The Atlantic has the absolute must read piece of the day (seriously) about the coming minority majority in America. In the rhetorically titled, “The End of White America?” Hua Hsu of Vassar College examines a basket of issues surrounding the idea that it is no longer even mildly desireable to be “white” in America. According to Hsu, white youth are trying desperately to mimic the cultures they see within minority groups as a means to escape the blandness of their “non-culture”:
Whether you describe it as the dawning of a post-racial age or just the end of white America, we’re approaching a profound demographic tipping point. According to an August 2008 report by the U.S. Census Bureau, those groups currently categorized as racial minorities–blacks and Hispanics, East Asians and South Asians–will account for a majority of the U.S. population by the year 2042. Among Americans under the age of 18, this shift is projected to take place in 2023, which means that every child born in the United States from here on out will belong to the first post-white generation.
Obviously, steadily ascending rates of interracial marriage complicate this picture, pointing toward what Michael Lind has described as the “beiging” of America. And it’s possible that “beige Americans” will self-identify as “white” in sufficient numbers to push the tipping point further into the future than the Census Bureau projects. But even if they do, whiteness will be a label adopted out of convenience and even indifference, rather than aspiration and necessity. For an earlier generation of minorities and immigrants, to be recognized as a “white American,” whether you were an Italian or a Pole or a Hungarian, was to enter the mainstream of American life; to be recognized as something else, as the Thind case suggests, was to be permanently excluded. As Bill Imada, head of the IW Group, a prominent Asian American communications and marketing company, puts it: “I think in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, [for] anyone who immigrated, the aspiration was to blend in and be as American as possible so that white America wouldn’t be intimidated by them. They wanted to imitate white America as much as possible: learn English, go to church, go to the same schools.”
Today, the picture is far more complex. To take the most obvious example, whiteness is no longer a precondition for entry into the highest levels of public office. The son of Indian immigrants doesn’t have to become “white” in order to be elected governor of Louisiana. A half-Kenyan, half-Kansan politician can self-identify as black and be elected president of the United States. [Link]
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p>The case of The United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind mentioned in the article (someone we’ve blogged of before) refers to the 1923 case in which an Indian American veteran argued that he should be considered white (a precondition to becoming a naturalized citizen) because Indians were descended from Aryans:
Associate Justice George Sutherland found that, while Thind, an Asian Indian, may have had “purity of Aryan blood” due to being “born in Village Taragarh Talawa,near Jandiala Guru, Amritsar, Punjab” and having “high caste” status he was not Caucasian in the “common understanding”, so he could not be included in the “statutory category as white persons”.[1] George Sutherland wrote in his summary: [Link]
Hsu inevitably cites hip hop as one of the most important instruments used for overturning the desirability of whiteness:
Just as Tiger Woods forever changed the country-club culture of golf, and Will Smith confounded stereotypes about the ideal Hollywood leading man, hip-hop’s rise is helping redefine the American mainstream, which no longer aspires toward a single iconic image of style or class. Successful network-television shows like Lost, Heroes, and Grey’s Anatomy feature wildly diverse casts, and an entire genre of half-hour comedy, from The Colbert Report to The Office, seems dedicated to having fun with the persona of the clueless white male. The youth market is following the same pattern: consider the Cheetah Girls, a multicultural, multiplatinum, multiplatform trio of teenyboppers who recently starred in their third movie, or Dora the Explorer, the precocious bilingual 7-year-old Latina adventurer who is arguably the most successful animated character on children’s television today. In a recent address to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, Brown Johnson, the Nickelodeon executive who has overseen Dora’s rise, explained the importance of creating a character who does not conform to “the white, middle-class mold.” When Johnson pointed out that Dora’s wares were outselling Barbie’s in France, the crowd hooted in delight.
Pop culture today rallies around an ethic of multicultural inclusion that seems to value every identity–except whiteness. “It’s become harder for the blond-haired, blue-eyed commercial actor,” remarks Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, of the Hispanic marketing firm Enlace. “You read casting notices, and they like to cast people with brown hair because they could be Hispanic. The language of casting notices is pretty shocking because it’s so specific: ‘Brown hair, brown eyes, could look Hispanic.’ Or, as one notice put it: ‘Ethnically ambiguous.'”
“I think white people feel like they’re under siege right now–like it’s not okay to be white right now, especially if you’re a white male,” laughs Bill Imada, of the IW Group…<
p>If they’re right–if white America is indeed “losing control,” and if the future will belong to people who can successfully navigate a post-racial, multicultural landscape–then it’s no surprise that many white Americans are eager to divest themselves of their whiteness entirely. [Link]
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p>I would point to success of Slumdog Millionaire at the Golden Globes last night as a perfect example of a film which appeals to the mainstream (i.e., white America) especially because it is so “non-white” (unless you count the director and producer). A British newspaper even ran the headline, “Slumdog Millionaire: the first film of the Obama era,” this morning. Obama-era is thinly veiled code for “era of the minority.” Let’s be honest, based purely on critical elements Slumdog did not deserve best picture. Although most of the dialog was convincing, that between the two main characters was atrocious drivel. Dev Patel was also woefully miscast as the lead. That being said, it was a very entertaining and moving film and if it wins the Oscar for best picture it will join Forrest Gump and Titanic as overrated movies that were nonetheless worthy as crowd pleasers (although if you liked Titanic you should be shot). The main appeal of Slumdog is the slum part, set to A.R. Rahman and M.I.A’s exotic music. To like it is to be hip. If you saw it earlier than most at one of the limited screenings in L.A. or NYC then you get extra hipness points. This film follows in the wake of another popular multiethnic film, City of God. A few years ago if you found yourself at a multiethnic party of elitist
Matt Wray, a sociologist at Temple University who is a fan of Lander’s [the guy behind stuffwhitepeoplelike.com] humor, has observed that many of his white students are plagued by a racial-identity crisis: “They don’t care about socioeconomics; they care about culture. And to be white is to be culturally broke. The classic thing white students say when you ask them to talk about who they are is, ‘I don’t have a culture.’ They might be privileged, they might be loaded socioeconomically, but they feel bankrupt when it comes to culture … They feel disadvantaged, and they feel marginalized. They don’t have a culture that’s cool or oppositional.” Wray says that this feeling of being culturally bereft often prevents students from recognizing what it means to be a child of privilege–a strange irony that the first wave of whiteness-studies scholars, in the 1990s, failed to anticipate.
Of course, the obvious material advantages that come with being born white–lower infant-mortality rates and easier-to-acquire bank loans, for example–tend to undercut any sympathy that this sense of marginalization might generate. [Link]
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p>The funny thing is that when I read the site “Stuff White People Like,” I invariably find that I like most of that stuff too. Does that make me a minority who is “too white” and will thus begin to seek a minority fix whenever I’m jonesing? Does use of the term “jonesing” just then count as such a fix? This is the one thing that I feel Hsu doesn’t adequately address when he is describing the “wigger” phenomenon. How do you explain Asian youth who mimic hip hop culture when they already have their own culture that is separate from white non-culture? My head is spinning.
In 1994, a young graffiti artist and activist named William “Upski” Wimsatt, the son of a university professor, published Bomb the Suburbs, the spiritual heir to Norman Mailer’s celebratory 1957 essay, “The White Negro.” Wimsatt was deeply committed to hip-hop’s transformative powers, going so far as to embrace the status of the lowly “wigger,” a pejorative term popularized in the early 1990s to describe white kids who steep themselves in black culture. Wimsatt viewed the wigger’s immersion in two cultures as an engine for change. “If channeled in the right way,” he wrote, “the wigger can go a long way toward repairing the sickness of race in America.” [Link]
As a point of contrast to the entire discussion above I point you to a series of stories on NPR’s Morning Edition this week, the first of which I awoke to this morning. The three part series chronicles the struggle of minorities in Europe to be recognized and accepted in their country (Germany in the first story) despite, in some instances, their family having lived there for several generations:
In Europe, Barack Obama’s election as president of the United States was met with euphoria. But now, the continent is peering into the mirror, realizing there is little chance a member of one of its own minorities could reach such prominence any time soon.
Take Germany, for instance, where notions of national identity are still strictly linked to ethnicity. Nonwhite Germans are still fighting to overcome exclusion from mainstream society in many ways.<
p>”When you take white as the norm, and everything else is deviant from that, and your advertising is always targeted at white people, or when you write school books and they’re targeted at white children, this is, for me, a racist experience,” she says.[Link]
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Simply amazing isn’t it? On one side of the globe we are talking about the overthrow of “Whitey” only a couple of generations after minorities gained a solid foothold here. In Europe, even after several generations, the divide between white and “other” seems stretched to a chasm. Is there any wonder why it is so hard to find homegrown terrorists in America? Excuse me now while I go listen to some Santogold and read The Root before going to bed.
have you ever bothered to ask about the background of your “white” friends. the answers may surprise you. there’s a story everywhere.
khoof: I know I said I’d stop on this thread, but, that is one of my most favorite comments EVER. Talk to people, there are stories everywhere. Beautiful!
I don’t want to get all “Tim Wise” on the issue of “whiteness” but I think the deal here is what was “White” yesterday is morphing into what “Post-racial” is today.
What was white yesterday was generic, mainstream, the leave it to beaver culture. it was the default assimilated culture of america. that point when you lost any meaningful connection to your roots and became like every other “normal” american.
Now that signficant numbers of non-whites are undergoing the same process, and assimilating into the mainstream … using the term white to describe this culture no longer makes sense…….but regardless of what you want to call it, there’s a sense that through the process of assimilation, we’ve traded what was unique and exiciting about ourselves for this bland, ordinary, hollowed out culture. now whether that is true or not, or whether it’s just a disease of our affluent consumer based society, a lot of us are feeling empty …
And I believe that’s why we have the phenomenon of the hipster, who these days can be white, black, asian or multi-racial the hipster being that culture vulture on steriods who consumes and disposes of any counter culture trends, style, etc. at an astronomical rate. they’re trying to fill that void and self-hate they feel inside for being so bland/generic.
I know this is a technicality, but strictly speaking, as a British-produced film I don’t think “Slumdog” is eligible to be nominated for Best Picture. Maybe Best Foreign Film?
Razib,
There is some utility in taking your hurt feelings to the rights-based discourse crowd and having a group cry.
abhi said:
You know you wanted to title it “R.I.P Crackah!” as it is a fictional character of the hillbilly archetype of the priveleged Nascar-watching, fried-chicken consuming, cracked corn eaters who sought to take away all the resources of the indigenous peoples, specifically trying to hold minorities heads down under water for decades. It is not being used by me as a term to describe white people (north of the mason dixon line).
I wonder if this article was written to take the steam out of Kimmel’s Guyland and its warning of young, disgruntled, white males getting more violent because of their sense of thwarted entitlement – “an ever-growing sense among young white males that women and minorities have snatched away the jobs and social positions that their fathers and grandfathers implied they could take for granted.” link
NOOOOOOOOO!!!! They killed Whitney!!! … … oh, wait…
50:>>Seriously, sometimes I think all this academic discussion is just a way to write papers and be rewarded for bunk, instead of doing some other kind of scholarship.
Sometimes?
M.Nam
So since racism is officially dead, maybe we can start talking about class and gender now? 😉
42 · Abhi said
I am sure if your title is meant to be sarc and over the top when none of your article tags = humor, at the bottom. The repeated use of the term “whitey” if offensive, and therefore your blog post is offensive. You could learn to be a bit more sensitive, the same which you seek from the “majority” day in and day out.
Wow, port–scarily accurate!! Only a few hours to see what the various bounders at the club have to say on this topic. 😉
I stand corrected:
From IMDB:
“Why is Slumdog Millionaire not eligible for the Foreign Film Oscar?
Delete The award is for a foreign language film. Since this film is a U.K.-U.S. co-production primarily in the English language, that category is not appropriate.”
So I guess it will be competing head-on with the big boys on Oscars Night!
Must read? Seriously? Isn’t this invocation of hip-hop to demonstrate that white kids no longer think white culture is cool old hat? And then that blather about social networking and “network nations”? Really? I didn’t realize that “The result is a racial pride that dares not speak its name, and that defines itself through cultural cues instead—a suspicion of intellectual elites and city dwellers, a preference for folksiness and plainness of speech (whether real or feigned), and the association of a working-class white minority with “the real America.— is a new development. Maybe the Reagan democrats call themselves that because it is cool to be retro?
Seriously, Abhi, I think you are on firmer ground recommending City of God 🙂
59 · MoorNam said
And as you can see, proud anti-intellectualism and a suspicion of “elites” is alive and well even among brownies.
This is a really stupid article. Indians mocking whites for not having any culture is so ridiculous, when its white culture that dominates the world today.
Is it wrong that I am thinking about moving to Canada as soon white people become a minority in America?
Also do those white power groups have a point? It does appear that white people are going to disappear and become swallowed whole by the rest of the world.
I wonder if similar articles were written after Booker T. Washington got his invite to the white house and jazz became popular in the 1920s, or after early rock and roll, which was “inspired” by blues and gospel music, and Jackie Robinson debuted in the major leagues. Two tangentially related phenomena at roughly the same time should be enough for a piece, right? Maybe, depending on the time, add some blather about how the internal combustion engine, or later, the highway infrastructure was creating “network nations”.
Personally, I’ve always lived my life by three maxims: Lord loves a workin’ man; don’t trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of it.
1 · Nayagan said
which you might do frequently if you are lacking a distinct culture that might involve doing additional things.
Is SWPL on the list of things featured on SWPL? Personally, I find the site neither particularly perceptive nor witty, so I’ve been amazed at its popularity. I guess it has the appropriate tone of mild mannered inoffensiveness which allows “white people” to embrace it as evidence of their ability to laugh at themselves, without being stinging enough to potentially touch a nerve.
I think we need to define culture around here: everyone has a distinct culture, everyone. The definition of culture isn’t, ‘cultural attributes that I think are cool.’
That’s the point of Christian Lander and SWPL – to point out to those that think they don’t have a culture, because it’s the dominant one, do have a and he is chronicaling it for them as if he were the outsider to it. Tongue in cheek anthropology.
Sorry, I don’t know what happened to that last sentence.
72 · onparkstreet said
First of all, he’s not chronicling white culture. He’s chronicling the culture of yuppies with disposable income. Granted, a lot of these are white people, but there are also a lot of white people that are not yuppies. I’m betting though, that a site named “Stuff Yuppies Like” wouldn’t have gotten much traction for the blinding obviousness of its material.
Stuff White People Like doesn’t apply to 95% of white people. I live in the South and most white folks down here haven’t heard of half the things they supposedly “like”.
And considering how many Asians, blacks and Indians becomes twinkies, oreos and coconuts respectively, I don’t think white culture is in any danger of demise.
And if that pretentious, fake, overrated trash Slumdog Millionaire is signaling the beginning of a new era, that’s an era I don’t want to live in.
Also do those white power groups have a point? It does appear that white people are going to disappear and become swallowed whole by the rest of the world.
I know you must be joking, but I don’t see any danger of this. Just b/c there’s minorities doesn’t mean we automatically feel some brotherhood – there is of course lots of differences within minority groups too.
On another note, I have heard several times from white acquaintances how they wished they had “culture” like me..and they were envious of “Indian culture” – I have to say I find that funny as I don’t go to temple daily or know how to fluently speak mallu, but whatever I have they have made it exotic and at least at that moment they were envious.
75 · unmai said
I appreciate your sensitivity in using the culturally appropriate term of denigration.
R.I.P. Whitey??? Does that mean R.I.P. feminism also?
At first I was afraid to read this blog, Abhi. But then I picked up on your sarcasm. Before I did though I asked myself:
What if the title read R.I.P. BROWNIE or R.I.P. BLACKIE?
That’s a question everyone who reads this should ask themselves.
I know one thing. Had the USA been inhabitated by a Desi majority, my mother would not have migrated here and I’m willing to guess many of your (commenters) parents or grandparents wouldn’t have either. Migrants come to USA not just for money but for the infrastructure, the rights, the lifestyle and yes, the “freedom” that it offers in wider ways than what is offered back in their motherlands. And who built all of this up? I don’t think I need to answer that. They are being offered an R.I.P. right now.
Yes, the land belonged to Natives, the labor was largely due to slaves. We acknowledge all that. But do we acknowledge the white immigrants who offered their time and energy too? Certainly without them and their innovation America would not be what it is today and we probably wouldn’t be here if we are really honest with ourselves.
The thing that annoys me about Hsu’s article is the arrogance of assumption that whites have no culture and therefore they have to copy someone else’s. Who’s are they copying may I ask? Yes I may and I’ll answer that too.
In my travels to various countries and cultures on this globe I have seen a common thread: lower classes of people everywhere try to better themselves through education, walk, talk, style, employement, everything. Everywhere people are trying to move UP the totem pole, not down. Everywhere except for one place – The Good Ol USA. Yep, only here will you find educated middle and upper class suburban brats imitating ghetto dwellers. Only in USA will you find such people wearing their jeans below their butts in imitation of CONVICTS IN PRISON.
(for those of you who don’t know, this style originated in prison to indicate who is and who isn’t already “taken” if you know what I mean).
Only in USA, folks, only in USA. (and maybe Canada or UK).
What does that tell you? It tells me alot.
Anyway you find people, you find culture, even if they are white and don’t spice their food. If I were white I would feel insulted by Hsu’s article, but most white people won’t because they are complicite in their own genocide and culturecide. Asians, Africans, Latinos, so many people strive to preserve their cultures and gene pools wherever in the world destiny takes them. White Americans are the only people I’ve met who are willing to allow their way of life and genes to die out. And people actually CELEBRATE that!
I really don’t get it. Clue me in.
My mother owes her life and my life to White American Feminism. There is no way in hell I will ever offer an R.I.P. to Whitey.
And believe me, without all that Whitey created here, our families would not have bothered to migrate.
I think we need to show Whitey some love.
Should read “Anywhere you find people, you find culture….”
I will start using the “preview” from now. My blood is still boiling from the blog on Sex Selective Abortions being brought to these shores by Desis. I’m excited. Let me drink some kava kava and calm down and stop typing so fast.
52 · onparkstreet said
Thanks for the compliment OPS and the appreciation is mutual. My offer reg TO is still open. 🙂
Something happened to my comment above, but i got to add that 67 · ShallowThinker said
umreeka’s loss will be kanneduh’s gain. btw, if memory serves me right, that blog whose name shall not be spoken, was co-founded by a kanneddian.
I’ve spent time in Brazil (Sao Paulo/Rio), and it’s incorrect to think being white isn’t an advantage. Brazil banned some skin lightening creams because of their abuse. It is uncommon for Japense-origin Brazilians (largest Japanese population outside of Japan there) to marry what we perceive as AA/Black. Similar to the ABD experience IMHO.
A 6 year old abd asked these questions recently. Q:I was born in the US and how come I have black eyes, brown skin and black hair? A: Kids look like their parents. Our parents are from India and people in India look like us. Q: Why do Indians have black eyes, black hair and brown skin and Americans don’t? A: People from different parts of the world look different. [How to explain immigration, native Americans, etc?]
Femidesi, are you mad at white people for not acting white enough and to much inter-racial love?
That’s not disputed. This article and post are about only about America not Brazil.
“the labor was largely due to slaves.”
Only in the south, and only a few southerners owned slaves though blacks, both free and slave, did do a lot of labour the average southern white earned his own living. In any case, the south was no showcase of industrial or even agrarian progress. They came here and worked in factories, railroads, whatever, under conditions and hours unimaginable today. The north and west was built by European immigrants. Railroads–many Irish, with many Chinese in the far west. Even in the south a lot of more dangerous jobs preferred Irish. They were cheaper than blacks so it mattered less when they got killed. That’s well known by those who know immigration history.
Not at all, many people are leaving California and moving to the Mid-west.
I hope I’m around when Whitey becomes a minority in USA though. People will be beating their chests, wailing and begging Northern Europeans to migrate here I bet.
Like I said, there is a REASON why the United States of America is still the most sought after country for migrants. What has been built up here over the past couple hundreds of years by white men and women, (a special shout out to first wave feminism from me!) is the reason why people want to flock to these shores in droves. IN. DROVES.
I think our migrant policies have to be made stricter for people who come from cultures that devalue women too much though. They need to undergo a training program before being allowed immigrant status, what to speak of citizenship. And I think a dress code is in order as well.
If you read travel guides to anywhere in South Asia,Desiland, you come across clothing suggestions for women, but not so when you read North American travel guides. We need a dress code here too.
Face cannot be covered. Face must be seen.
Let me make my question more clear.
So, femidesi, are you saying that you are mad at white people because you think they are so pure and perfect that they would allow themselves to have mixed babies that are less “pure”?
“When will an Italian woman run India?”
well, yeah. But she was a widow. aside from the nationality/race thing, it’s a fact that most women get into power after husbands, fathers, or other male relatives, retire or pass away. I doubt an Italian immigrant to India could be elected to anything much. btw, ARE there Italian immigrants in India? I guess there are a lot of expats there.
Waterfront, I meant to say “in a large part”. It was a way of acknowledging the forced contribution of Africans in the form of free labor. I was also going to thank the contribution of plantation owners as well, but I didn’t think that would go down too well, and I understand why. I do have a sense of political correctness as well, how couldn’t I? I’ve been living here for almost 20 years.
My point was though, that WHITE PEOPLE are amongst those that need to be thanked for making this country a place of asylum of sorts for people like mother and your parents or grandparents, whatever.
My mother moved here to get the respect as a woman she could not get in India at the time and that I cannot get in India even today.
Thankyou White Women for making this country a haven for women from all over the globe. Thankyou for that beautiful invention called THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT.
Like I said, there is a REASON why the United States of America is still the most sought after country for migrants. What has been built up here over the past couple hundreds of years by white men and women, (a special shout out to first wave feminism from me!) is the reason why people want to flock to these shores in droves. IN. DROVES.
Femidesi, I appreciate your comments – I was a little put off by the title too; I say plenty of politically incorrect things among friends who know me, people whom I love like my boyfriend, BUT I wouldn’t want to say “whitey” or calling my bf who is from a Ireland a “mick” outside of our relationship. But Abhi wrote this in sarcasm and knowing the tone and environment of SM you know this is not some hateful person…If you don’t understand the writers of SM then it’s easy to misunderstand I suppose.
But I also have to say a lot of the things you attribute to American culture, stems not just from “white” culture…but also directly from immigrants and the cultures they brought. And also in the Indian you will find many of these same attributes…there have been periods in Indian history, when all the world wanted to settle there b/c of the freedom of religion and multiculturalism and repsect for different ideas. This sort of thinking is not just from the enlightenment…unfortunately in American history books, we focus so much on Greek democracy, that people assume, what we in the West would call ideas of the enlightenment didn’t have different and earlier forms in ideas not only within Hinduism but also Buddhism.
I’ve spent time in Brazil (Sao Paulo/Rio), and it’s incorrect to think being white isn’t an advantage.
I’ve read ethnographies set in Brazil and the racism/classism is very much there. It’s a little different though, where there isn’t an emphasis on one-drop thinking like the racism developed in North America. It’s my understanding if you are poor,whatever your skin color or hair texture, you are perceived as “black” and if you are a dark-skinned wealthy man, with AFrican descent, you are considered white.
87 · Femidesi said
$
Femidesi, I don’t have a problem with anything else you say, but saying white people are in the middle of a genocide is rhetoric straight off Stormfront and a little weirdly hysterical.
Femidesi, there is something wrong with you if you want to thank southern plantation owners for feminism. Why so extreme?
pardesi gori
88 · ShallowThinker said
Femidesi is Pardesi Gori.
Hmmm.. Manju at 8:48 about PG, and Rahul at 8:50 about the same thing! What gives?
rahul: u may have had port, but i nailed pardesi gori first.
98 · Rahul said
No wonder PG has her size deficiency fixation about Indians, and you protest so often about it on Sepia!