"Census: Whites no longer a majority in US by 2043"

[applegrove]

Census: Whites no longer a majority in US by 2043

By HOPE YEN at The Big Story AP

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/census-whites-no-longer-majority-us-2043

"SNIP..........................................

The non-Hispanic white population, now at 197.8 million, is projected to peak at 200 million in 2024, before entering a steady decline in absolute numbers as the massive baby boomer generation enters its golden years. Four years after that, racial and ethnic minorities will become a majority among adults 18-29 and wield an even greater impact on the "youth vote" in presidential elections, census projects.

"The fast-growing demographic today is now the children of immigrants," said Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, a global expert on immigration and dean of UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, describing the rate of minority growth in the U.S. as dipping from "overdrive" to "drive." Even with slowing immigration, Suarez-Orozco says, the "die has been cast" for strong minority growth from births.

As recently as 1960, whites made up 85 percent of the U.S., but that share has steadily dropped after a 1965 overhaul of U.S. immigration laws opened doors to waves of new immigrants from Mexico, Latin America and Asia. By 2000, the percentage of U.S. whites had slid to 69 percent; it now stands at nearly 64 percent.

"Moving forward, the U.S. will become the first major post-industrial society in the world where minorities will be the majority," Suarez-Orozco said. With the white baby boomer population now leaving the workforce, the big challenge will be educating the new immigrants, he said.

.........................................SNIP"

[hlthe2b]

1. Am I horrible for wanting to see...

a bunch of public service announcements illustrating this concept--just to send the racist FREEPS and other RWers into a conniption fit?

[applegrove]

2. I was wondering if the story would go viral with the freepers myself.

[Warpy]

3. White Euorpeans are just one of many minorities here in NM

and I'm fine with that. I think most people will be.

I have to feel sorry for the ones who aren't. They have a tough time here. They'll have a tough time nearly everywhere soon.

[musical_soul]

4. Change is good.

It's best to embrace or at least accept it.

[bhikkhu]

5. The funny thing is, most "immigrants" are Native American

at least in good measure, as there were never enough Spanish to make that large of an impact on native populations south of the border. Which is what I tell anyone in conversation if it comes up. Which would make the big European conquest of the Americas something of a historic blip.

When it comes down to it, we are all one people, and the great majority are really good people, diversity and all. Trying to cling to some imaginary cultural homogeneity or racial dominance is the worst thing imaginable.

[davidn3600]

6. Honestly, I doubt the country lasts that long

All the projections from economics to climate change forecast vast problems not just in America but all over the world by 2030.

The world is vastly overpopulated. We can't even feed and take care of all the people we have now. Our food, water, and energy consumption on a global scale is soaring every year. Climate change is in progress and NOBODY is doing anything about it. Eventually it will all hit a critical mass.

Our civilization is not on a sustainable course.

[SheilaT]

7. I can recall that in 1960, plus or minus two years,

white people who probably did not consider themselves racist were saying that given the disparate reproduction rates of blacks vs whites, blacks would be in the minority at some point. Can't recall what year they were naming, but they were sincerely concerned about this. And I want to repeat, this would have been people who honestly did not see themselves as racist.

Over the years, I noticed that blacks somehow did not overwhelm the whites. Of course, in all fairness, back in 1960 we did not have any clue that immigrants from other parts of the world, and other demographic trends, would take shape. I will admit, that as a white person of northern European extraction, I'm mildly distressed at the coming change. Please emphasize "mildly". But then, persons from my ancestral country, Ireland, were seen as the ruination of this country when they came here in large numbers.

Change happens.

[a la izquierda]

8. What IS white, for heaven's sake?

I had a debate with friends of mine. We all study fields in which being Latin American is a definite help in getting a job. My friend said that his Spanish descent made him "Latin American." I said if I went far enough back, my family was Spanish and likely North African, but that I did not ever check the Hispanic box. Spanish is not Latin American. We obviously disagreed.

150 years ago, the Irish were not white. Are Spaniards white? What about Italians? I've got some swarthy relatives...maybe we, as Italians, are not white. Eat: why are "whites" so bothered by this?

Ugh.