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One thing to keep in mind is that “white” many times absorbs the other populations. In the past, for example, Italians and other Southern Europes were not consi

One thing to keep in mind is that “white” many times absorbs the other populations. In the past, for example, Italians and other Southern Europes were not considered “white”. Now they are. Add to that intermarriages, and likely the proportion of people who identify as “white” will be likely be constant or grow in the future.

sir_bearington 6y ago
This is an important point, especially with respect to the Hispanic population. It's often referred to as a race, when it's more like a cultural category - individual Hispanic people often identify as white, indigenous, or black though racial identity tends to be more fluid due to greater historic rates of intermarriage. I come from a Hispanic family, my grandparents more or less exclusively speak Spanish. My parents who were born a couple years after my grandparents immigrated would only be recognized as Hispanic if they made that part of their identity known. If I were asked to identify myself racially I'd say white, not Hispanic. I see myself as Cuban-Americans not as a racial identity buy as an ancestry - the same way people are Irish-American or German-American. 65% of Hispanics in the US identify as white: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans#Race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans#...
- Balgair 6y ago
  I would not be surprised if by the 2060s (40 years, ~2 generations) that Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans get rolled up into being 'white'. Rates of intermarriage between groups seem to be on the rise [0] though Hispanic data is not well represented in my quick googling. More hopefully, people will simply not care and diversity will be celebrated, not denigrated as we've awoken to since George Floyd. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_Un...
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > I would not be surprised if by the 2060s (40 years, ~2 generations) that Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans get rolled up into being 'white'. Hispanics are predominantly White by the standards by which race has any meaning at all (though also several other races are represented), Hispanic is an ethnic rather than racial category. > Hispanic data is not well represented in my quick googling. It's not going to show up in data on race because it's not a race. > More hopefully, people will simply not care and diversity will be celebrated, not denigrated as we've awoken to since George Floyd. The people marching in parades with Confederate flags haven't awoken to anything. And each of America's periodic awakening on this issue has been accompanied by exactly that kind of reaction and a hardening of White supremacist ideology. It may be a shrinking minority each time, but it's also increasingly committed, or at least renewing it's commitment each time.
someguydave 6y ago
Many “minorities” that used to insist they were “white” now insist they are not. Like Arabs: https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-census-middle-east-north-africa-race/ https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-census-middle-east-no... Seems perfectly rational, since “white” is now at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  What a truly ridiculous thing to say.
barry-cotter 6y ago
> In the past, for example, Italians and other Southern Europes were not considered “white” This is absolute bullshit. There was rampant and socially acceptable prejudice against Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as the Irish, North Africans, Levantines and Central Asians. They were however all legally white. There was no attempt to stop their immigration as such as there was with Japanese, Chinese, Indians and other Asians. They were not classified as legally distinct like Black or Indians (Native Americans). Racism was completely compatible with considering the othered group white. Italians, Irish, Swedes, Germans, Poles, every non-Anglo white ethnic group suffered discrimination but the idea they weren’t considered white is ahistorical trash. Fiorello LaGuardia was elected Mayor of NYC in 1933. Francis Spinola was the first Italian Congressman to serve a full term in 1887. Anthony Ghio was Mayor of Texarkana in 1880. Andrew Longino was the first Italian Governor, Mississippi 1900. American racial politics was always about black and white with other differences paling into insignificance. Ethnic and religious prejudice there was aplenty but at no point in American history were Europeans considered non-white.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_th... > However, "color challenges were never sustained or systematic" when it came to Italians,[85]:28 who were "largely accepted as white by the widest variety of people and institutions" throughout the U.S.[85]:6 Even in the South, such as Louisiana, any attempts to disenfranchise them "failed miserably".[85]:28

sir_bearington 6y ago

This is an important point, especially with respect to the Hispanic population. It's often referred to as a race, when it's more like a cultural category - individual Hispanic people often identify as white, indigenous, or black though racial identity tends to be more fluid due to greater historic rates of intermarriage. I come from a Hispanic family, my grandparents more or less exclusively speak Spanish. My parents who were born a couple years after my grandparents immigrated would only be recognized as Hispanic if they made that part of their identity known. If I were asked to identify myself racially I'd say white, not Hispanic. I see myself as Cuban-Americans not as a racial identity buy as an ancestry - the same way people are Irish-American or German-American. 65% of Hispanics in the US identify as white: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans#Race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans#...

Balgair 6y ago
I would not be surprised if by the 2060s (40 years, ~2 generations) that Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans get rolled up into being 'white'. Rates of intermarriage between groups seem to be on the rise [0] though Hispanic data is not well represented in my quick googling. More hopefully, people will simply not care and diversity will be celebrated, not denigrated as we've awoken to since George Floyd. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_Un...
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > I would not be surprised if by the 2060s (40 years, ~2 generations) that Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans get rolled up into being 'white'. Hispanics are predominantly White by the standards by which race has any meaning at all (though also several other races are represented), Hispanic is an ethnic rather than racial category. > Hispanic data is not well represented in my quick googling. It's not going to show up in data on race because it's not a race. > More hopefully, people will simply not care and diversity will be celebrated, not denigrated as we've awoken to since George Floyd. The people marching in parades with Confederate flags haven't awoken to anything. And each of America's periodic awakening on this issue has been accompanied by exactly that kind of reaction and a hardening of White supremacist ideology. It may be a shrinking minority each time, but it's also increasingly committed, or at least renewing it's commitment each time.

someguydave 6y ago

Many “minorities” that used to insist they were “white” now insist they are not. Like Arabs: https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-census-middle-east-north-africa-race/ https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-census-middle-east-no... Seems perfectly rational, since “white” is now at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Pfhreak 6y ago
What a truly ridiculous thing to say.

barry-cotter 6y ago

> In the past, for example, Italians and other Southern Europes were not considered “white” This is absolute bullshit. There was rampant and socially acceptable prejudice against Southern and Eastern Europeans as well as the Irish, North Africans, Levantines and Central Asians. They were however all legally white. There was no attempt to stop their immigration as such as there was with Japanese, Chinese, Indians and other Asians. They were not classified as legally distinct like Black or Indians (Native Americans). Racism was completely compatible with considering the othered group white. Italians, Irish, Swedes, Germans, Poles, every non-Anglo white ethnic group suffered discrimination but the idea they weren’t considered white is ahistorical trash. Fiorello LaGuardia was elected Mayor of NYC in 1933. Francis Spinola was the first Italian Congressman to serve a full term in 1887. Anthony Ghio was Mayor of Texarkana in 1880. Andrew Longino was the first Italian Governor, Mississippi 1900. American racial politics was always about black and white with other differences paling into insignificance. Ethnic and religious prejudice there was aplenty but at no point in American history were Europeans considered non-white.

barry-cotter 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_whiteness_in_th... > However, "color challenges were never sustained or systematic" when it came to Italians,[85]:28 who were "largely accepted as white by the widest variety of people and institutions" throughout the U.S.[85]:6 Even in the South, such as Louisiana, any attempts to disenfranchise them "failed miserably".[85]:28