Althouse: "We’re pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural."

March 24, 2011

"We’re pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural."

Looking at the 2000 census.

44 comments:

The Crack Emcee said...: So what?

It's just as stupid.; 3/24/11, 12:02 PM
vbspurs said...: Anyone looking at the, oh, say, 1910 census, would've concluded much the same thing. "Oh, the United States will be multi-cultural and multi-racial by 1950".

Which actually came to pass -- but even with all the Eyetalians, Micks, and Jews, who WASPs feared would take over, it was still a fairly white, English-speaking country.

The problem is that kids of immigrants associate their parents' language and customs with "the Old World", and dislike being seen as outsiders. So they cleave unto Anglo-culture soon after.

I can see it happening real-time, in Miami.

Sure, second generation Cuban-Americans still speak loads of Spanish. But by the fourth, some can't even hold a conversation with their abuelita.

Abrazos,
Victoria; 3/24/11, 12:07 PM
Phil 314 said...: I guess one hundred years ago we could have said:

We're pivoting from a northern European dominated American population to one that's more eastern European and Asian

And as Crack said So what?

I'd probably say "And what's your point?". It IS interesting and important but I fear its meant to be more of the "multi-culturalism is wonderful" schtick.

That's been America's history for centuries. Its good (how else would I so much enjoy pizza, hummus, jazz and curry sauces)

AND

what's your point?; 3/24/11, 12:12 PM
Sigivald said...: 2010, you mean?; 3/24/11, 12:12 PM
Moose said...: OK, so either we'll have the triumphalist proclaimations of how fucked white people were or the wailing and lamentations of those saying how fucked white people are...; 3/24/11, 12:16 PM
Franklin said...: The only people obsessed with this are Baby Boomers. Honestly, younger people care much, much less about race than 50+ers.; 3/24/11, 12:20 PM
ricpic said...: How horrible that what was once a people has been purposely and irrevocably set down the road to being a collection of populations.; 3/24/11, 12:25 PM
coketown said...: The doom of whites is a perennial obsession of the Left's.; 3/24/11, 12:27 PM
vbspurs said...: The only people obsessed with this are Baby Boomers. Honestly, younger people care much, much less about race than 50+ers.

That's not why they come out with these scare pieces. They're seeking to hasten long-term goals by scaring White America (their conservative bogeyman) into premature surrender.

More affirmative action. More taxation for social services. Multi-culti classes for all.

Not just in the US, of course.

You know the percentage of blacks in Britain? 2%. Want to know how many black people live in Scotland? 8,025. That's not in millions. That's in thousands.

And yet, if you'd go by what organisations and commissions on multi-culturalism have to say, you'd think Britain is going to be 50/50 like, tomorrow.; 3/24/11, 12:30 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Franklin said...
The only people obsessed with this are Baby Boomers. Honestly, younger people care much, much less about race than 50+ers.

I'm over 60 and don't care much about the race part, but I think younger folks will regret a lack of concern over the multi-cultural divisions created from walking away from insiting on English as the language of assimilation.; 3/24/11, 12:30 PM
retire05 said...: Oh, but what y'all want to ignore is that the new demographics don't bode well for the race-baiters who have made a tony living on victimization.

All the restitituion for "slavery" crap will go down the drain because Hispanics and Asians DONT' SUFFER FROM WHITE GUILT.

Anyone paying attention knows that Hispanics are the most rapidly growing "minority" in America. But what no one is paying attention to is the standard "Hispaics are Democrats" meme is also changing. Hispanics, more by the day, are becoming conservatives that put an (R) behind their names.

But then the question arrises dealing with laws governing minorities. When whites are the minority (as they are in Texas) will affirmative action then apply to them and not the majority ethnic group which will be Hispanic Americans?

Poses an interesting problem, doesn't it?; 3/24/11, 12:31 PM
SteveR said...: We incentivized maintaining differences over similarities. "How many people live in this house?" The only question to be asked.; 3/24/11, 12:31 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Take California, (and, I don't mean this in a Henny Youngman way). With the loss of so many jobs, I'd bet more white folk fled, than any other group.

Is the population shifting? YES! But keep in mind it's not just Mexicans. And, Asians have many sub-groups to them.

One of the miracles of our system is that diversity is a blessing! Otherwise, you'd still have the KKK killing Catholics, along with Blacks and Jews.

Does it matter what we teach in schools? You know, I think that all depends. Freedom means, as the Catholic Church discovered back in the 1950's, banning books just turned them into best sellers.

Now, it's possible people don't know when the Rodney King riots broke out, that the first victims of the looting were Korean storekeepers. Who had opened businesses in Black neighborhoods. They weren't just looted, they were burned to the ground! That's the type of racial hatred that bubbles up in ghettos. Where this is felt by the landlords (usually not Black) ... because you can't make business people out of thin air!

On the other hand, if you point to all the Asian groups, you'd see that "going into business" was a priority. And, for many years just buying a franchise business gave them the wherewithal to manage everything from buying stock, to keeping records.

OPEN TO ALL! But first you need to be motivated.

The Civil Rights bill's passage, taking effect around 1967, also pushed women ahead! From being slotted to being secretaries, major companies promoted women, just to stay out of trouble with the law.

No one will hand Obama the presidency, again. But the republicans can't just hope "it falls into their laps," no matter what they do!

While FREE SPEECH is out English bullhorn. Not limited to Whites.; 3/24/11, 12:39 PM
Carol_Herman said...: A repeated typo. Why does it show up at "out" when I meant "our?"; 3/24/11, 12:42 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: We all love to make predictions. But as Hispanics prosper and move into the middle & upper middle class, they will have smaller families which makes a mess out of all these demographic projections.; 3/24/11, 12:43 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Noah Feldman's book "Divided By God", is a delight to read. It discusses religion in it's legal sense. And, we've had waves of up's and down's.; 3/24/11, 12:44 PM
10ksnooker said...: Emulate the failure of Europe. That's original.; 3/24/11, 12:54 PM
GRW3 said...: San Antonio is majority hispanic but that comes to a big 'so what'. A lot of hispanics here can't speak any more Spanish than I can. Most of us float in that middle ground where we speak English with a lot of Spanish words thrown in.; 3/24/11, 12:55 PM
Luke Lea said...: An anonymous commenter on another blog made an interesting observation:

"If a nation is to be ideologically diverse, it helps to be racially, ethnically, religiously, and/or linguistically homogeneous. If a nation is to be racially, ethnically , religiously, and linguistically diverse, it helps to be ideologically homogeneous. Something has to be 'the homogene' to hold the community together. A society that is diverse in EVERY MANNER possible simply cannot hold together."

My greatest fear is that we are headed for a racially-stratified "low-trust" society in which our political elites -- or the less scrupulous among them at any rate -- exploit ethnic tensions and rivalries in order to maintain themselves in power against their rivals. Haven't ambitious politicians instinctively used such divide-and-rule tactics since history began? Can anybody think of a way to prevent this from happening in America short of the Second Coming? What will it mean for democracy?

How ironic -- how unutterably tragic it will be -- if a mindless celebration of diversity ends up undermining the very egalitarian principles upon which our republic was founded! Instead of a democracy that celebrates the common man we will have an oligarchy that celebrates the uncommon man. Instead of an economy that serves the interests of a people we will have "peoples" who serve the interests of an empire.

I don't know what can be done to head off this eventuality but responsible people everywhere should be thinking about it.; 3/24/11, 1:08 PM
MnMark said...: "We're pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural."

Translation: America is no longer a nation, no longer the home of a people. It is just a large geographic economic space occupied by competing hyphenated identity groups.

Sooner or later one will emerge (or re-emerge) as the group most determined to dominate the others and then you can say goodbye to the charade of "democracy" where, for instance, an invading identity group can simply reproduce (and flood across the border illegally) faster than the native group and vote themselves into control of another people's country, with the help of other resentful identity groups eager for the spoils of political control.; 3/24/11, 1:37 PM
MnMark said...: Carol Herman wrote: One of the miracles of our system is that diversity is a blessing! Otherwise, you'd still have the KKK killing Catholics, along with Blacks and Jews.

Diversity is not a blessing. It is a curse. Simply look around the world, now and throughout history. Countries with more than one significant racial/ethnic group inevitably are riven by strife or corruption as one group seeks to gain control over the other. Whether it's the Hutus and Tutsis, the Christians and muslims in the Balkans, the Jews and Palestians, and so on - diversity is a curse.

Non-diversity is a blessing. Scandinanvia has never been diverse, and it is peaceful and prosperous. Diversity leads to strife. Homogeneity leads to peace and a sense of social cohesion.

Beyond that, your reference to the KKK is a non-sequitor. The KKK didn't disappear because the non-white part of the population has increased so much. The KKK was hounded out of existence by government prosecution and social pressures.; 3/24/11, 1:45 PM
The Drill SGT said...: MnMark said...an invading identity group can simply reproduce (and flood across the border illegally) faster than the native group and vote themselves into control of another people's country,

Not a new Concept :)

Plan Espiritual de Aztlán; 3/24/11, 1:46 PM
MnMark said...: The only people obsessed with this are Baby Boomers. Honestly, younger people care much, much less about race than 50+ers.

This is a favorite meme of the left. The left said the same thing in the 1960s. Funny how all those people who supposedly didn't care about race in the 1960s when they were 21 now are the ones who care about it when they are 65.

It's not true, though. Just ask Alexandra Wallace if young people are indifferent to race.; 3/24/11, 1:51 PM
Unknown said...: The Lefties have been pushing this for 50 years, always expecting that white people will freak out.

It always ends with only the white Lefties freaking out.

(Surprise)

vbspurs said...

Anyone looking at the, oh, say, 1910 census, would've concluded much the same thing. "Oh, the United States will be multi-cultural and multi-racial by 1950".

Precisely!

To paraphrase the Viscount of Alamein, "Congratulate the lady on her perspicacity".; 3/24/11, 1:59 PM
David said...: Pivoting? I'd still rather have a black guy in the pivot.; 3/24/11, 2:01 PM
David said...: Racial diversity is only a curse if we make it so.

Thus far we are making it so.

In the long run, though, it's going to be a strength.; 3/24/11, 2:04 PM
Luke Lea said...: An anonymous commenter on another blog made an interesting observation:

"If a nation is to be ideologically diverse, it helps to be racially, ethnically, religiously, and/or linguistically homogeneous. If a nation is to be racially, ethnically , religiously, and linguistically diverse, it helps to be ideologically homogeneous. Something has to be 'the homogene' to hold the community together. A society that is diverse in EVERY MANNER possible simply cannot hold together."

My greatest fear is that we are headed for a racially-stratified "low-trust" society in which our political elites -- or the less scrupulous among them at any rate -- exploit ethnic tensions and rivalries in order to maintain themselves in power against their rivals. Haven't ambitious politicians instinctively used such divide-and-rule tactics since history began? Can anybody think of a way to prevent this from happening in America short of the Second Coming? What will it mean for democracy?

How ironic -- how unutterably tragic it will be -- if a mindless celebration of diversity ends up undermining the very egalitarian principles upon which our republic was founded! Instead of a democracy that celebrates the common man we will have an oligarchy that celebrates the uncommon man. Instead of an economy that serves the interests of a people we will have "peoples" who serve the interests of an empire.

I don't know what can be done to head off this eventuality but responsible people everywhere should be thinking about it.; 3/24/11, 3:08 PM
Franklin said...: It's not true, though. Just ask Alexandra Wallace if young people are indifferent to race.

I’d say that you have an outdated definition of indifference to race.; 3/24/11, 3:24 PM
Luke Lea said...: [Not sure why, but previous two submissions of this post got deleted/never made it -- maybe because I quoted another commenter from another website? Anyway I removed that quote.]

My great fear is that we are headed for a racially-stratified "low-trust" society in which our political elites -- or the less scrupulous among them at any rate -- exploit ethnic tensions and rivalries in order to maintain themselves in power against their rivals. Haven't ambitious politicians instinctively used such divide-and-rule tactics since history began? Can anybody think of a way to prevent this from happening in America short of the Second Coming? What will it mean for democracy?

How ironic -- how unutterably tragic it will be -- if a mindless celebration of diversity ends up undermining the very egalitarian principles upon which our republic was founded! Instead of a democracy that celebrates the common man we will have an oligarchy that celebrates the uncommon man. Instead of an economy that serves the interests of a people we will have "peoples" who serve the interests of an empire.

I don't know what can be done to head off this eventuality but responsible people everywhere should be thinking about it.; 3/24/11, 4:53 PM
Revenant said...: Scandinanvia has never been diverse, and it is peaceful and prosperous. Diversity leads to strife. Homogeneity leads to peace and a sense of social cohesion.

Diversity leads to strife, but also to change, evolution, innovation, etc.

Scandinavia is homogeneous and peaceful, yes. It is also irrelevant; Sweden could drop off the face of the Earth tomorrow and neither the arts nor the sciences would be especially impacted by it.; 3/24/11, 5:05 PM
virgil xenophon said...: vbspurs and MnMark hit it square in the nuts. (so to speak) Along with edutcher & the Drill Sgt. Chairman Mo is famous for saying that "political power comes out of the barrel of a gun." I would opine that political power ultimately comes out of the orifice of a tubular structure alright--but it's a far more flexible one..; 3/24/11, 5:31 PM
virgil xenophon said...: ***"MAO"; 3/24/11, 5:32 PM
Unknown said...: Well folks all you have to do is look at crime statistics starting in 1965 and be witness to an incredible increase in crime as we moved from 90% European population to a "diverse" one. The crime rate will increase, the battles between the races will increase. Right now a war is being fought between blacks and hispanics in most major cities. Welcome to diversity.

It is simple, different tribes do not get along. You may fervently wish for oil and water to mix but it won't no matter how hard you try.

Try this exercise next time you are at a cocktail party. Ask folks to describe these different cultures, Hispanic Culture, Black Culture, Asian Culture, European culture...watch the hush fall when you get to European culture. No one will describe it in flattering terms...even after all the greatness that the Europeans have brought to the rest of the world.; 3/24/11, 6:54 PM
Unknown said...: Diversity leads to strife, but also to change, evolution, innovation, etc.

What utter nonsense.
Change like not being able to live without alarms, guns, dogs. Thanks for the change.

Evolution? Like we are evolving into a balkanized nation...great.

Innovation please list the innovations that diversity have brought.; 3/24/11, 6:57 PM
jaed said...: Something else caught my eye:

"Pivoting"?

It seems like an odd word to use in this context. "Changing", even "transforming", perhaps, but "pivoting" implies a conscious, deliberate change of direction.

So of course my mad little mind is wondering whether this has something to do with promoting Obama, because Obama's "hard pivots" to the economy are the only political stories I recall seeing this term used in lately.; 3/24/11, 8:40 PM
somefeller said...: Well folks all you have to do is look at crime statistics starting in 1965 and be witness to an incredible increase in crime as we moved from 90% European population to a "diverse" one. The crime rate will increase, the battles between the races will increase. Right now a war is being fought between blacks and hispanics in most major cities. Welcome to diversity.

Well, folks, you can also look at crime rates since around 1995 and see a pretty serious drop in those rates to levels similar to that of 1965. That actually is the big unreported political story of the past two decades, but it doesn't get as much attention as claims that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, because of minorities, economic inequality, or whatever the bugaboo of the speaker is.; 3/24/11, 8:55 PM
somefeller said...: Also, it's interesting to see that The only people obsessed with this are Baby Boomers. Honestly, younger people care much, much less about race than 50+ers. is a meme of the left. Except when it's used by other commenters to criticize the left for being overly race-obsessed. Get your stories straight, people!; 3/24/11, 8:57 PM
vbspurs said...: Luke, thanks for linking to that comment.

Virgil, Chairman Mo! Wouldn't that have been awesome?; 3/25/11, 1:55 AM
888 said...: Ethnic replacement. Did you notice how the article constantly refers to whites as old and latinos and asians as young? Insidious propaganda, that. White was only ever another word for American.

But I guess this is what happens when you mix contraception and immigration, so long as the immigration is as foreign as possible.; 3/25/11, 4:32 AM
Pierre said...: Well, folks, you can also look at crime rates since around 1995 and see a pretty serious drop in those rates to levels similar to that of 1965.

Gee that is ALMOST true...

In 1960 violent crime was 160 incidents per 100,000 in 2009 it was 429 incidents per 100,000. So unless 2.6 times more is your definition of similar please review your facts.; 3/25/11, 8:12 AM
Pierre said...: It is also worth noting that homicide levels by and large probably dropped simply because we are a lot better at saving folks now than we were in 1960.; 3/25/11, 8:13 AM
Bob said...: Can't be multiracial as the current President demonstrates. He has a black father and a white mother and what is he? Black.

The real answer is biracial but 12.6% of the population is invested in "black man in the white house". This happened once before with WJC but the graphics weren't as good.; 3/25/11, 8:30 AM
Duncan said...: Save that 91% of Hispanics define their race as "white" (according to the special census reports on Hispanics).; 3/25/11, 1:58 PM
MarkD said...: Unum, e pluribus.

Even in Hawaii, which is about as tolerant as you'll find on the planet, you'll find the "Defend Hawaii" T shirts. Some adapt, some do not.

vbspurs nailed it, I think. Mrs D is from Japan, but our kids don't speak Japanese, lived here all their lives, and would label themselves as caucasian if forced to choose a single category.

I fit the boomer age category, but have nearly nothing in common with the stereotypical boomer.; 3/25/11, 9:51 PM