The Melting Pot Gets a Dose of Brown Sugar
In the most recent mayoral election in New York City, the New York Times reports, for the first time, the majority of voters were non-white. This is of course a sign of things to come in New York and the US overall, as many have been projecting for a while that by the middle of this century the majority of people in that country will not be white.
Now, this would not necessarily be a problem if we could be confident that the vast majority of people in the US would not define, distinguish and separate themselves to a significant degree on racial, ethnic and cultural lines. But we can’t. And that alone is cause for concern.
Of course, the problem is not the overall color tone of the country. The problem is the implications it spells for social and political stability in a society where such large portions of the population take race as such a profoundly essential aspect of their identity. And the primary danger, as I see it, stems not from the minority racial/ ethnic/ cultural groups—African Americans, Hispanic Americans, East Asian Americans, etc—for they have understood themselves as “minorities” for a long time, and that reality is by now well established in their conceptions of themselves vis-a-vis the rest of society. Instead, the danger, and the real fascinating historical development to come, lies with the European American ethnocultural group.
That’s because that group has enjoyed total, uninterrupted cultural and social dominance over the country from the very beginning. Now, that chapter is coming to a close. What will become of America’s whites? How will they define themselves in a society where, for the first time ever, they are no longer the majority of the population? What does it mean? Or does it mean anything at all? Is the US in store for years of fresh ethnocultural civil strife? Or will the racial changing of the guard go off without a hitch?
Of course, the non-white components of America’s population present issues, as well. Insofar as blacks, hispanics and others continue to identify themselves according to their skin color or genetic heritage (rightly or wrongly, for whatever reason), they necessarily see others as meaningfully “different” in some way or another. And insofar as this is the case, there is the ever-present potential for tension, mistrust, hate or violence. Despite the abundant and obvious progress that has been made in race relations over the last half-century, it is also obvious that race remains an important line of demarcation in American society. An argument could be made that the election of the first black president has even made matters worse.
But wait, there’s more. Because race and ethnicity is not the only dimension of identity in the US. We also have language, religion, class and ideology to deal with. In large parts of the country (areas of the Southwest, south Florida and the major metropolitan areas come to mind), Spanish is the de facto language of communication. A person today can be born, grow up, live and die in the US, as a full citizen, without ever speaking a word of English. In one respect, this is a beautiful thing, but in another, it presents strong potential for division. Witness, for example, Belgium, where language serves to divide the population in two.
Much more could be said on the crisscrossing dividing lines in religion (note the rise in Islamophobia and the aggressive posture of right-wing Christianity in recent years), ideology (red states and blue states, and the cultural implications thereof), and class (widening income inequality in recent decades). I will leave those issues for another post.
What are readers’ thoughts on this issue? Will America find unity in its increasing diversity? Or will the melting pot overheat to the breaking point? Thoughts?
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Once again, great, honest thoughts here. I’m not sure what will happen when whites are no longer the majority, but I do fear it for the simple fact that so many non-whites place so much emphasis and focus on their race. White people have really lost their identity as a race in an attempt to become as multicultural as possible, and also out of a certain sense of guilt for their skin color that has been embeded into the psyche of most white people. There really is no such thing as “white culture”–white people are extremely diverse, and therefore it’s hard to come up with “white stereotypes.”
Most other groups, however, especially blacks, have a very strong sense of racial identification in terms of culture. The fact that 98% of black people voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 98% still approve of him in job approval (even though every other group has dropped in approval significantly) proves that most blacks will support a person of their own race no matter what (unless he happens to be a Republican, in which case he is labeled an Uncle Tom–the worst sort of human being imaginable).
That’s very frightening to me. I don’t want a country in the future where minorities have so much power that minority candidates are elected simply because they are minorities and without any basis on the issues. Before the day comes when whites are no longer a majority, I really hope that racial politics and dead and minorities no longer see and vote through the lenses of racial identification.
I’m not bothered by the idea that whites may no longer be the majority, just by the possible implications of it in today’s climate.
I also agree that the election of Barack Obama has sparked racism. I’ve experienced anti-white racism multiple times first hand since then, wheras before I had only experienced it twice. I believe that his election emboldened some anti-white resentment. The race card has been played a lot since his election, with people being threatened not to criticize the President or else they will be called racist. Whereas dissent was considered patriotic under Bush, it is racist under Obama. Those accusations of racism that get hurled about so carelessly also cause resentment amongst well meaning people who have genuine opposition to Obama’s policies, and it creates racial tensions and animosities in them that weren’t there before.
Anyway, sorry for all the rambling. Just my thoughts. I find your blog very interesting. So much that I added you to my blogroll. Hope you don’t mind.
“Whereas dissent was considered patriotic under Bush, it is racist under Obama.” Love that line.
It’s definitely tough to say which direction things will go, given the complex and often ugly character of race in the US’ history. And I do think a strong argument could be made that, despite the historical achievement the first black president represents, in 3 years’ time, the US just might be a more racially divided society, rather than less.
On the other hand, the US has succeeded through extremely divisive racial periods before.
“So much that I added you to my blogroll. Hope you don’t mind.” Not at all! Thanks and take care.
Of course, we are seeing a strong reluctance to grant Obama any credibility from the “birthers”. It seems that the WASPs will not accept diversity willingly.