The Great Demographic Illusion | Princeton University Press
By: PrincetonUPress
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans are under the spell of a distorted and polarizing story about their country's future―the majority-minority narrative―which contends that inevitable demographic changes will create a society with a majority made up of minorities for the first time in the United States's history. The Great Demographic Illusion reveals that this narrative obscures a more transformative development: the rising numbers of young Americans from ethno-racially mixed families, consisting of one white and one nonwhite parent. Examining the unprecedented significance of mixed parentage in the twenty-first-century United States, Richard Alba looks at how young Americans with this background will play pivotal roles in the country's demographic future.
Assembling a vast body of evidence, Alba explores where individuals of mixed parentage fit in American society. Most participate in and reshape the mainstream, as seen in their high levels of integration into social milieus that were previously white dominated. Yet, racism is evident in the very different experiences of individuals with black-white heritage. Alba's portrait squares in key ways with the history of immigrant-group assimilation, and indicates that, once again, mainstream American society is expanding and becoming more inclusive.
Nevertheless, there are also major limitations to mainstream expansion today, especially in its more modest magnitude and selective nature, which hinder the participation of black Americans and some other people of color. Alba calls for social policies to further open up the mainstream by correcting the restrictions imposed by intensifying economic inequality, shape-shifting racism, and the impaired legal status of many immigrant families.
Countering rigid demographic beliefs and predictions, The Great Demographic Illusion offers a new way of understanding American society and its coming transformation.
Richard Alba is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His many books include Strangers No More (Princeton), Blurring the Color Line , and Remaking the American Mainstream .
"A heartening, wise, and profoundly important counternarrative to hysteria." — Kirkus Reviews
"Alba writes with an admirable absence of jargon. His data-driven but fully accessible work advances an original and important idea that, if correct, will have major societal consequences." — Foreign Affairs
"Required reading for everyone who comments or writes on American elections." —Morris Fiorina, Real Clear Politics
"Through his masterful marshaling of demographic data, sociological theory, and historical fact, Alba demolishes the idea of a coming white minority in the United States. The Great Demographic Illusion offers a strong caution against using the racial and ethnic categories of today to interpret the future, and provides a welcome dose of demographic reality to those who fear and celebrate the compositional changes under way in American society."—Douglas S. Massey, coauthor of Climbing Mount Laurel
"This provocative and optimistic book argues that the United States is not in the midst of a great transformation to a majority-minority society. Instead we are experiencing a redrawing of ethnic and racial boundaries as intermarriage creates a new inclusive, societal majority. An urgent reply to the manipulation of demography by politicians trying to inspire fear, The Great Demographic Illusion is a beautifully crafted reaffirmation of the best of American history and values."—Mary C. Waters, coauthor of Inheriting the City
" The Great Demographic Illusion should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how America is changing—and why the dominant narrative of an inevitable majority-minority America is mistaken."—Paul Starr, Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist and author of Entrenchment
"In 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that white Americans will become a minority by 2044. For white nationalists, this projection poses a threat to racial and cultural dominance. For progressive Democrats, it points to inevitable political triumph. Alba shows that neither frame is correct—demographic diversity is not destiny. The Great Demographic Illusion should be required reading for all who wish to understand the future of ethno-racial relations in an ever-changing America."—Jennifer Lee, author of The Asian American Achievement Paradox
" The Great Demographic Illusion documents, beyond argument, that the majority-minority narrative is wrong—it ignores assimilation. The era of the melting pot expanded the mainstream to include Polish Jews and Irish Catholics, and today's era of racial mixture further expands it. Alba shows how through assimilation America continues to thrive."—Kenneth Prewitt, author of What Is "Your" Race?
"Drilling well below the surface of mixed reactions to the majority-minority narrative, The Great Demographic Illusion reveals what the demographic destiny of the United States looks like, and what it means for the nation. Drawing on a rich theoretical tool kit and illuminating data, this book is a must-read for anyone who hopes to understand where the country is now and where it is headed in the future."—Tomas R. Jimenez, author of The Other Side of Assimilation
" The Great Demographic Illusion tackles a crucial, central theme underlying racial debates in America, namely the presumption of a durable binary division between white and nonwhite in American culture and politics. Building his arguments around the rapidly growing group of people who are of mixed parentage, Alba addresses the majority-minority question in a serious way. It is time for an updated thinking about race, and in this regard, this is a landmark book."—Dowell Myers, University of Southern California
"Examining issues of broad concern, The Great Demographic Illusion challenges the idea of an inevitable majority-minority society, shows the significance of the growth in the number of people of mixed origins, and describes the likely emergence of a new multiracial mainstream. An innovative, insightful account of the assimilation process today, this is an outstanding book with much to offer."—John Iceland, Pennsylvania State University
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"The photo below of Sen. Ted (Rafael Edward) Cruz and his family provides the best short explanation of the Alba critique. Cruz is the son of a Cuban father and Irish mother. The U.S. Census Bureau classifies him as Hispanic, a minority. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, is of northern European ancestry. Their two daughters are classified as minority."
"Should these girls grow up, marry, say, ethnic Scandinavians, and have one or two children each, Cruz’s grandchildren will be classified as minority, again, as long as whoever fills out the census form acknowledges their Hispanic ancestry. So, if he lives until 2044, Cruz could contribute as many as seven people to the projected nonwhite majority: himself, two children who are one-quarter Cuban, and two to four grandchildren who are one-eighth Cuban.
Most people would find such a classification procedure surprising, if not absurd. Alba emphasizes that the Census Bureau operates under legal and political constraints imposed by the Office of Management and Budget, with close scrutiny from Congress, outside interest groups, and the courts. Its practices, therefore, are not always those that academic researchers would adopt.
The projections in the 2015 report are predicated on questions dealing with race and ethnicity that were first included on the 2010 census and carried over to the current census. Consider question 8 on the census form, which asks about Hispanic ancestry. Those who report any Hispanic ancestry on this question move into the minority category, regardless of their responses to question 9.
Non-Hispanics who check the “white” box on question 9 go into the white category, of course — unless they write in anything else. Should they wish to claim, say, an American Indian ancestor (a fairly common impulse), they again fall into the minority category despite their white self-categorization. In both cases, descendants stay in the same category — minority — as the parent, if they acknowledge the parent’s ancestry."
Every time we create a new label, I think we divide people. I especially find the modern division of white people into Hispanic and non-Hispanic to be a silly, invented division that creates more problems than it solves. How does speaking Spanish or having ancestry traceable to Spain make any more difference than someone who has ancestry that is French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish, Greek, Romanian, etc?
We did the same kind of thing in earlier centuries by separating out the Irish and then later, the Italians. At the time, I don't think that was to their benefit. Now, we don't think of them as a separate group, and they aren't treated as separate. Less division; less strife.
When a person is introduced as [insert demographic ethnicity], it says "think of this person first as a member of that category," rather than just getting to know the person for who they are individually.
It has become the politics f the left and it began with the enormous influx of people coming from points south and the thinking that they could all be encouraged to vote democrat. The consequences of stirring up racial divides are horrendous.
We did the same kind of thing in earlier centuries by separating out the Irish and then later, the Italians. At the time, I don't think that was to their benefit.
That wasn't like this. It wasn't a political strategy. Those groups came here in waves and represented cheap labor that would challenge the living standards of Americans - that part is a commonality - the only one. Those groups wanted to assimilate and were a part of the growth of the Labor Unions, which eventually gave the working class a decent standard of living. They weren't manipulated and used as today's immigrants are.
When a person is introduced as [insert demographic ethnicity], it says "think of this person first as a member of that category," rather than just getting to know the person for who they are individually.
It's disgusting.
So what is the point the Federalist is trying to make? That the shift in demographics doesn't account for many mixed race/ethnicity children that can easily pass as white so white people shouldn't be afraid of the growing diversity of our nation? White people shouldn't fear the growing diversity because diversity is healthy for society, not because many counted as a minority are going to look a lot more "white" than they think.
Attacking the source again? I believe the point is right there in the book's title - the Minority Majority is a false narrative.
That the shift in demographics doesn't account for many mixed race/ethnicity children that can easily pass as white so white people shouldn't be afraid of the growing diversity of our nation?
1) The census has a lot to do with false classifications.
2) How people identify is a personal decision.
White people shouldn't fear the growing diversity because diversity is healthy for society, not because many counted as a minority are going to look a lot more "white" than they think.
Lilly white progressives shouldn't use race to attain power.
Whatever responder puts down is what census accepts as your answer
You may tell yourself lies if it helps you sleep better but the fact remains that America is becoming less white, more Democratic and ever more diverse culturally...
They're apparently just acknowledging that many counted as minorities will look white so they won't even really notice them so they have little to fear. They won't have to "see" the problem as much as some may have thought and that's apparently great news for white supremacists, white nationalists and other fans of the Federalist.
teddy Roosevely understood this more than 100 years ago...
“ There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans , I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.” “This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance .” “But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.” “ The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationaliti
First of all, the United States is not becoming less white. Southern European and Iberian ancestry is also white. Hispanic is not a race. Latino is not a race. The United States is becoming more segregated by contrived demographic identities.
The Black population in the United States is becoming a smaller minority. Although the population has begun increasing since its low point in the 1960s, that's due more to immigration. The politics of identity has been adjusting itself over the last few decades by segregating the population into somewhat contrived demographic groups. That's because the traditional minority groups (mostly Black) will become a smaller portion of the population. The same thing is happening with the indigenous American Indian population.