An article in The New York Times points to Census Bureau projections which have Hispanics, blacks, Asians, American Indians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders outnumbering non-Hispanic whites by 2042.
It’s pretty easy to imagine the rednecks and xenophobes sounding the alarm bell over this and it seems almost a matter of time before someone starts whining about “endangered” white Americans. Maybe John Gibson will even renew his call for us to make more babies.
Personally, I can’t help but see this as a big fat “so what?” Look around the world and you’ll find many places where the demographics have changed over time. Further, while there was an Anglo majority during colonial times, America was not founded on explicitly racial/cultural grounds. Lastly, if preserving the whiteness of America was ever a priority, then why have our policymakers repeatedly added areas which would inevitably bring “foreigners” into the fold?
What’s more interesting to ponder is what this demographic shift says about the evolution of whiteness and non-whiteness. There was a time when “white” was synonymous with Anglo and Jews, Italians, et al. were not considered “white” in a cultural sense. Nowadays, “white” has evolved into a blanket term for Americans of European descent and hyphenated subcategories are used to fill the void. Bill O’Reilly, George W. Bush and myself may all be a couple of white guys, but Bill and I (should we choose to) get to affix the appropriate modifier (Irish, Jewish/Russian) to our –American while George does not.
But as Jacob Sullum notes at Hit & Run, this categorization is often arbitrary:
Is there a single objective criterion that unites these particular ethnic and racial minorities while distinguishing them from all the excluded groups? Is there any rational reason why a descendant of Spaniards, say, should count as a real minority, whether or not his ancestors spent time in Latin America, while a descendant of Italians does not?
I say no, not really, but it makes us feel better to be part of a smaller, more exclusive club.
