WHO IS AN AMERICAN? THAT’S CHANGING.

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the United States will become minority White in 2045. This news is a welcome departure from our nation’s roots — roots which were planted and sown by the marginalization of those who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), LGBTQ, or female, or with a disability.

This change can already be seen in the demographics of Gen Z, the generation with the highest amount of individuals identifying as non-white and non-straight compared to any other generation.

We need look no further than the past four years to see how this will affect the U.S. going forward. For many in Gen Z, including myself, the 2016 election was

Sutherland is 21, a 2020 graduate of UC San Diego, and originally from Wheaton, Illinois. the first time any of us took an interest in politics. We canvassed with, voted for and donated to the campaigns of our favorite candidates, and when the current occupant of the White House was inaugurated, many of us took to the streets for the first time to protest the xenophobia of his presidential administration.

And while many Gen Z-ers were not of legal voting age in 2016, millions either cast their first ballots in the 2018 election or will do so this year.

But this sense of civic efficacy does not stop at the ballot box. We have seen over the past few months millions of Gen Z members protesting in the streets for racial justice, canceling problematic figures who have caused damage to marginalized communities, and educating themselves on how the shortcomings of the American response to the ongoing COVID-19

pandemic are a result of flaws within our government that have manifested themselves over time since the nation’s founding.

Gen Z is angry with the cards it’s been dealt — many of us are graduating into a broken economy led by one of the most bigoted leaders of the contemporary era.

Discussing feminism and the #Metoo movement, Rebecca Traister writes in her book, “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger,” “I often found that by the time women were talking, or acting, out of political or feminist rage, the anger itself had already been a productive or catalytic force . ... It had offered them a lens through which to see and understand the world and its inequities anew.”

As Traister points out, when anger is a result of harm or being wronged, that anger can be utilized as a means of finding camaraderie with others who have been wronged in the same way and can have transformative power. Gen Z is no exception to this rule.

I take this all as a sign that it will be Gen Z that redefines and expands upon the definition of who is an American. This definition has never been stagnant — Americans were originally considered White property-owning men, later all White men, then White men and women, then all cisgender men and women regardless of race or ethnicity, although with a number of exceptions.

Expanding this definition to include all who call the U.S. home regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, language or immigration status is the logical next step in the eyes of my generation, and I welcome this change with open arms.

This change has already been met with backlash, particularly by people in older generations or a handful of Gen Z-ers who have not yet been able to understand that equality for all does not mean less rights for those with privilege.

But even though not everyone within Gen Z, or future generations for that matter, will be on board with this expansive definition of who gets to participate in the functions of our country, that does not in any way take away from the overall goal of making America a nation where everyone is welcome so long as they do not make others feel unwelcome.

This baseline standard is much more progressive than what we currently have, but as I stated earlier, our standard of who is accepted and who is not has historically moved in the direction of equality.

When the first Gen Z president is inaugurated, as soon as the 2030s or 2040s, I would hope that this standard is mainstream, and that our conversations of who is an American and who is not are not reliant on discussions of who is deserving of humanity as they are all too often centered around today.

Our understanding of who is an American is about to change for the better, and it will be up to us to embrace this change with open arms as our nation continues to evolve, thanks to the efforts of the generations that lead it in the coming decades.

ALEX TAWNEY-GUZMAN