Whites, the New Minority
The U.S. is becoming ever more multicultural: For the first time whites make up less than half of newborns. This will alter the political landscape.
The United States has reached a statistical tipping point. For the first time in the country’s history, less than half of all babies were born with a white skin color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 50.4 percent of the newborns between July 2010 and July 2011 were either black, Asian, Native American, Hispanic or multi-ethnic. An interesting development, if you consider that the U.S. was initially founded as a colony of white Europeans. A noteworthy flow of immigrants from non-European countries did not begin before the '60s. The country is experiencing a shift which William Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describes as “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”
It is not a surprising development, though: Years ago statisticians had calculated that in 2060 the majority of adults, too, would no longer be white. This has already become reality in states such as New Mexico, but also in major cities like New York. Areas where whites form the majority have generally an older populous, whereas minorities are likely to be made up of young families.
In Yuma County in Arizona, you can see this development perfectly clear: According to William Frey, only 18 percent of those under 20 there are whites. However, whites make up 63 percent of the retired. In Texas things are similar: “If you’re 60 years old, this is an Anglo state,” says Mark Fossett, director of the Texas Census Research Data Center at Texas A&M University. “That’s where you see the wealth, income, home ownership, and high-voting patterns. Anything else, especially below 18, the school-age population, looks Latino.”
More than 50 Million Hispanics Live in the US
Along the border with Mexico, stretching from southern California to Texas, there are already more Hispanics than Whites. In El Paso, bus announcements are in Spanish. In San Antonio, there are Spanish street names. Miami’s Spanish-speaking TV channels exhibit higher rankings than American ones, and in Albuquerque, Spanish holidays such as the Day of Death are celebrated. Even in New York some supermarkets have Spanish signs only, and at local newspaper stands you can find the New York Times right next to El Diario.
Today already, 50 million of the 330 million Americans have a Spanish background — without even counting Puerto Ricans — and their number grows annually by one to two million. And these are only the legal immigrants. Furthermore, Hispanic women have more children, namely an average of 2.91; white women are only at 1.83.
All this adds to the feeling of uncertainty and leads to violence from time to time: Self-proclaimed and armed border guards in Arizona are hunting Mexicans. Arizona was also the first state to enact a law that requires the police to stop suspicious looking people and check whether their presence is legal or not. In the meantime other states have followed suit by passing similar legislation.
Some states are also discussing another change in the law: Currently every child born on U.S. soil automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. However, many think that such a provision invites something of birth-tourism. The accusation is that pregnant Mexicans would travel to the United States only to give birth to a so-called “anchor baby,” a baby with American citizenship. Later they would be joined by the whole family.
Politicians also bemoan the fact that when it comes to school results, black and Hispanic Americans achieve poorer results than whites. Solidarity among Americans, which has never been really strong in the first place, is being put under further scrutiny by the recent birth statistics. Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, who teaches immigration science at New York University, puts it this way: The question is whether the solidarity pact between the generations and social care can continue to be maintained “when the generations no longer really look like one another.” The problem: Many Anglo-Saxon retirees are simply not interested in financing — through their taxes — schools and hospitals for the children of Mexican parents.
Who Actually Counts as “White”?
Understandably, the recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau has caused quite a stir. The New York Times article alone saw almost 1,000 comments. Especially Hispanics were cheering that the “power of the white man” was beginning to crumble. Some readers reminded that the U.S. has always been gripped by a latent panic, the fear to be overrun by the next generation of immigrants. In the 18th century, America was an English colony where Germans and Scots were to be endured. The “know nothings” of the 19th century were cautioning about an invasion of “inferior” Catholic Irish who were presumably propagating faster than the desired white Protestants of northern European origin. In the 20th century, Congress passed laws aimed at stopping the influx of Russian Jews. Those were not even counted as “white” a few decades ago.
Today it is the Hispanics who are pressing to be recognized as “white.” Until now they have been listed in the statistic as a separate ethnic group. However, immigrants from South and Middle America do not think of themselves as having a common ethnic identity. Their ancestors came from many different countries, just as the ancestors of North Americans. Because so many immigrants did not classify themselves as belonging to any of the groups mentioned in the questionnaires, statisticians have come up with a new category, White Hispanic.
Mexicans of Native American origin, for their part, do not consider themselves to be immigrants, anyway. After all, they have inhabited the land for tens of thousands of years, whereas the current border is merely 100 years old.
During the Republican primaries, candidates made a few racial statements against Hispanics. Candidate Newt Gingrich called Spanish “the language of the ghetto,” Herman Cain wanted to construct an alligator-filled ditch along the border, and Mitt Romney spoke in favor of inducing foreigners without a legal status to “self-deport.” A new demographic composition of the population of traditionally Republican states like Arizona and Texas could have dramatic consequences for the political landscape there: It is not only because of the defamation stemming from Republican corners that Hispanics tend to vote Democratic.
The United States has reached a statistical tipping point. For the first time in the country’s history, less than half of all babies were born with a white skin color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 50.4 percent of the newborns between July 2010 and July 2011 were either black, Asian, Native American, Hispanic or multi-ethnic. An interesting development, if you consider that the U.S. was initially founded as a colony of white Europeans. A noteworthy flow of immigrants from non-European countries did not begin before the '60s. The country is experiencing a shift which William Frey, senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describes as “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”
It is not a surprising development, though: Years ago statisticians had calculated that in 2060 the majority of adults, too, would no longer be white. This has already become reality in states such as New Mexico, but also in major cities like New York. Areas where whites form the majority have generally an older populous, whereas minorities are likely to be made up of young families.
In Yuma County in Arizona, you can see this development perfectly clear: According to William Frey, only 18 percent of those under 20 there are whites. However, whites make up 63 percent of the retired. In Texas things are similar: “If you’re 60 years old, this is an Anglo state,” says Mark Fossett, director of the Texas Census Research Data Center at Texas A&M University. “That’s where you see the wealth, income, home ownership, and high-voting patterns. Anything else, especially below 18, the school-age population, looks Latino.”
More than 50 Million Hispanics Live in the US
Along the border with Mexico, stretching from southern California to Texas, there are already more Hispanics than Whites. In El Paso, bus announcements are in Spanish. In San Antonio, there are Spanish street names. Miami’s Spanish-speaking TV channels exhibit higher rankings than American ones, and in Albuquerque, Spanish holidays such as the Day of Death are celebrated. Even in New York some supermarkets have Spanish signs only, and at local newspaper stands you can find the New York Times right next to El Diario.
Today already, 50 million of the 330 million Americans have a Spanish background — without even counting Puerto Ricans — and their number grows annually by one to two million. And these are only the legal immigrants. Furthermore, Hispanic women have more children, namely an average of 2.91; white women are only at 1.83.
All this adds to the feeling of uncertainty and leads to violence from time to time: Self-proclaimed and armed border guards in Arizona are hunting Mexicans. Arizona was also the first state to enact a law that requires the police to stop suspicious looking people and check whether their presence is legal or not. In the meantime other states have followed suit by passing similar legislation.
Some states are also discussing another change in the law: Currently every child born on U.S. soil automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. However, many think that such a provision invites something of birth-tourism. The accusation is that pregnant Mexicans would travel to the United States only to give birth to a so-called “anchor baby,” a baby with American citizenship. Later they would be joined by the whole family.
Politicians also bemoan the fact that when it comes to school results, black and Hispanic Americans achieve poorer results than whites. Solidarity among Americans, which has never been really strong in the first place, is being put under further scrutiny by the recent birth statistics. Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, who teaches immigration science at New York University, puts it this way: The question is whether the solidarity pact between the generations and social care can continue to be maintained “when the generations no longer really look like one another.” The problem: Many Anglo-Saxon retirees are simply not interested in financing — through their taxes — schools and hospitals for the children of Mexican parents.
Who Actually Counts as “White”?
Understandably, the recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau has caused quite a stir. The New York Times article alone saw almost 1,000 comments. Especially Hispanics were cheering that the “power of the white man” was beginning to crumble. Some readers reminded that the U.S. has always been gripped by a latent panic, the fear to be overrun by the next generation of immigrants. In the 18th century, America was an English colony where Germans and Scots were to be endured. The “know nothings” of the 19th century were cautioning about an invasion of “inferior” Catholic Irish who were presumably propagating faster than the desired white Protestants of northern European origin. In the 20th century, Congress passed laws aimed at stopping the influx of Russian Jews. Those were not even counted as “white” a few decades ago.
Today it is the Hispanics who are pressing to be recognized as “white.” Until now they have been listed in the statistic as a separate ethnic group. However, immigrants from South and Middle America do not think of themselves as having a common ethnic identity. Their ancestors came from many different countries, just as the ancestors of North Americans. Because so many immigrants did not classify themselves as belonging to any of the groups mentioned in the questionnaires, statisticians have come up with a new category, White Hispanic.
Mexicans of Native American origin, for their part, do not consider themselves to be immigrants, anyway. After all, they have inhabited the land for tens of thousands of years, whereas the current border is merely 100 years old.
During the Republican primaries, candidates made a few racial statements against Hispanics. Candidate Newt Gingrich called Spanish “the language of the ghetto,” Herman Cain wanted to construct an alligator-filled ditch along the border, and Mitt Romney spoke in favor of inducing foreigners without a legal status to “self-deport.” A new demographic composition of the population of traditionally Republican states like Arizona and Texas could have dramatic consequences for the political landscape there: It is not only because of the defamation stemming from Republican corners that Hispanics tend to vote Democratic.