Source: Global Times
CNN's September 4 article, original title: White supremacy with a bit of brown Tax cuts for the rich help the poor, and judges are not partisan. Some political lies refuse to die even in the face of falsified evidence. For example, there is this: when white people are no longer in the majority, racism will disappear, and the United States will never be a white country again. This lie has recently been reinforced: The 2020 U.S. Census report shows that for the first time since the beginning of the 1790 census, the number of whites declined. Most Americans under the age of 18 are now people of color. These census data seem to confirm a common assumption: The United States will become a "rainbow nation" around 2045, when whites will become a minority. This is "terrible" news for white supremacists.
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More ethnic diversity does not mean more equality
I used to believe these prophecies. But now, I've come to a different conclusion: Never underestimate the adaptability of white supremacy. The assumption that more racial diversity means that races are more equal is a dangerous lie. Racial pluralism can act as a camouflage, masking the most powerful forms of white supremacy while ostensibly presenting racial progress. Racism is likely to be as entrenched in a more "brown" America, as it is now.
I don't like to come up with such a pessimistic idea, partly for personal reasons. I want to believe that my country is on the brink of a "new brown world" where there will be people with rich skin tones, hair textures and racial blur, and that racism will lose its hurtful sting. My family is a symbol of demographic change. My mother is Irish, my father is black, my wife is immigrants from Central America, my stepmother is Chilean, and half of my siblings are African-Latinos. I have a blonde "white" relative, but he's actually an African-Latino. I also have a black relative who goes to court arguing that he is white.
There is a craving in my genes that demographic trends will triumph over white supremacy. This desire is driven not by the desire of some people of color to one day rule over whites, but by hopes for a more just America. After Obama's re-election in 2012, David Simon, screenwriter of the HBO drama "The Wire of Fire," wrote that America will soon belong to these men and women — white and black, Hispanic and Asian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and atheist, gay and heterosexual — who can live together and embrace that they are in a world of differences. There is no real majority there, only pluralism and unity. But we know what happened next: Trump's election to the presidency; white supremacists marching in Charlottesville; rioters waving the Confederate flag during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The list goes on and on. Reports of the demise of white supremacy have proved exaggerated.
The definition of "white" is constantly evolving
White supremacy isn't just more resilient than many people think, it's just as resilient. "White" is not static, and as long as the new member looks the right person, it expands the definition. Scholars believe that the definition of white has been expanded to include Irish, Italian, and Jewish. These groups were not once considered completely white in the United States. Political scientist Justin Gerst recently wrote that throughout history, the United States has expanded its definition of white enough to maintain power over African-Americans, Asians and Latinos.
Why do so many ethnic groups tend to be white? The answer is both pragmatism and psychological considerations. This is due to racial hierarchies that place people who look like white people at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and those with darker skin tones at the bottom. Hernandez, author of the forthcoming book Racial Innocence: Exposing Hispanic Anti-Black Prejudice and the Fight for Equality, said: "Sometimes it looks like white people are the source of wealth. You can find jobs, get opportunities, and be considered competent. This also has the psychological benefit of feeling higher status and becoming part of white people. ”
This racial hierarchy was the basis of white supremacy. My blonde male relative once tried to make him drop out of school by accusing him of bullying, but without success. I was surprised and said to my wife, "Thank God, he looks white." One day, he might even mark himself as "white" on a census form. Other Hispanic Americans have already made such choices. In the 2010 census, researchers found that about 1.2 million Americans who called themselves "Hispanic or Hispanic" 10 years ago changed their race from "other races" to "white."
In Brazil, the darker it looks, the better
In some Latin American countries, the link between white people and social status has become a reality. Brazil is home to more people of African descent than any country outside Africa, and about 40 per cent of the population is of mixed race. But an article in Foreign Policy said that the economic and educational prospects of many Brazilians are still affected by discrimination on the color of their skin. "Today, although Brazilians feel that their country has a variety of skin colors, the less 'dark' a person looks, the better." Such states provide evidence that, while a country can have a large and expanding black, brown, and mixed population, it is still ruled by racial hierarchies.
What happens in some Latin American countries is also easy to happen in the United States. There will be a superficial change in our racial structure — more black, brown, and mixed races— but the dominant group will still be white. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism Without Racists, says there will be more racial inequality in the United States because people will use the country's growing racial diversity to "drown out" the voices of people of color who are still fighting for racial equality.
If we want to change the white dominance of everything in the future, we need radical changes, including eradicating systemic racism in public schools, communities, and the judiciary, and sharing power and resources more equitably. The United States could become a minority majority country by 2045. But if the racial hierarchy that granted whites status and power was not abolished, the new America would be another upgraded version of white supremacy, with a hint of brown. (By John Blake, transposed)