The Myth of a White Minority
*The problem of racial and cultural identity becomes more difficult as Americans intermarry. Fifteen percent of new marriages cross lines, making new definitions possible, changing the way we see ourselves and others. VL
By Richard Alba, The New York Times
IN 2012, the Census Bureau announced that nonwhite births exceeded white births for the first time. In 2013, it noted that more whites were dying than were being born. In March, it projected that non-Hispanic whites would be a minority by 2044.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]15 percent of new marriages cross the major lines of race or Hispanic origin.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]But the forecast of an imminent white minority, which some take as a given, is wrong. We will seem like a majority-white society for much longer than is believed.
The predictions make sense only if you accept the outdated, illogical methods used by the census, which define as a “minority” anyone who belongs to “any group other than non-Hispanic White alone.” In the words “group” and “alone” lie a host of confusions.
A report the Pew Research Center is releasing today on multiracial Americans demonstrates how problematic these definitions have become. Pew estimates that [tweet_dis]8.9 percent of Americans now have family backgrounds that involve some combination of white, black, Latino, Asian and Native American.[/tweet_dis]
Click HERE to read the full story.
[Photo by Jennifer/Flickr]
