by – via www.washingtoninformer.com It’s been a poorly kept secret that the underlying reason for much of America’s hate seen in recent years revolves around the fear that white people are fast losing their grip on the nation’s majority.
That fear has resonated and is ever-present politically and socially.
The Jan. 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ assault on Black history, the uptick in hate crimes, including police brutality against African Americans, and the continued wave of “Karens” and “Kens.”
In April 2021, the Census Bureau released the first set of results from the 2020 decennial census, providing a snapshot of the U.S. population for use in congressional reapportionment and redistricting.
But recently, the agency released more detailed census information that shows a fuller picture of the population as it stood during the once-a-decade headcount.
“This is reflected in a cultural generation gap that underlies many aspects of the nation’s social fabric and politics, including views about the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and state proposals to limit teaching about race and diversity in public schools,” Frey wrote in new researched released by the Brookings Institution.
Brookings’s data shows white Americans contributed substantially to older population gains compared to younger and middle-aged populations, which registered white declines.
Non-white residents accounted for all the gains in post-baby-boomer populations.
Although all race and ethnic groups are aging to some degree, the median age of white Americans is higher than all others in most geographic areas, researchers wrote.
They said these patterns have led to a “racial generation gap,” in which the younger population—more influenced by immigration in recent decades—is far more diverse than older age groups.
“Generation Z will be the last generation of Americans with a white majority, according to census data,” Daniel De Vise wrote for The Hill.
“The nation’s so-called majority minority arrived with Generation Alpha, those born since about 2010.”
De Vise added that, “barely two decades from now, around 2045, non-Hispanic white people will fall below half a share of the overall U.S. population.”
The journalist concluded that “America’s white majority, and its numbered days, is a lightning-rod topic, given the nation’s history of slavery and enduring patterns of discrimination against minorities and immigrants.”
Justin Gest, a professor at George Mason University’s Scholar School of Policy and Government, observed that, “In this environment, nationalism has experienced a rebirth.”
In an op-ed, Gest wrote that in the face of destabilizing demographic change and the uncertainties of globalization, nationalism is a familiar security blanket.
“In democracies particularly, nationalism asserts precisely what demographic change threatens: a specific ethno-religious people’s social dominance and entitlement to the state,” Gest concluded.
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