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When the United States Census Bureau released its 2020 census on August 12, 2021, the news media highlighted two important trends in race and ethnicity: a drop in the number of white people and a rise in the number of people who identify with more than one racial group. Both facts represent some of the American nationalist Right’s worst fears: that racially mixed people and immigrants of color are “replacing” whites.
But this isn’t new. The census has a long history of shoring up and promoting white supremacy. Furthermore, the new statistics on race in America were released in the midst of an anti-critical race theory movement that demonizes (and in some states bans) classroom instruction about race and racism on the grounds that its only purpose is to make white people, and especially their white children, feel guilty and inferior.
In reality, the opposite is true: for centuries, laws, court decisions, and social institutions have upheld unearned and cumulative advantages for white people. Whiteness, like race itself, is an invention, but throughout much of American history Americans have been taught—deliberately and by default—just the opposite, that whiteness is inherently real, meaningful, and special. This lie was believed to be so pervasive that the oral argument in the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling stated, “to separate [black children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”
Brown did what segregationists knew it would do: promoted racial mixing on both a social and intimate level. And the cultural power of the white supremacist narrative has survived alongside that. It should be no surprise, then, that anxious newspaper headlines about race and ethnicity in the 2020 census data emphasize competition and use loaded language about these demographic changes.
Dismantling the white supremacist narrative is difficult, as modern headlines that emphasize racial competition of all kinds reflect an older time when races were depicted as biologically distinct and hierarchically ranked. In March 2001, when the Census Bureau released its 2000 results, the New York Times ran the headline: “New Census Shows Hispanics Are Even with Blacks in U.S.” Similarly, the Washington Post’s banner read: “Hispanics Draw Even with Blacks in New Census; Latino Population Up 60% Since 1990.”
Interestingly, race is a relatively small part of the questionnaire most United States residents fill out, though a question about race has been included on every census since the first one in 1790. The 2000 census, like the 2010 census and the 2020 census, included a single question about Hispanic ethnicity (a yes/no question) and another about race that does not use Hispanic or Latino as an option. In fact, for decades, the federal government stipulated that Hispanics and Latinos “may be of any race.” Despite the fact that these questions represent separate data sets, the mainstream news media often lumps them together, presenting the results as a demographic contest that one race is “winning” and others are “losing.”
In this scenario, immigrants become racial reinforcements and a way for one race to rig the system. While the 2001 New York Times headline doesn’t explicitly reference how the Hispanic population increased, the article’s second paragraph does: “the soaring Hispanic population was driven largely by waves of new immigrants, legal and illegal.”
If there are winners, there must be losers, and the losers tend to be white—or so the thinking goes. The New York Times followed up this Hispanic population story with articles emphasizing the decline of white populations in specific locations that have always been racial borderlands: Texas, California, and the “largest cities.” Each article’s headline emphasizes how “whites” are now, or will soon be, a “minority” in these areas because they are “losing white residents.” In 2003, the New York Times announced this racial competition. “Hispanics Now Largest Minority, Census Shows,” read the headline of an article that reported “explosive growth in the Hispanic population results from higher birth rates and from the huge wave of immigration.”
Furthermore, such headlines in a national newspaper also influence how white Americans think about race. In 2008, headlines like this one from the New York Times were common: “In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority.” Worse, when the paper cited 2042 as the moment when white people will be a statistical minority is, in the words of Kathleen Belew, an “apocalyptic threat” to people in the white power movement.
White supremacists who are anxious about what they call “replacement” have long been able to point to stories in mainstream news that support their fears. On August 12, 2021, when the Washington Post reported on the newest census data, it initially did so under the headline: “Census data shows the number of White people in the U.S. fell for first time since 1790.” Because 1790 was the first year a census was conducted in the newly formed United States, you don’t have to be an extremist to imagine that this news is historic, and perhaps something to be feared. Now the headline reads, “Census data shows widening diversity; number of White people falls for first time.”
However, headlines like this ignore an important aspect of the data. As NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang makes clear, what is overlooked in these headlines is how the census really works and, more importantly, how people self-identify racially. If you take into consideration the number of people who identify as white and as another racial category, then the number of white people went up significantly, an almost 316% increase.
Examining these newspaper articles and their headlines is not just an intellectual exercise. Language has an impact on how people think, and mainstream rhetoric plays a role in white supremacy too. As Charles Blow recently wrote about the 2020 census data, “It was a terrifying census for white nationalists.”
White supremacists are driven by hate, but they are motivated to act by fear. Analyzing research about the 377 Americans who were arrested and/or charged in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, Robert Pape writes, “by far the most interesting characteristic common to the insurrectionists’ backgrounds has to do with changes in their local demographics: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists who now face charges.”
Many of these insurrectionists saw Donald Trump standing between them and a world where they thought they would be diminished. These views are also driven by right-wing media, of course. When Tucker Carlson discussed the 2020 census results on his August 14, 2021 Fox News show, he portrayed CNN commentators of color as “cheering the extinction of white people” and making “evil” comments to “encourage permanent racial division.” CNN pundits, he implied, were speaking on behalf of other Americans like them.
While the extremism of right-wing media is a problem in promoting white supremacy, we also need to recognize that mainstream newspapers reproduce these fears too. Whiteness is not special, nor is it in need of protection: instead, we should celebrate the multiracial democracy we want to live in.
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Karen Gaffney is an English professor at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey, the author of Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox (Routledge, 2018), and creator of the website Divided No Longer.
Race is not a social construct, society is a racial construct.
embrace your own kind! whites matter too..
As a hispanic American it’s sad to see these types of reports. Yes every race is important, but stop it with the white guilt, it gets really annoying. Embrace your race too, it is equally important! as a matter of fact I feel safer around whites then my own kind!.. cheers..
I’m really confused by this article. You’re saying that white people aren’t really in decline and “If you take into consideration the number of people who identify as white and as another racial category, then the number of white people went up significantly, an almost 316% increase.” But isn’t that just changing the definition of the term in order to make the group bigger? And the math is way off. If the number of white people in the country really were to triple, then there would be around 600 million white people in a country that only has about 330 million people in total. (I actually followed the link to the NPR article and it looks like this is just a misunderstanding about what that article is saying.) So I think the argument is well intended, but this just doesn’t make any sense. I do think you make some valid points about how the presentation of census results in the media can be used to support a white supremacist talking point, but that’s not a sufficient reason to ignore reality. The white population is declining. I think the real problem is that some people think that’s a problem. As a white person, I’m not worried at all. In a country that’s still around 70% white, there will be plenty of people to keep the NASCAR and penny loafer markets afloat for generations.
I think perhaps she should have clarified this comment a little better. What she was indicating is that people who identify as “white AND OTHER race” increased 316% from the 2010 census to the 2020 census. For example people identifying as white in combination with another race were 2.4% in the last census, now they represent 9.4% in the 2020 census, hence the 316% increase. To be clearer you can see this page: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/redistricting-supplementary-tables/redistricting-supplementary-table-02.pdf
From my point of view, although the percentage of people indicating that they are only white is gradually decreasing, it is not as high as the new census suggests, much of the decrease is because the “only white” Hispanics went from 8.7% to 3.8%, and this in turn, seems to be due (to date it has not been officially published), that when a Hispanic person placed that he was white AND THEN placed that he came from, for example, Cuba, it reclassified him as multiracial ( https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/2020-census-white-population-decline/620470/ ). I hope this is helpful. Regards.
Someone who is white and another race is not white. To be white, someone needs to be fully or overwhelmingly of European ethnicity and appearance. “White” is a nickname for Europeans. Europeans don’t look half African, or half Asian, with African and Asian features. Real, fully ethnic Europeans have a full set of European features.
It’s fine if you are not worried, but stop slandering and demonising white people who are worried, and who do care. As a white person, I don’t want my race to disappear as a distinct group. Why? Because I like my race, and I find white women with fully European appearances to be the most beautiful. It took tens of thousands of years for people with distinct European appearances to develop and evolve, and the modern era of race mixing can wipe that all out within a century, leaving a population that has no more women who look like Amy Adams or Katheryn Winnick, and only women who look African or Asian.
And even if white people don’t go extinct, becoming a smaller and smaller population is also a danger. The smaller the white population becomes, the less power they will have, the more control they will lose, and eventually they will be completely at the mercy of non-whites. Becoming powerless and being at the mercy of a different group is NEVER a good thing. There is no guarantee that a small minority of white people, dominated by Africans and Asians, will be treated well. White women are so heavily desired by the men of the non-white races, that they will likely abuse their power to ensure that those few white women enter into relationship with them and not with white men, speeding up the extinction.
Maybe you are not thinking further than your nose is long. White population declining means white people will lose control and influence, and thus become UNDER the control and influence of non-whites/non-Europeans. It is always preferable to be the majority, in control, and being ruled over by your own kind, rather than being at the mercy of a different group. There is no guarantee that the black/Asian/Latino/Mixed race majority will treat the future minority white population well, and they might even oppress and disown them, making white men pariahs so that white women become fully available for interracial relationships in order to have greater social security – since they will likely always remain the most desired race of women in the USA.
And white women and European female features are beautiful. It would be an absolute shame if distinct, fully European-looking women were to vanish.
I think perhaps she should have clarified this comment a little better. Lo que ella estaba quer What she was indicating is that people who identify as “white AND OTHER race” increased 316% from the 2010 census to the 2020 census. For example people identifying as white in combination with another race were 2.4% in the last census, now they represent 9.4% in the 2020 census, hence the 316% increase. To be clearer you can see this page:
From my point of view, although the percentage of people indicating that they are only white is gradually decreasing, it is not as high as the new census suggests, much of the decrease is because the “only white” Hispanics went from 8.7% to 3.8%, and this in turn, seems to be due (to date it has not been officially published), that when a Hispanic person placed that he was white AND THEN placed that he came from, for example, Cuba, it reclassified him as multiracial ( https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/2020-census-white-population-decline/620470/ ). I hope this is helpful. Regards.
Yea the white race is in severe decline.
A white woman writing an article in which she essentially slanders other white people who, unlike her, do not want their own race to be wiped out.
Of course, in her mind, you must be an evil white supremacist if you don’t want your race to disappear. You must be an evil white supremacist if you find white women to be beautiful, and you want them to always exist. Why do people like Gaffney always think in such nonsensical binary black and white views?
I do not believe whites are superior. I simply believe we have a right to exist. I like our appearance. White women are beautiful, and I want them to always exist as a distinct looking race.
And then she also spews the tired nonsense of “race isn’t real, white people don’t actually exist”… No. Race is real. “White people” are people of full European ethnicity. The original populations of Europe. They have a distinct appearance, and a distinct heritage. They came into being in Europe over the last 40,000 years or so. Likewise you have east Asians, Sub-Saharan Africans, Native Americans, Indians, etc. All these groups developed in certain regions of the world and have distinct appearances and heritage. Race is as real as blonde hair is real.
White people, aka Europeans, are real. White women with European physical features are beautiful, and should always exist.
So this author, Gaffney, is writing the typical obfuscation stuff that all white progressives who support the destruction of their own race always write:
She says that white people are not going extinct or declining because “white people don’t actually exist, because race does not exist”. You can’t go extinct if you don’t even exist, hey?
She says that mixed race people who are part white, are the same as white people who are not mixed and thus should be counted as white. No. White means you are fully or overwhelmingly of European ethnicity, heritage, and appearance. If you are mixed with something else, you are MIXED. Not white. Mixed people don’t even look European, unless they are at least 7/8 white. Europeans have never looked half African or Asian, thus a mixed race person isn’t white. That’s like putting half an orange and an apple together and calling it an apple. No. Apples don’t come with one half looking like an orange.
She, of course, slanders every white person who is concerned about white decline as an evil white supremacist. Basically liking your own race enough so as to want it to exist means you believe your race is superior to other races, in Gaffney’s mind. No, this is not how it works. Wanting something to remain preserved does not imply that you believe it is superior to other things.
There are two reasons why I, as a white person, am concerned about white decline:
1 – It is better to be the majority and have control, than it is to be the minority and to be UNDER the control of another group. When you have no control, you are at the mercy of those who do have control, and there is NO guarantee that they will treat you well.
2 – I like the appearance of white people. White women with fully European features are beautiful to me. Therefore, I do not want white people to disappear, because I do not want the women and the European female appearance that I find beautiful to disappear. I want beautiful, fully European looking women to always exist, at least in their European countries of origin. I do not want women with Nordic features to vanish from Scandinavia, and to be replaced by women who look African or Asian. They have a right to remain preserved in their native lands. There is enough room on this earth for women who look European, African, Asian, etc. to co-exist. Europeans do not need to be erased.
It is distressing to me how many white people, like Gaffney, truly believe that supporting and defending their own erasure makes them intellectually and morally superior. Where did this pathology come from?