America in full color
Tucker Carlson and his less mainstream allies will surely see in new census numbers a reason to turn up the volume on their tired racial and ethnic whine: American whites are on track to lose their majority status due to permissive immigration policies and discrepant birth rates. They say this as though Mexican Americans, Asian Americans and others — what Mr. Carlson has toxically referred to as “new people, more obedient voters from the Third World” — cannot honor the principles that make America great, a claim that clashes with any honest reading of history.
We see in the new numbers a healthy indicator that the United States continues to evolve racially and ethnically, and a timely reminder to whites that the nation badly needs to welcome and integrate people with a range of backgrounds if it has any hope of remaining economically and culturally dynamic. (We also see powerful evidence that it’s increasingly out of date to see America through a white-and-Black lens, but that’s the subject for another editorial.)
In the demographic data just released from the 2020 count, the U.S. white non-Hispanic population fell to 58%, down from 69% in 2000. Hispanics now make up 19% of us. Asian Americans grew to 6%. Blacks held roughly steady at about 12%, as their total numbers grew modestly.
The white population didn’t just shrink in relative terms; it contracted in sheer numbers. Blame the fact that some have moved to big cities, where family sizes are smaller, while post-industrial towns have hollowed out. Blame, relatedly, a punishing opioid crisis.
Whatever the cause, it’s clear white citizens, who too often complain about seeing “their” country slip away, owe a debt of gratitude to their nonwhite neighbors. More people are the key to maintaining an energetic and prosperous nation (not to mention a viable Social Security system). Right now, those people are coming from other parts of the world, and from nonwhite Americans reproducing at faster rates.
Replacement theory? Boo. Augmentation theory is the only sustainable path to a brighter American future.