Are Whites Becoming an American Minority?

One of the favorite themes of today’s Fake News (read: liberal) pundits is to talk about how the country has become so divided, a division which at times sparks the kind of violence and anger that we saw on January 6th.

One of the prognosticators of this approach is Michael Lynch, who teaches at the University of Connecticut and has published an interesting little book, Know-It-All Society, which deserves to be read.

As one of the long-time members of that society, I found Lynch’s book an enjoyable read, even though I disagree with the major premise on which the book is based which is this: “…we are living in an age of severe disruption. For some Americans, much of that disruption concerns a changing economic, cultural, and demographic landscape — one in which white Americans will no longer be in a majority.” [p. 12]

I have been hearing about the Armageddon that is going to occur when the United States is no longer majority white, an event which demographers predict will occur sometime over the next ten years. But in many parts of the country it has already happened, and the unease which this fundamental racial shift provokes among the formerly white majority which will now be a minority is presented again and again as the reason that Trump not only was elected President but continues to forge ahead.

This is a compelling narrative and one which forms the central focus of Lynch’s clever book. Unfortunately, using words like ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ to discuss the…