In the year 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau projected a monumental demographic change. By 2059, white Americans would no longer make up the majority of the population. The U.S. was destined to become a majority-minority country. In the two intervening decades, this transition made headlines.
It also excited some Democrats, who believe that increasing racial diversity automatically means more Democratic voters. The same presumption supposedly invokes fear on the right. Richard Alba says both narratives are wrong. His research shows that as racial diversity has increased, so has the recognition of multiracial identities.
Both “white” and “people of color” don’t mean what headlines suggest. Could the demographic shifts actually be bringing Americans together rather than apart? And do we need a new vocabulary to understand a changing America? Today, On Point: Making sense of the United States’ demographic future.
Guests
Richard Alba, distinguished professor of sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY). Author of “The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority and the Expanding American Mainstream.” (@albamoore1)
Ian Haney Lopez, professor of public law at UC Berkeley. Co-founder of the Race-Class Narrative Project. Author of “Merge Left.” (@IanHaneyLopez)
Interview Highlights
Is the future of a majority-minority America as simple as the headlines have made it out to be?
Richard Alba: “It’s not that simple. And I think, if we look at this majority-minority story, what stands out to me is, in fact, its simplistic aspects. And it views the society as neatly divided into two huge blocs, whites on the one hand and people of color on the other hand. And we have new developments in our society, particularly the rise of ethno-racial mixing in families, people who form families who come from different major ethno-racial groups. Let’s say whites on the one hand and Asians on the other, or Hispanics on the one hand and African Americans on the other. And this development … it’s really a new social change in that early 21st century. And it has transformative potential, but it certainly is making more complex the picture of our coming demography.”
Book Excerpt
Excerpted from THE GREAT DEMOGRAPHIC ILLUSION: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream by Richard Alba. Copyright © 2020 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission.
From The Reading List
The Atlantic: “The Myth of a Majority-Minority America” — “In recent years, demographers and pundits have latched on to the idea that, within a generation, the United States will inevitably become a majority-minority nation, with nonwhite people outnumbering white people.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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