White supremacy, with a tan
Cutting taxes for the rich helps the poor. There is no such thing as a Republican or a Democratic judge. Climate change is a hoax.
Some political myths refuse to die despite all evidence the contrary. Here’s another:
When White people are no longer a majority, racism will fade and the US “will never be a White country again.”
This myth was reinforced recently when the US Census’ 2020 report revealed that people who identify as White alone declined for the first time since the Census began in 1790. The majority of Americans under 18 are now people of color, and people who identity as multiracial increased by 276% over the last decade.
These Census figures seemed to validate a common assumption: The US is barreling toward becoming a rainbow nation around 2045, when White people are projected to become a minority.
That year has been depicted as “a countdown to the White apocalypse,” and “dreadful” news for White supremacists.” Two commentators even predicted the US “White majority will soon disappear forever.” It’s now taken as a given that the “Browning of America” will lead to the erosion of White supremacy.
I used to believe those predictions. Now I have a different conclusion:
Don’t ever underestimate White supremacy’s ability to adapt.
The assumption that more racial diversity equals more racial equality is a dangerous myth. Racial diversity can function as a cloaking device, concealing the most powerful forms of White supremacy while giving the appearance of racial progress.
Racism will likely be just as entrenched in a browner America as it is now. It will still be White supremacy, with a tan.
I don’t like raising such a pessimistic scenario, in part for personal reasons. I want to believe my country is on the verge of this Brown New World where there will be such a rich gumbo of skin hues, hair textures and racially ambiguous people that racism will lose its sting.
My family is a symbol of these demographic changes.
My mother is Irish; my father was Black. My wife is an immigrant from Central America with a biracial mother and a White “Ladino” father who was Jewish and Castilian. My stepmother is Chilean, and half of my siblings are Afro-Latino.
I have one relative with blonde hair and blue eyes who moves through the world as a young White man, but he’s really Afro-Latino. And I have another Black relative who went to court to argue that he was White (he lost). The 2020 Census could have used my family portrait for a poster. [Continue reading…]