stop worrying about their 'Whiteness'.
1
I really long for the day when we get rid of these ridiculous notions of race and ethnicity and come to the understanding that we are all people, we all have the same basic needs and we share remarkably similar dreams. Race and ethnicity only serve the interests of politicians who want to use them as a wedge to divide the electorate into us vs. them to get and maintain power for themselves. The “white” population has historically mistreated and literally spat upon those they have deemed “lesser” and are now terrified that the abuse will turn on them. As someone with ridiculously pale skin myself, I just treat other people as if they are people and the color of their skin is just something that we are born with like the size of our nose and the shape of our mouth. Like what part of the sexual spectrum we are born on. These are not choices we make, these are pre-programmed in. We are people and if we treated each other with the dignity and respect that we expect for ourselves, we would be so much better off.
3
@Mark
Humans will always find something to create a category of them and us.
When there is no obvious way to tell if someone else is "different" simply in a glance, humans INVENT other signs: tribal images, jewelry, hairstyles, tattoos, rites, language, clothing: to make their group special and others not 'worthy."
2
@Mark
Perhaps if the census changed the colour question from one of skin to one of blood the issue would go away.
In 50 years the overwhelming majority of Americans will be multi-racial. And hopefully then, the obvious fact of humanity will emerge. There is only one race, it just comes in many colors.
2
My ancestors were Jewish, Greek, Italian. All would have been considered "non-white" in the time of their immigration. We are now considered "white". Perhaps because of my mixed-ish background, I find myself completely unbothered by the upcoming majority-minority issue. Really, so what?
It's going to happen; everyone calm down. People are people.
3
What's the point of asking race or ethnic affinity in a census?
Our Constitution requires a simple enumeration of persons. Race and ethnicity are appropriate subjects for an opinion poll but superfluous to the enumeration!
3
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
--- President Lyndon Johnson complaining about the wretched state of the American voter over 50 years ago
That quote has been the official Republican Party electoral strategy since 1968.
This radical, right-wing, regressive Republican divide and conquer strategy has allowed the Greed Over People caucus to reduce American healthcare, worker wages, pensions, voting rights, tax code, infrastructure, education, election process and common good to rubble while feeding an endless supply of White Spite to the white duped masses.
Only when this country bands together and supersedes Republican nationally-assisted suicide will this country achieve a modicum of civilization, human decency and affordable healthcare.
Republican sociopathic Greed Over People is only possible through the successful peddling of White Spite Snake Oil by con artists like our Birther Liar In Chief.
November 6 2018
D for decency; R for racist White Spite that enables Greed Over People.
93
Liberal Democrats and Conservative Republicans try to exploit perceptions about white and non-white majorities to their own ends and to pursue political strategies that are truly destructive. Some Dems paint a picture that the non-white wave is coming and will bring in changes in ownership, values and legal structures to put whites "exploiters" in their place. Reps then buy into this rhetoric to terrorize some whites (especially those with lower incomes and/or education) and exploit fears in order foist on their followers a simplistic us v. them conservative agenda.
Pox on them both! As more and more people assimilate, white or non-white will become less and less important. Do expect middle class Hispanics, Asians and Blacks as they succeed and become wealthier also to become more Republican. But not everyone succeeds. In the long term, the issue continues to be -- as it is now -- how much will the more successful in our society do to help bring along those left behind.
There are millions of disadvantaged whites today, as there are disadvantaged blacks, Hispanics and Asians. We need to address the needs and concerns of all our citizens and stop talking about the advantage of one group over the other. There will be more and more assimilation and white/non white will become less and less meaningful. Performance in work and in society will be respected for what individuals can do.
2
Why is ethnicity even registered? Surely what counts is whether or not someone is a citizen or a legal alien. The purpose of the Census is to allow the apportioning of Congressional seats and to ensure that each district contains a roughly similar number of eligible voters. The very fact that you make "racial belonging" an official issue has as an inevitable consequence that the population divides and that politicians seek to "serve" specific subsets, often inevitably to the detriment of the others. Just de-officialize the topic!
6
One thing that became clear whilst reading this article is how much fear and desperation the republican party must have been in to support their candidate. What seems to me to be the fear of losing a level of priority and privilege for the white male in America, they chose someone not from the traditional ranks, who could pitch this fear and stoke the tempers to sway a vulnerable mass of voters. Can't help but think that a true honest and moral human being would not sign up and run on this vitriol narrative, thus seems entirely plausible that the last person standing ended up to be the candidate. So shame should cast on the republican and democratic parties for standing by and letting this fester. Out of this we all have a view of how important our vote is, how it shapes not only those in office, but how we relate and respect to each other no matter where we are from and what we look like.
7
I am technically classified as "non-Hispanic white." But I've long had trouble identifying with that classification. For starters, being half Greek, I'm actually a pleasing shade of olive. I've never been white.
Growing up in Los Angeles, I spent a lot of time at the beach, so I was a good deal less white. In those days, we had to study language at school. I took Spanish (plus a little French and German at times). And I was frequently mistaken for Mexican. I did actually speak more Spanish than a woman who worked for me once, whose parents were from Mexico. They wanted their kids to be Americans and never taught them Spanish. Just as my mother never taught me Greek, even though she speaks it. It never bothered me that people thought I was Mexican. Why would it?
But I never faced discrimination because of what anybody thought I was. My mother did. When she tried to join a sorority in college, she was rejected because she was "a little dark foreigner"--even though she was born in Detroit, Michigan.
I don't understand why anybody thinks they're better because of where their ancestors came from or the color of their skin. The smartest man I know is a native/Irish/black man from Harlem with 3 Masters degrees and 1 Ph.D. He's also a gentleman who's never held it against me that I'm white and less educated. We should all be as smart as he is.
21
This frame reinforces white supremacy. White is the default and everyone else is lumped in as “other”? I am a black American woman, but for these white narratives, I am in the same category of “other” as a male Chinese American, even though our life experiences and cultures are entirely different? Calm down. White people will be a plurality for a very long time.
101
@Jen The new majority will not exclude white people, just bigots. The only thing people agree upon is that they don't want to be discriminated against. Only the bigots, and their fellow travelers (Republicans), are hurt by their racial group becoming a minority, because only their group will tolerate them. That's the real fear of Mr. Edsall, that if whites are not a majority, then Republicans won't be able to get elected running as bigots. The horror!
1
@Jen The link in the article to W.E.B. Dubois' thinking on this may be of interest.
@Jen, are you seriously saying your "life experiences and cultures are entirely different"? How shocking.
Seriously seriously (sic), thanks for the realism.
Although these articles can get the blood pressure up they aren’t going to help win elections. The Democratic Party must concentrate of topics and proposed solutions concerning jobs, income inequality, health care costs education costs etc. Constantly beating the drum over divisive issues doesn’t work anymore, other issues have become just to large in the new era of globalization and its part in destroying the former middle class.
5
@Ted Sorry my comment should read “ the part globalization has had in destroying the former middle class in developed countries, obviously globalization raised the standard of living in many developing nations in particular China”, but American voters just as any other people vote with their pocket books and ours are becoming increasingly empty.
3
A long time ago I was told:
"the only thing that won't change is that everything changes, everything".
The only people talking about minority status is a minority. The media presses the issue to an extent that causes division.
Being a minority is a state of mind within the context of some mathematical context. How people are treated and they treat others is the defining issue.
Who pays for what and who receives for what is structurally the issue.
This country was founded on immigrant minorities and the population continues to the benefit of the country to be an amalgamation of immigrant minorities, some here longer than others.
If what this article an others like it are really saying is that the cultural fabric of the country is changing due to population changes, so be it. It's inevitable, embrace it.
Hopefully the cultural changes are for the better. If not, that's where the problems develop.
2
@Matt "Being a minority is a state of mind within the context of some mathematical context. How people are treated and they treat others is the defining issue. " Please don't discount the destructive existence of institutional racism and the effects is has on minority populations (including woman), who may be gaining in numbers, are not gaining in prosperity, health, and representation in decision making positions, public or private.
6
@Matt--Being a minority isn't so much a state of mind when you're beat up on a bus by a guy yelling that you should go back where you came from--which in this case was Phoenix. Then, being a minority is pretty real.
3
@Ms. Pea
just read my response to CJ above.
No one should be subjected to anything other than how they want to be treated.
Liberals are more tolerant of people of different ethnicities and cultures while Conservatives tend to be far more intolerant. The problem is exacerbated by Trump and the larger GOP who use the fear of the "other" for partisan gain.
Americans need to understand that what makes America "great" is our acceptance of people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Allowing people from around the world to become Americans makes us stronger.
15
This article brings two things to mind. First in April of this year, the National Geographic explored the issue of race from every aspect. The primary takeaway for me was that it is a social construct. The second, was a quote from a physician who had worked in the US and in Europe and was from Jamaica. He said, in Europe, black is a description, in the US, it's a cultural experience. We have GOT to get to the point where our descriptions no longer define our cultural experiences.
43
There are two aspects to the social capital of "whiteness." One is sociological. It involves how one is or can expect to be treated. Most whites don't think much about this because they live among and socialize mostly with other whites.
This social capital in whiteness is what sociologists call "white norming." That is the norm or typical expectation is more implicit rather than explicitly associated with whiteness.
But the psychological dimensions of whiteness operate differently. They trigger fears and anxieties some of which are deep, historical and reinforced by a host of social symbols.
But at some level, most whites while not feeling privileged by their whiteness, (meaning experiencing positive benefits) do have an understanding of what it means not to be considered white.
And it is this deep contradiction that drives much of their fear. "What if they (meaning non-whites) assumed power? Would we then be treated by them as they have been treated by us?"
This question has been in the American psyche since 1619.
While most whites correctly do not see themselves as racist, they do see racism around them and they do see the interplay between the social and psychological capital of whiteness.
And history tells us that this fear drives opposition to change that transcends facts and data.
I have no expectation that our politicians can or will change this. But I do see positive changes at a generational level. And maybe the next generation can and will do more.
13
@drspock. Many commentators here have pointed out that until recently their ancestors (Russians, Irish, Italians, Jews) were not considered "white." And for a considerable time, they were discriminated against. If "whiteness" is the immutable category you describe, how does this play out ? Was the discrimination a matter of whiteness vs not-quite-whiteness? Did people of southern Italian heritage pass some magic threshold around 1980 by which they acquired the "psychological dimensions of whiteness?" Did someone tell them this? What about immigrants from Mexico who are mainly descended from the Spanish conquerors & have always considered themselves to be a higher caste than their mixed-race or indigenous compatriots? They are, genetically speaking, quite white & at the top of a society that has systematically discriminated against the naive peoples. In the US, however, several I know have begun describing themselves as "people of color" -- despite family wealth & advantage & "color" derived from the Iberian peninsula. Then there are the many Indians who were Brahmins before arriving in the US; in other words, they had accrued significant financial and other benefits from hierarchical social structures that persisted for millenia. Given their privilege in India, don't they possess "the social and psychological capital" of whiteness? Please note that NONE of this is anti-immigrant; the US was and is very fortunate to be a country of immigrants.
1
My father is a Melungeon- mixture of Native American, African, and European. My mother is Korean. How do the census people pigeonhole me?
My paternal family is from Eastern Kentucky- Appalachia and know there will be stereotypes about them. My European had families with people who had both Native American and African Ancestry and it was common.
The American Race History is not the neatly separately packaged different races. It is complicated and the increase of openly mixed raced people will challenge the very notion of race.
15
“Throughout American history in particular, the question of whiteness has been at the center of these debates, fueled by the fact that social privileges and political rights were tied to whiteness.”
Earlier in American history even thjose who were undeniably white - Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians - were at the center of debates about whether or not they were worthy of admission into the U.S. because those in power worried then, as they do now, about social privileges and political rights.
Eventually, assimilation trumped the prejudices against those groups. Hopefully, the same will happen in the future.
22
@Michael Roush "[W]ill happen in the future..."?
For African-Americans, the future as afforded Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians..., has come and gone without any noticable results. The share of the nation's wealth held by African-Americans today is about the same it was at the end of Slavery.
I would add that there is no such thing as "undeniable" whiteness, as there is no science behind the concept of the White, or any other, race. In America, the groups you cite -Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians - were excluded from White America precisely because they were considered non-white, impure white race at best. It wasn't until the mid-20th Century that race-based limitations on Italian-Americans were eliminated.
1
Race is has always been a component of everything in the lives of Americans, even as we were supposedly working to improve relations and change the very basis of how we do things.
The pull from those who don't want change has always been very strong, even when their voices weren't dominant as they are today. We're more aware now because we have Trump, but in the recesses of our schools, in the cities and in small towns, we've always taught pretty much the same curriculum that neither advances different attitudes, prevents old ones, or even counters those one brings from home culture.
This week, there is a story out of Ohio, about a 7th grade math teacher who asked his class a modified form of the Trolley question. In his version, who do we save? A homosexual or a Black athlete? The teacher took his example from a university in Texas. After parents and a councilman complained, the material was withdrawn, but not after the school expressed its support for the project, insisting its purpose is to promote diversity.
One can easily argue that at that tender age and without proper academic preparation, this "project" would have the exact opposite effect.
The very nature and structure of our capitalist system needs to fundamentally change. Until it no longer pits race against gender against class, racism and fear of becoming a minority will go on ruling and being used in our politics.
---
What Trump Did While We Looked Away
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
10
To me the most troubling statement is:
"The actual date at which the U.S. becomes majority-minority is probably irrelevant to the typical Trump voter or Republican in general. My guess is that perceptions matter much more than reality."
This is because it applies to a lot more than race. If people cannot agree on reality, on the facts or history, what has happened, there is no hope for a meaningful discussion on almost any topic.
I am reminded of an exchange on TV between Rand Paul and Paul Krugman. In spite of the fact that Krugman had the official figures from the Treasury, Rand Paul insisted the federal deficit had increased under Obama.
I frequently find a similar attitude among people writing here, even in the NY Times. For example, in spite of my posting ad nauseam that all 6 times we have eliminated the federal deficit for a period and significantly (10% or greater) paid down the federal debt, we have fallen into one of our 6 terrible depression, many people just continue to make the assumption that deficits are a priori bad for the economy and must be reduced, not ever increased, at least "in the boom."
Now there are some arguments to be made, e.g. the deficits must get useful money to people who will spend it, if we had a large trade surplus, we could pay down the federal debt, etc., but I get very little of these. The PERCEPTION is that since debt is bad for one's personal or business finances, it must be bad for the federal government.
22
"Celt’ and ‘Hebrew’ once appeared outside of the ‘Caucasian’ category.”" (and Southern Italians too....)
An important point, yet now some of their descendants (eg John Kelly, Stephen Miller) consider themselves "white"
27
My father in law faced job discrimination in the 40s and 50s in the Chicago area because of his eastern European ethnicity. This, in spite of being born in the US and being a WWII veteran.
The US was born as an English/western European clone. Centuries of prejudice baked into that culture.
Barak Obama had one white and one black parent. He is identified as black. His rise to success was in large part to his boyhood in diverse Hawaii, I doubt that his story would have been the same in he had been raised in rural Mississippi.
Plessy vs Freguson enshrined the "one drop of non whte blood" in our legal system for decades. Good luck eradicating it from our national psyche.
50
I've always been astonished at how unscientific are the different demographic categories. Not just on the Census, but in the doctors office, enrolling the kids for school, and in various other places I am often asked to identify my "race" and also whether or not I am Hispanic.
Aside from knowing that race isn't a real category, I've always been curious why there is a binary choice between Hispanic/non-Hispanic but not other linguistic groups.
52
A professor at Berkeley has written a nice piece about this. Here's a small part:
"As recounted in her important new book, Making Hispanics, sociologist (and my colleague) G. Cristina Mora tells the story of how people as diverse as Cuban-born businessmen in Miami, undocumented Mexican farm workers in California, and third-generation part-Puerto Ricans in New York who do not even understand Spanish were brought together into one social category: Hispanic-Americans.
"Mora describes an alliance that emerged in the 1970s among grassroots activists, Spanish-language broadcasters, and federal officials to define and promote “Hispanic.”
http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2014/03/24/where-did-hispanics-come-from/
2
@Celeste
take a course in, or otherwise read-up on, the origins of american racism, with an emphasis on English/British colonialism and their attitudes about maintaining white "purity" in the midst of that colonialism, and you'll turn your curiosity into factual, perceptive, insightful knowledge.
1
@Celeste In a word, politics.
What Edsall discusses is the sociological view, but the psychological view is quite different, and both views should be examined for a full understanding of the problem.
Social psychologists look not just at the composition and attitudes of racial and ethnic groups, but also at the underlying mechanism by which racial and ethnic hatred may be aroused or triggered.
For example, many social psychologists will argue that not all people in a given population cohort harbor racial prejudice to the same degree of intensity. That is an important point, one that can lead to calamitous political judgments if ignored or overlooked by political leaders.
Many Trump supporters are hardcore racists, no doubt. But many others may be responding to what they perceive as an existential threat to the social fabric in which they were raised, and on which they have come to rely for economic and social security, and for their personal identity. Others may more simply be responding to the prevailing zeitgeist. http://wp.me/p4ja0Z-Apc
Some 7 to 9 million Trump voters voted first for Obama (many not once, but twice) before voting for Trump. Are they racists? For Democrats to brand them as such would be to risk their support when they and other swing voters are critically needed to achieve a Democratic majority in the House. That in my view would be a calamitous political judgment. http://tinyurl.com/y8sqzs65
49
@Ron Cohen
I don't buy it.
If people vote for someone who espouses racism, enacts racist policies and stirs up racism as an integral part of his brand, there is barely a hairsbreadth between them and overt racists.
We don't need Trump voters as much as we need the 65% of the nation that did NOT vote for Trump or Republicans.
4
My thoughts got caught up in something so unrelated to the points made in this piece that I became unable to form an opinion or really to take away much from this measured and documented opinion. My thoughts were centered around the fact that so many men were cited in Mr. Edsall's piece and by my count, only one woman.
18
@Raspberry Rise Please explain the effect of gender on the issue the article is discussing. What ideas or meaning do you think gets left out by not quoting women?
1
I'm for legal immigration and I imagine there are some reasonable changes that could be mass to the system. I think we have much bigger problems.
As a 58 year old southern white woman, I have always been interested in race ave foster relationships with people different from me. I don't understand the fear of being a white minority. Do we really need the distinction in or society? It is divisive.
33
I REALLY still can't understand why the idea of a non-white majority still motivates such fear and loathing on the parts of certain segments of the population.
Those areas in which such a thing is happening or has already happening tend to be among the most dynamic and economically active places in the country to be.
And, the food is much better in these places, too.
The idea that race and ethnicity is determinisitic and unchanging and that culture is static was debunked a long time ago. This country has absorbed huge numbers of immigrants at several points in the past; invariably most of these people, or their descendants, learn English, participate politically, and become indistinguishable over time in what values and opinions they hold as compared to "earlier Americans". And the cross-pollination of cultures enriches all of us.
168
@Glenn RibotskyLike Detroit? Like the Bronx? Come on. Who is really driving the economic engines of the most successful parts of the country?
@Glenn Ribotsky
To answer your first question, it creates fear, because politicians have consistently stoked that fear as a way of distracting people from the real issues. It's as simple as that!
3
It is possible that some white people are afraid of retribution - that if they become the minority, they will be held accountable for the sins of their ancestors. Talk of reparations, for example, is scary for some.
None of us chose our parents, no matter what fatalists believe, & none of us can help it if some of our distant ancestors were not good. Some of my distant ancestors owned slaves, but they also had their plantations burned down, many lost their lives in the Civil War, & none of them are wealthy now.
But none of my relatives today would condone slavery. Nor do any my relatives today hold the belief that we are in any way superior to anyone else merely because our skin color is different.
I have also read things written by a few black people who write as if all white people are racist & despicable, so naturally, that makes me wonder if these types of people were to come to power, what exactly would they do?
I have also known black people who are kind & not generally prejudiced toward white people. Barack & Michelle Obama certainly proved to most reasonable Americans that having black people in power can be beneficial for all.
But we have also witnessed the rise of Trump, & I'll bet that some are wondering if there is a black Trump out there who will make things miserable for white people in the future.
What we have to do is make sure that we elect decent leaders who try their best to treat everyone as fairly as possible, no matter what their color.
2
Edsall hits most of the arguments we researchers toss at each other. But he misses some points. One is that the same fear of minority status gripped "white" Californians as that eventuality became more obvious, and the reaction grew when milked by a Republican governor named Pete Wilson. But then the change happened, and after it did the state seemed to emit a collective yawn. California has long had some of the highest mixed marriage rates in the country. Perception, rather than reality, does drive the reaction, but this is true of everything regarding race/ethnicity.
A second missed point is that racial and ethnic identity change are nothing new. It is wise to remember that the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) turned all former Mexican citizens in the conquered territories into "whites."
One of the significant trends for the past few decades has been people abandoning the "white" category to identify as Native American. About a million strong by one estimate. Some transition from black to Native American, too, and the big surge now is from Hispanic of whatever "race" to Native American.
23
@Brian Haley Regarding your comment about an increase in people identifying as Native American - is the interpretation of this that they want Americanness (I was born here, so I'm native vs immigrant) to be their identity, or... that it is chosen because" Native American" ethnicity is less stigmatized, and romantic?
2
@mirucha Both things are occurring. The rising influence of global processes has driven some in the working class to react by emphasizing local identities ("American," or "Native American"). For some, it is a way of telling immigrants that they don't belong.
At the same time, increasingly in the Southwest, Latinos are adopting indigenous identities to counter accusations that they don't belong.
And the rapid growth of "New Age" spirituality has reinvigorated romantic images of Native identity, spawning rapid growth of such claims. This one, in particular, is international in scope.
2
White fears are nothing to do with the census. They have always been deeply entrenched and come to the surface at some times more than others. One of the occasions that stoked these fears was the election of Barack Obama.
The same with misogyny. It only needed Hillary Clinton to run for that to come to the surface - and a majority of white women fell for that, too.
193
@mancuroc
Wrong - HRC not being elected had nothing to do with your new excuse "misogyny" . The left needs to accept the fact that HRC lost because voters, esp the swing democratic and Bernie Sanders voters, would not vote for someone as corrupt , unethical and tied to Wall Street as she was.
If Trump was such a horrible candidate, how bad was HRC to not be able to beat him? Keep ignoring that issue and expect a repeat in 2020.
@mancuroc
I'm white. I wasn't afraid of the election of Barack Obama. In fact I voted for him. Twice.
I question the entire premise of white fears. Most people I know are too busy with life to concern themselves with what color or gender their political representative is. They just want someone to do their damn job. Good luck with that.
2
@DEVO
Read my post again, this time with care.
I didn’t blame misogyny for why she was not elected. I wrote that her very candidacy gave it an excuse to surface. Capiche?
4
If we're seeking a country that grants equal rights to all - including whites - then we're probably better off with more diversity in order to ensure that no single ethnic group is in a position to deny certain rights to any other ethnic group. The same could be said of religious diversity, including atheists, agnostics, etc. I'd even go so far as to say that a political balance of power (assuming Republicans ever return to some semblance of 'normalcy') is in each major party's interests in order to limit our current polarization and allow for more gradual shifts in the general consensus regarding policy and social issues, deferring of course to 'equal rights for all'.
16
The problem isn't color it's culture. What does America want to be? The melting pot concept used to work, because everyone melted and there seemed to be respect for what America was founded on. The problem seems to be that many people now choose to challenge the founding fathers (they would have me add mothers, adoptive parents etc. here) and want a niche of their own. Take a look at the school calendar in New York and have a gander at all the religious and ethnic ceremonies that must be incorporated. How about winter, spring and summer break instead? The real problem, is that we have very uneven immigration and no one has any idea how many illegal immigrants are in the country. The melting pot has morphed into a ghetto, class being the biggest determinant of success with poor people gathering together. A country has to have a core set of values and with identity politics now being the norm, we have disintegrated in an us v. them nation. Trump was elected on one thing, stopping illegal immigration, from anywhere, period. It's not about race, but the left insists that it is, because they think that's the best way to paint Republicans with a broad stroke. Unfortunately, that is what got Trump elected and unless democrats change their tune and address that issue, we could get 4 more years of him and that could be the end of the American experiment. Americans want secure borders, listen up those of you who want to ban ICE.
43
The melting pot is still what happens. Immigrants assimilate in the same way they always have. Our nation once viewed Italians as dark skinned invaders who would never assimilate. The fear mongering ignores reality.
We need to ask why we collect the information about race and ethnicity and eliminate that question from all government forms and funding and maybe even the census. Fair distribution and programs should be race and ethnicity blind. We need to move beyond the counting of meaningless divisions because it validates them.
@thewriterstuff I don’t agree that Americans want to stop illegal immigration from anywhere. I see them wanting to stop brown people. Maybe once they think that's happened they’ll move on to Norwegians overstaying their student visas, but I doubt that will motivate them quite as much.
7
@thewriterstuff Compulsory civics education and the study of the Constitution at the grammar, middle, and high school levels would go a long way to instilling common values. And it isn't just Democrats painting Republicans with a broad brush; Republicans wrote the book on Fear of the Other.
6
What keeps us together as Americans? English people were the first colonists, but so many different cultures and languages made us the melting pot and it worked. What makes us Americans were deep beliefs in our democratic system, law and order, fairness and neighborliness etc. It is beliefs not heritage that has made us Americans, our exceptionalism. Now we face a great civil schism, and those that exploit our heritage to divide us will be the villains of history as they sow seeds of our decline. Somehow we have to believe in ourselves as Americans first. It means ignoring simple thoughts and Tweets.
We have believed in those values even as we had persistent racial injustice. Now as we slouch toward some racial rapprochement, we have let xenophobia worry us? We still violate our values about black people, less, but still. And now we should violate our values again, for cultural purity, which we never had? My Irish-ancestor parents were melancholy about my Italian-ancestor wife in 1970; things have changed.
31
@William Trainor . . . let us remember that Christopher Columbus was Spanish. And there were Spanish settlers in Florida that preceded the English colonists. So actually, we owe our settlement to the Spanish, not the English. But the myth of our history, the whiteness we call American, comes from the Pilgrims, who brought with them the basic premise of "us and them," those that were going to heaven, and the heathens who were not. That became the basis for judging whether someone "belonged."
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@mouseone - "Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer."
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@mouseone
Columbus was Italian. We still owe our settlement to the English as the founding to the United States as that is where our early culture originated from. The Spanish in other parts of the U.S. is an interesting historical fact, but they had little to no involvment in shaping the early history of the United States.
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The risk is that we'll move from fake news to fake votes. We can already see the gentle precursors in gerrymandering and voter suppression, but how long until the storm of literal disenfranchisement of minority voters? I know it sounds like a conspiracy theory writ large, but how far will political parties go to protect a dwindling constituency, and in what degree will the Supreme Court allow it to happen? Interesting times.
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In the late 1960s I read Jacques Barzun's "Race: a study in superstition". Racism in America and elsewhere is a curse on society. We are all human and to think otherwise creates hysteria, bigotry, prejudice, bias and other foolish achievements of humanity. I think it is time to invoke Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?".
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Mr. Edsall raises two questions concerning ethnic and racial identification in the Census, and how that affects Americans' political actions. There is, however, a third question: Why are such questions even in the Census? Of what interest is it except to scholars of demography? The Constitution requires decadal counts of all persons (all free persons plus 3/5 of others, not including...) in each locality. The Constitution, purposely, and for political reasons does not mention race or ethnicity except, scandalously, for native Americans. Why should we care? Since all persons are now "free," it is time to stop separating us by race or ethnicity.
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@Peter Limon I believe the question is there because the government thought it could better assess the needs (in terms of Federal Aid and Federal Programs) of various of groups of people if it knew their actual numbers - with the assumption that particular groups of people may need certain programs that other groups do not. Of course with the continued slash of various types of aid....it may be a moot question.
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@Here's the Thing
Right! If we don't gather data on race and ethnicity when we look at things like prison populations or wealth and earnings, we could at least act like we were unaware of the distinctly different realities that people who look particular ways experience. Sure, race is really only a social construct, but that doesn't prevent it from having a powerful impact on people's lives.
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@Peter Limon
Amen!
I suspect too, when we stop using "affirmative action" to non-competitively favor this group or that over "Whites", then there will be much less resentment toward those who get what they got based not on their behavior or the content of their character, but on their skin color/tone.
MLK Jr. had it right: we should be listening to him still today.
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Over the long term past of America, the ruling whites were repeatedly threatened with minority status. Each time they expanded the definition of "white" and remained a strong majority. Now Catholics are "white" and Jews are "white" and some Hispanics are already "white."
Whites will never be a minority. They will just not be the exact same as they are now. But then, they have not been just WASPS for a long time.
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@Mark Thomason
I think too, we need to start educating our younger people like Sarah Jeong, that is is okay to be "non White" in America today.
So much of the resentment, and some say hatred even, of "old white men" comes from the fact that people like that have realized that no matter how hard they work or how educated they become, they will never achieve "Whiteness" in our society. This causes them to seek out White-Whites to breed with, to have lighter skinned babies who might one day qualify.
Wouldn't it be better if our elite culture, like those who educate at Harvard, accepted that darker skin tones does not mean lesser beings? Would people hate on happy successful "white" folk less if they were better able to understand their own background culture, and think of themselves as equals, rather than say, modern-day slaves and outsiders/
Don't the "minorities" have some psychological work of their own to do to overcome their own prejudices? I think they do...
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@Mark: Hah - remember, English settlers looked down on the German ones in colonial times. They even fought about whether English or German would be the country's official language!
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@Allison Ben Franklin wrote that he feared the "swarthy" German immigrants would overtake the established majority British ancestral population at the time.
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All of this sociological data is very interesting, but my main concern when I interact with another individual is whether they are a good person or a bad person, regardless of race, ethnicity, religious preference, sexual orientation, or their appearance or what they are wearing.
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@Mike Vitacco
Unfortunately, we humans tend to base good/bad judgments largely on unconscious and ingrained societal attitudes. We are not racists per se, just oblivious to the subtle ways that biases shape our thoughts invisibly and seamlessly, unless we consciously examine them. We are affected by the ambient culture; pretending we aren't is part of the problem.
This is part of what integrating schools was supposed to accomplish -- not only provide good education for all, but dispel the fears about living in a diverse world. The failure to adequately fund integrated schools has allowed the fear of losing our whiteness, either through politics, immigration or through intermarriage to corrode our culture.
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I will admit to being subject to confirmation bias from two studies cited in this article. "For many voters, such resentments are not rooted in everyday experience, not least because they tend to live in ethnically homogeneous, predominantly white communities, but rather, they are shaped by powerful nativist narratives perpetuated by right-wing politicians, partisan organizations, and media outlets." is very true where I live in rural flyover country. Consider a third of my neighbors, other than some rare instances in their lifetimes, have never traveled farther than an adjacent state borders and receive all their perceptions of large cities (population of a million or more) and minorities through the media. Further, their racial perception is completely binary, white versus anything else regardless of how that person perceives themselves. Add to that, "that partisans have extremely biased perceptions of the “other” party is true out here and it includes not only the other party but any non rural person or location. Most of them think the nearest town (with just over 10,000 people) to be the "big city" and those big city people have different ways of thinking. Last census, the two counties where I have property and now live have less than 2% minorities other than native americans. Having lived in my lifetime in very racially diverse communities and big cities, the differences in attitudes towards minorities and cities and the misconceptions are striking.
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@tom I grew up in that country and would tend to agree with you. Later, I spend my career in Washington, DC, where the perceptions of other are very different.
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@tom
A contributing factor in what should be a serious reevaluation of the electoral college.
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@tom
I was recently on vacation abroad. I was chatting with one of the locals on the golf course, and he said, "I don't understand how Trump was elected: all the Americans I meet don't support him." I replied, "that's because the Americans who support Trump don't leave the country, and, by the way, they believe that your country is a Socialist Hellscape."
Of course, that's hyperbole, but, only sort of. There is nothing like travel - or living abroad - to gain a more nuanced, and more accurate, perspective on one's own country. And, there's nothing like travel to thriving, Western democracies, to learn that the US doesn't have a monopoly on "freedom" and prosperity. You can see, first hand, that many countries offer personal freedom, economic opportunity, the Rule of Law, and (gasp!) universal health care, all in one.
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Now that individuals have easy access to their DNA profiles through 23 And Me or another service they are discovering that their ancestry is mixed , sometimes surprising and often enlightening.It will get harder and harder to choose our designation as a citizen.The effort now seems a waste of time and effort.We started as a country of Native Americans and white settlers but have assimilated millions over 200plus years- we are now culturally and racially diverse.Let is celebrate diversity and not try to separate out ethnicities and try to put it in numbers.
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@Janet Michael
But how will we distribute the special racial preferences if people don't self identify, or claim victim status because their ancestors were slaves a few centuries back?
Immigrants and their children now make up a quarter of the US population according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Maybe it would simplify things if we adopted Canada's designation of visible minority.
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@Talbot Immigrants and their children, grandchildren, grand-grandchildren etc make up roughly 98% of the American population. Arbitrarily creating a generational cut-off only makes sense if your goal is to politicize or racialize the resulting percentage.
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@Talbot: I don't know how they define immigrants, but I'd think immigrants and their offspring make up nearly all of the US population, with the exception of Native Americans. Unless they define it perhaps as children who have one or two immigrant parents pllus those immigrant parent(s).
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I would love to see a poll on what the younger generations feel about this issue. In 20 years, they will be the ones whose opinions will influence the country.
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@HN I'm 29 and white. I don't understand why a minority majority is a controversy. From my perspective it's a near certainty that whites will make up less than 50% in my lifetime, and I am not sure that's a bad thing. Certainly our history is riddled with injustices towards minorities (perhaps a fear of retribution?). Whites have taken advantage of their position as a majority to serve their own needs. I think it will do us some good to not have that advantage built in. I personally want to earn my keep, earn my place in society as opposed to being defined as the privileged class. I believe minority majority rule will push us to look past race and see one another for the merits we each have. As a side note, I have a hard time believing that the vast majority of mixed race children will take up the mantel of white privilege/nationalism that current working class whites have. You have to remember, half or more of these kids parents are non white. I have a hard time believing they will take up an exclusionary tone in regards to race since that would mean excluding a parent. Not likely. Far more likely that these mixed race individuals will identify as the sole race of the minority parent than take up whiteness, which seems to value purity, but that's another argument all together. In closing I will point out that California is minority majority. I will also point out California has the largest economy, highest per capital income, and significant wealth. The new American dream.
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@HN
I grew up in and live in the suburbs of Washington DC in the 60's. The student body at the elementary school I went to was about 99% white. The one "international student" in my elementary school was from Puerto Rico. The white minority already exists in schools now. But the most hopeful thing I've seen in years is when I recently chaperoned some elementary school kids on a trip to a STEM event. As the kids of all colors and nationalities were released into the venue they naturally broke up into their groups of friends to explore the exhibits. I was surprised (being older) to see that all the groups were diverse, formed, I assume, on common interests. No groups were of a single color or background. The generation coming up may not see race or origin as an issue the way older generations do.
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trump won among white millennials voters (and so did Mitt Romney). They’re not much different from their parents politically, except maybe on LGBT issues. Nonwhite millennials overwhelmingly vote democratic.
Democrats win the millennial vote overall only because it’s the most racially diverse generation in US history.
So don’t expect a racial epiphany driven by individuals. Demographics will drive the change, even thru the inevitable backlash (which started with trump’s election to counter Obama’s).
A majority of American children under age 10 are nonwhite today (demographers call them “Generation Z-Plus”)
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Why are whites afraid of non-whites? Could it be that they are afraid of non-white retribution for years of white oppression and discrimination? Could it be that many whites know they can’t compete if the playing field is level? I think that many white Americans believe they are better and smarter than non-whites and when life doesn’t turn out well for them, they become angry and slavishly follow someone like Trump. Trump stokes their fears and exploits their anxiety.
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@Nbà Phrases like non-white retribution are what drive people to vote for Trump.
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@Talbot
Don't kid yourself, it's really bigotry and prejudice that drive those voters, however much they wish to deny it.
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@Nb
As I have lived both sides of this equation, I will tell you what I think. I don't think it's so much about fear as it is about power. Once you have that power, it's hard to include others. Once you have that power, it's easy to be smug and "otherize" people who have different skin colors of customs.
It doesn't feel so good when you are the other, however. (I am hispanic) And it's ridiculous. Truly, truly ridiculous.
Yet even as racially "woke" as I would like to think I am, I am always getting better on this topic and will likely do so until the end of my days. I am not proud to admit this, and I work hard to curb it, but I have had negative reactions to women in hijabs. I have walked across the street when people looked "scary". I did all this without consciousness but the past few years, the Black Lives Matter movement, and all of this conversation, has allowed me to be much more aware of my own prejudices.
I make a point now, as a rule, that anyone I come across is "my son". I have a boy I adore, who happens to be gay. He is the nicest, kindest young man and I have decided to treat every new person as though they are him and it's been very helpful. When I think about his soul, so full of goodness and kindness, in some other skin, well, it's a great reminder to check my outer prejudices.
It has worked very well for me in recent months....
Growth. Always going for growth....
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Wow, this writer still doesn't get the distinction between legal and illegal immigration. I can't speak for other Trump voters, but I am not worried about race at all. We are all human. I was, however, extremely worried about ILLEGAL immigration and very upset that politicians just let it roll along. And yes, there are fewer Mexicans coming illegally, I hear, but mostly that is because we have been in a recession for much of the last 10 years and now, the added scrutiny at the border is discouraging them. My concern has been cultural in nature, not racial. Legal immigrants respect the nation and its laws and most are willing to assimilate. Illegal immigrants, not so much. Is this too fine a point for liberals to understand or acknowledge?
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@Alex
Read the articles about how LEGAL immigrants - even citizens - are being denied their rights by the Trump administrations. Maybe then you would understand liberal fears.
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@HN How are legal immigrants being denied their rights? Please tell me exactly how this is happening and by what policies of Trump? Don't tell me about the TEMPORARY travel ban, as I think that is justified, though we need to add Saudi Arabia. Don't bring up TPS, as that was always meant be TEMPORARY. What else do you have? I hear about it in NYT columns but I don't see it in the world I live in. We are all just moving along as usual, all colors. Liberals seem to whip up this angst about what could happen, not what is actually happening.
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@Alex I appreciate that you have said this, because to me it does seem like a racist attitude.
I don't think the distinction you are making is accurate, or is borne out by any kind of evidence. That's one reason why there's been a push to change the way immigrants are described: as "undocumented" precisely because people tend to make inferences about their personal character based on their drive to come live here. They're not illegal people who happen to immigrate.
Assimilation takes time, not a different moral character.
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America will change as families change. Although my generation was almost 100% Scandinavian, our family now includes people who are of Irish, Italian, Polish, and Hungarian, extraction. It also includes family members who are South Asian, African American and Chinese, and this in two generations from our immigrant forebearers. We also have family members who identify as gay and lesbian. As individual families in America, look more and more like the society at large, the issue of race will cease to have the power in American politics it now has. I think in some ways we are beginning to see that the old dog whistles while still effective in appealing to the Republican base, are repulsive to many Americans, because you are talking about our family members.
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Why is "ethnicity" even in the census? Isn't race sufficient? And why is the basis of ethnicity Hispanic (or not)? It is confusing. Shouldn't the census be as simple as possible to ensure maximum participation?
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@Tom J Personally, I don't consider Hispanics non white. I don't think they were considered another race when I was growing up, either, and I'm not sure when or why that changed in the general public perception.
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@Tom J: Your comment is appreciated, but let's take your reasoning a step further. Even the inclusion of a “race” category will eventually compound our problems in this area. We need to find a way to eliminate ‘race’ from the equation.
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@Tom J You ask some good questions. The ethnicity part is done like that because we are not the only new world country that has European lineage. For example, there are many Mexicans of European decent, aka white. They are not expressly Latino, but they are Hispanic (which really only pertains to linguistics anyway, just as we can be classified as anglophone).
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