1/I've been tweeting a lot about race recently, so here's a quick thread about America's racial future.
California, I think, holds the key.
California, I think, holds the key.
2/California as a whole is plurality Hispanic. That's not going to happen in America as a whole. But the non-Hispanic white percent of America will shrink to about 50% - that's already baked into the demographics of America's youth. npr.org/sections/ed/20…
3/The regional mixes, of course, will be very uneven. There will be a lot more black ppl in the South, a lot more Asian ppl in the West, a lot more white ppl in the Northeast, Northwest, & Plains, and a lot more Hispanic ppl in the Southwest, than in the country as a whole.
4/William H. Frey has a great book showing the trends for each race and each region. It's required reading for anyone interested in this crucial topic (though it needs an update, as much of its data is from 2010): amazon.com/Diversity-Expl…
5/But California gives a preview of what America will be like with lots of Hispanic and Asian people in the mix.
It feels very different from the black/white American I grew up in, and which still prevails in some regions of the East.
It feels very different from the black/white American I grew up in, and which still prevails in some regions of the East.
6/One thing is that a society with 4 or more racial groups feels fundamentally different from a society with 2 racial groups.
I'm not sure how to put it...it feels more like a kaleidoscope, less like a hierarchy.
I'm not sure how to put it...it feels more like a kaleidoscope, less like a hierarchy.
7/Another thing is that both "Asian" and "Hispanic" are extremely diverse groups, encompassing vast ranges of appearances. Racially, Californians just look like anything and everything.
8/Added to this is the fact that Hispanic and Asian Americans have extremely high rates of outmarriage. California, as a result, is a very mixed-race place. pewsocialtrends.org/2017/05/18/int…
9/How does it feel to live in a place with this kaleidoscopic racial diversity?
In my experience, it decreases the salience of race itself.
In my experience, it decreases the salience of race itself.
10/When the people around you have so many different backgrounds and appearances, it's extremely costly and tiring to look at each person and think about what race they are. So often, I just don't.
11/This doesn't mean racial identity isn't personally important to Californians. It most certainly is.
And this doesn't mean race isn't a factor in Californian society. It most certainly is.
And this doesn't mean race isn't a factor in Californian society. It most certainly is.
12/But it does mean that racial divisions in California don't feel nearly as central to daily life as they do in places where it's just white and black people.
13/And even more importantly, it means that one gets accustomed to thinking of Americans as a group that isn't identifiable by their skin color, eye color, and hair type.
That feels like a very big mental shift.
That feels like a very big mental shift.
14/I'm not going to claim that this change will be uniformly good for America.
And it certainly won't solve all our racial problems, or make us a colorblind or post-racial society.
And it certainly won't solve all our racial problems, or make us a colorblind or post-racial society.
15/The message I want to convey isn't that California is better (though I personally like it).
It's that California is COMING. California is a preview of America's demographic future. Everyone should be ready for it. (end)
It's that California is COMING. California is a preview of America's demographic future. Everyone should be ready for it. (end)
