By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Europeans certainly do not own the United States.
Whites are as immigrants as most other citizens, despite the hypocrisy and the grandstanding of the racists among Whites, such as Donald Trump and the right wing media, anchored by Fox News.
This fact is reiterated in the new 2020 census, which shows that the US is more diverse and more multiracial than ever before.
The White population declined 6 per cent, from 63 per cent in 2010 to 57 per cent in 2020. In contrast, the population of people of colour rose 9 per cent, from 34 per cent in 2010 to 43 per cent in 2020.
If the trend holds, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians will outnumber Whites by the next census in 2030. And that will take White America back to ground zero in history.
When Europeans (Spaniards and French) first migrated to the US in the 1500s, they met there Black and Brown Native Americans, the owners of the land. Black Africans came in later and have lived in America for more than 400 years.
So people of colour have lived longer in the US than Whites, and by ancestry have more claim to the country than Whites who are able to ensure systemic racism by virtue of their larger population.
Not all Whites are racist
Certainly, not all White people are racist. That is the truth in all countries of the world. And, everywhere, many White people see racism as anti-God and fight against the evil both in public spaces and in private gatherings.
Even in America, inherently racist Whites are in the minority of the White population. But some – among them new immigrants, and those whose grandparents immigrated in the 20th century – are rabid racists and brazen in their arrogance.
The loudest of the White racists is Trump. But his hypocrisy is laid bare by the fact both his grandparents immigrated from Germany, and his mother from Scotland.
Trump is a mere second generation American, his father having been born in the country. His first wife, Ivana, is an immigrant from the Czeck Republic. His third and current wife, Malania, is an immigrant from Slovenia.
Below is the census story published by CNN:
Census analysis
“Our analysis of the 2020 Census results show that the US population is much more multiracial, and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, the director and senior advisor of race and ethnic research and outreach in the US Census Bureau’s population division.
People of color represented 43 per cent of the total US population in 2020, up from 34 per cent in 2010.
The non-Hispanic White share of the US population fell to 57 per cent in 2020, shrinking by six percentage points since 2010, the largest decrease of any race or ethnicity.
The share of those who identified as Hispanic or Latino or as multiracial grew the most.
The US aged overall since 2010 and the population younger than 18 became more diverse.
The adult population has grown from 237 million to 261 million during the last 10 years. The share of the adult-aged population has increased slightly, from 76 per cent in 2010 to 78 per cent in 2020.
While the under-18 population decreased during the last decade, it is rapidly diversifying. Non-White US residents younger than 18 now make up 53 per cent of the population among minors, up from 47 per cent in 2010.
Prevalence of Whites
Non-Hispanic White Americans continue to be the most prevalent group in every state, except for in California, Hawaii and New Mexico, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
There are now seven states and territories – California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Maryland, Hawaii and Puerto Rico – where the non-Hispanic White share of the population is below 50 per cent.
In California, the Hispanic or Latino population officially became the largest racial or ethnic group in the state for the first time.
The Hispanic or Latino community now represents 39.4 per cent of Californians, an increase from 37.6 per cent in 2010. The non-Hispanic White population in California was 34.7 per cent in 2020.
The Census retooled their survey for 2020 to ask American residents more detailed questions about how they identify their race and ethnicity. The Census Bureau reported that these and other technical changes “enable a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people self identify.”
The Census Bureau said comparisons on race and ethnicity between 2010 and 2020 should be “made with caution,” though they are “confident that the changes we are seeing from 2010 to 2020 in the diversity measures … likely reflect actual demographic changes in the population over the past 10 years, as well as improvements to the question designs, data processing and coding.”
Population growth in cities
Almost all of the population growth was in cities. More than half of all counties saw their population decline since 2010. The largest county population increase was in McKenzie County, ND, which grew by more than 130 per cent since 2010.
“Population growth this decade was almost entirely in metro areas,” said Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the Census Bureau.
“Texas is a good example of this, where parts of the Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas Fort Worth, Midland and Odessa metro areas had population growth, whereas many of the state’s other counties had population declines.”
Cities have grown faster than the nation as a whole. Population in metro areas grew by 8.7 per cent since 2010. The US population grew from roughly 308.7 million in 2010 to 331.4 million, a 7.35 per cent increase. That’s the slowest population growth since 1930-1940 – the decade of the Great Depression.
The Census Bureau’s decennial count was released on August 12 after being delayed several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The data includes detailed demographic breakdowns of everyone living in the US as of April 1, 2020, down to the neighborhood level.
Impact on congressional redistricting
The delayed release kicks off the rush for states to redraw their political boundaries ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. All 50 states will use the new data to adjust their congressional and state legislature district lines to reflect the updated count of their residents.
Partial Census data released in April indicated that 13 states would gain or lose seats in the US House of Representatives based on their state’s population change from the 2010 Census. Those states will redraw their boundaries to reflect those seat changes as well.
The new population counts will also help policymakers distribute more than $675 billion each year in federal funding among state and local governments.
