AlterNet: Pockets of White America Are in the Throes of an Existential Crisis

[marmar]

Pockets of White America Are in the Throes of an Existential Crisis

By Rich Benjamin, AlterNet. Posted December 19, 2009.

As the Census "time bomb" ticks, fear mounts over a perceived loss of whites' raw power - demographic, social, economic, and political.



The headlines snared my attention over the last several days. "White Americans' Majority to End By Mid-century," announces The Associated Press. "Projections Put Whites in Minority in U.S. by 2050," declares The New York Times.

The Census Bureau has been churning some provocative press releases between its last head count (2000) and the one next year. Why, I wonder, the palpable anxiety? And why don't these headlines announce a positive reading of this statistic? Why not: "By 2050, People of Color Will Be a Majority"?

Already, 40 percent of Americans under the age of twenty-four are not white. Between now and 2050, the Latino population is projected to triple, the Asian population to double, and the non-Hispanic white population to flatline.

Meanwhile this week, two white police officers in Shenandoah, PA were indicted in federal court for filing false reports about the beating death of Luis Ramirez, a 25-year old undocumented worker. (When the immigrant was murdered in 2008 in the Pennsylvania hamlet, one of police officers was dating the accused teenage assailant's mother.) And the Justice Department announced this week that federal hate crimes cases are at their highest level since 2001.

"Do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, of which you're a part, and so am I," said Bill O'Reilly to John McCain in 2007, complaining about the number of undocumented Latino immigrants. "They hate America, and they hate it because it's run primarily by white, Christian men. They want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/144672/pockets_of_white_america_are_in_the_throes_of_an_existential_crisis

[Burma Jones]

1. Latino immigration started really ramping up in the Reagan years....DUH

As the upper tier of the white, Christian, male power structure got tired of the lower tiers of that same power structure asking for more, Unions were weakened and Immigration Laws were only applied to the Immigrants, not those that exploited their labor. All you have to do is foment war in Central American nations and not prosecute Business Owners hiring Undocumented workers........

What white, Christian, wealthy man doesn't want a docile work force?

[provis99]

2. you got it exactly right

they whine about being swamped by non-whites on the one hand, but love to exploit that non-white labor. Hypocrites all of them.

[Mopar151]

3. Several comments about "minority whites"

One of the things that gets to me - a pasty white boy from Trailer Trash Nation (NH is one of the whitest states in the country)- is that my relatives in particular ("DAR qualified" Anglos, ethnic French-Canadian and Portugese) who bark the "speak English" meme constantly grew up in or around households where a 2nd language was often spoken. I have a close relative in a nursing home with a number of Haitian aides, and Meme' hears them gossiping in Haitian French - she gets upset because her Canadian French leaves her, and her dementia, unsure of who they are gossiping about, and she can't eavesdrop as well as she'd like. Another one goes on about "towelheads", but his favorite drinking spot is the Polish Club, and he won't miss a Greek Orthodox church supper.

Boy, do some of Chris Rock's rants on race and culture ring true for me - like this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui6-Wc0PDc4
Plug Nitwit into this in place of N_______, and it sho' do fit. Chris sez: "The worst thing about a "nitwit" is that he wants credit for doing (or being -my edit) something that a decent person would'nt think twice about" (at 2.10 in the clip).
IMHO, that is exactly what BillO, Lyin' Lou, and Cryin' Boi are bitchin' about - That they are soon to lose the advantage of: Being white, being male, and speaking a limited vocabulary of American English. Collateral to this is that they are less likely to be a "ROB" or "SOB" (relative of boss) - And sadly, that is about all a lot of these losers have "going for them".

My grandmothers were Hmong, and they never told me... I was in Wisconson, on a bad errand for the corporate swine who employed me at the time. I was chillin with the shoprats at morning break, and they were bitching about the Laotian Hmong people who had been resettled here (for thier own safety, after their tribe worked as mercenaries for the CIA). Most of what they were whining about was that the Hmong (who are country folk and farmers) went a little wild with gardening - Like the whole yard of the apartment building they'd been moved into, and some misguided attempts at indoor horticulture. The whole time these losers are whining, I'm thinking of my grandmothers, with their big gardens and cellars full of home-canned food. And the cookie jar that was never empty, because you never knew who would turn up hungry.
I love the real, rainbow, multicultural America, because the food's awesome, and it's a better place to live than "Trailer Trash Nation".

[Tutankhamun]

4. Wow! Bill Orally teaches me something new yet again!

I wasn't aware that liberals hate America because the country is run primarily by white, Christian men. And nobody told me about our plans to flood America with millions of foreign nationals so that we can bring down the power structure. I must be really out of the loop! Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster I've got Bill Orally to explain my own intentions to me.

:sarcasm:

[yurbud]

5. this is probably worries GOP in another way besides losing their base:

Once whites become a minority, they might see the value of the party of minorities.