In 2021, Britany Farr, of the University of Chicago wrote in its Law Review: “In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new population projection based on Census 2000. According to the projection, which reaches all the way to the year 2050, the country’s non-Hispanic white population would fall below 50% in the year 2042. After 2042, the United States would be majority-minority. According to the projection, which reaches all the way to the year 2050, the country's non-Hispanic white population would fall below 50% in the year 2042. After 2042, the United States would be majority-minority. This impending demographic shift received significant coverage in mainstream news media.”
This Census found that for the first time in American history the historical majority of white Americans was the only group whose numbers fell. All other ethnic groups either stayed the same or slightly rose. This is a source of what Ms. Farr calls “anxiety-producing rhetoric linking this majority-minority shift to white decline’, causing fear and division in American society.”
About a week ago (October 29) Isabel Wilkerson was on the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, to discuss the campaign of VP Kamala Harris. Ms. Wilkerson is the author of the NY Times best seller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Wilkerson explained that a Caste determines rights and privileges, who will be protected by the authorities and who will be attacked by the authorities. The manufactured divisions we experience are part of our inheritance in the American experience These passions, grievances and insecurities don’t go away and remain as elections come and go. The reality is its not about people being good or bad. It sounds naive but its about what we do as a nation to create a new identity for ourselves as Americans.
Ms. Wilkerson and Lawrence compared VP Harris and President-elect Tr*mp. Lawrence asks Ms. Wilkerson what people are missing as far as the election being so close? Ms. Wilkerson explained that looking at the scenario only as an election, is one thing missing and it doesn’t make sense. She goes on to say that when you look at the scenario as an existential crisis over what this country will be, it begins to make sense. People aren’t voting against their own interests, Ms. Wilkerson explains, they are voting for the interests that matter most to them as they ascertain for themselves. For many Americans, as we saw on January 6th, that meant maintaining their position at the very top of the American hierarchy/American caste system with all the rights and privileges that accrues to that. Ms. Wilkerson astutely points out that these positions aren’t in the best interests of the planet or the country, they are in the best interests of the people as they ascertain it for themselves.
The rhetoric out there suggests that this is an existential crisis and source of fear for everyone because demographics affect everyone. The fear and divisions among White Christian males (who don’t want to share power) and within the electorate as a whole, (meaning the people who voted this election cycle) are what got Tr*mp over the hump and into the presidency. As a result of being elected, Tr*mp and the white American subset in his administration, will get to put their fingerprints on the future caste. This is the choice people across the electorate made. It is what it is, in spite of how ugly it is. This electorate voting for Tr*mp, is also a backlash response, a byproduct of fear. Thankfully, if our republic survives –and like many Americans, I pray it will, he won’t be able to run again, although the damage will be irreparably done when he leaves office.
Sources:
https://youtu.be/Vn8FcWPlFEc?si=toAyfks7aVVONM42
https://lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archive/demographic-moral-panic-fears-majority-minority-future-and-depreciating-value
