Is not being a minority a fundamental part of being white in America?

Asked by Demosthenes (14926

) April 27th, 2018

National Geographic recently featured an article about how white people will be the minority in the U.S. by mid-century and that in just a few years, white people will be a minority in the under 18 demographic.

The article mainly cited the demographic flux of the town of Hazleton, PA, whose almost entirely white population saw a steady decrease after the decline of manufacturing. The city then opened new distribution centers which attracted Latinos. The city went from being 95% white to being under 50% (with 52% Latino). The article cited the various anxieties that white people have at a loss of their majority status. (In Hazleton, it was seen as a cultural loss as taquerias and the Spanish language abound).

WASPs were once resistant to the influx of Irish and Italian immigrants, bemoaning the loss of their dominance and way of life. Now those immigrants (also white) are feeling the same loss as Latinos come to dominate the U.S. demographically.

There was a quote in the article about how one of the definitions of “whiteness” is not being a minority. What happens to whiteness after white people are no longer the majority in the U.S.? As a white person, do you feel a sense of loss?

Most of the victims of the opioid crisis are white. Will this only get worse as white people lose their numbers in American society?

I’m not here to talk down to or argue with anyone about this. I just want to hear your thoughts.

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6 Answers

“White majority” is not determined in terms of numbers. For many many decades, whites were a minority in terms of numbers in a number of states, yet still controlled everything from top to bottom.

Your statement “Most of the victims of the opioid crisis are white. reeks of a white perspective on drug use. That statement implies that minority users of drugs are not victims. It is interesting to note that opioid usage prior to 2005 (when it was mostly in minority communities) was considered a law enforcement issue, but now that it occurs in rural white communities in the midwest it is considered a crisis worthy of intervention.

zenvelo (39417

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No. Ask any white woman about the glass ceiling.

kritiper (25757

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I would love to see white (men) being a minority; see if they can handle that.

rebbel (35549

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Then there are the white rich and the white poor. Male and female!

kritiper (25757

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@zenvelo Yeah, I can see how loss of numbers is not as important as loss of dominance. The implication is that one follows the other. But certainly the numbers don’t have to be up in order for dominance to still exist (the article did say that even after white people are outnumbered by “minorities” they will still continue to dominate the world of Wall Street and politics, at least for a while).

And I’d say the same thing about any drug epidemic. But the way this one is being handled vs. how the crack epidemic (in which the victims were mostly black/minorities) shows our systemic racism.

Demosthenes (14926

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