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Since the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the start of the Colonial period, the U.S. has been predominantly white.
But the white share of the U.S. population has been dropping, from a little under 90% in 1950 to 60% in 2018. It will likely drop below 50% in another 25 years.
White nationalists want America to be white again. But this will never happen. America is on its way to becoming predominantly non-white.
The U.S. federal government uses two questions to measure a person's race and ethnicity. One asks if the person is of Hispanic origin, and the other asks about the person's race.
A person is defined as white if he or she identifies as being only white and non-Hispanic. A minority, or nonwhite, person is anyone who is not solely non-Hispanic white.
[...] Whites were not the first people to settle in what is now the U.S. The first immigrants were a people known today as American Indians and Alaskan natives, also commonly referred to as Native Americans. They arrived in North America around 14,000 years ago.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, there were around 10 million American Indians living in the lands north of Mexico. But by the 1800s their numbers had dwindled to about 1 million. They are now the smallest race group in the U.S.
The first sizable stream of immigrants to what is now the U.S. were whites from England. Their arrival at Plymouth in 1620 in search of religious freedom marked the start of large waves of whites coming to this land.
When the U.S. was established as a country in 1776, whites comprised roughly 80% of the population. The white share rose to 90% in 1920, where it stayed until 1950.
[...] Although the majority of the U.S. population today is still white, non-whites account for more than half of the populations of Hawaii, the District of Columbia, California, New Mexico, Texas and Nevada. And, in the next 10 to 15 years, these half dozen "majority-minority" [PDF] states will likely be joined by as many as eight other states where whites now make up less than 60% of the population.
Census Bureau projections show that the U.S. population will be "majority-minority" sometime between 2040 and 2050. Our research suggests that this will happen around 2044. Indeed, in 2020, there are projected to be more non-white children than white children in the U.S.
Source: phys.org; original at The Conversation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Thursday May 02 2019, @01:00PM (8 children)
"Guairen" doesn't mean "whitey." It means "stranger."
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:01PM (7 children)
I am a gweilo. Yes people call me this to my face. I don't find it offensive. I know what it means. It is a rather apt description when amongst yellow based people. I really don't care if they think it is derogatory. They do still use my actual name in conversion. Other than that it's Bring the gweilo with you :-)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 02 2019, @02:33PM (6 children)
Ghost man is a pretty cool description, actually. Probably most any Caucasian would like being called a ghost man - unless he's a Goth or something like that. It sets us apart, and makes us special, right?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 02 2019, @05:14PM (4 children)
"Guai" is more along the lines of "freak" or "supernatural evil" than "ghost." The Japanese "youkai" is cognate to "yaoguai" in Mandarin and uses the same characters, something like "charm/strange/supernatural" + "freak/evil/demon/monster." It's not a nice thing to be called.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 02 2019, @06:45PM (3 children)
You're using facts, and being rational. Remember how "yankee doodle" started out? It was an insult. Americans took that insult away from the Brits, took it, owned it, and celebrated it. Same here. It is given that the term is an insult, but the white guy in question has taken that insult, and owned it. Now, it means "ghost man", and he can celebrate the notoriety and whatever else comes with the term.
Black folk haven't mastered that yet, but they have something of a handle on it. Among black people, "nigger" has a boatload of meanings. "My Nigga" can be, and is, taken however any two blacks want to take it. Insult, endearment, comisseration, whatever.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday May 02 2019, @06:59PM
Not even a close comparison. "Guailao" carries overtones of fear with it. "Nigger" was created to be the verbal equivalent of the whip across a black man's back. I wish to hell they'd stop throwing it around. It's one reason I try not to use "dyke" either and cringe when gay guys throw "fag" around.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday May 03 2019, @03:30AM (1 child)
Yes, they definitely have, several times in history. The fact you're using "black" is proof of it. "Black" used to be an insult for at least a century or more, usually indicating a "full black" in the days when it was more desirable to be thought a mulatto or quadroon than 100% "black." But the Black Power movements of the 1960s reclaimed that word.
Before that, black intellectuals like DuBois reclaimed "Negro" which was thought to be associated with the history of slavery in the late 1800s, but they rehabilitated that word so that by the 1920s and 1930s it was the preferred polite term (still around in the UNCF initials).
So yeah, "black folk" definitely have done this. For some more history see my discussion here [stackexchange.com].
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 03 2019, @02:40PM
Nice article, thank you. But - I don't see the mastery of taking ownership of words there. Mostly, because it's so serious. Yankee Doodle? There was little if any serious discussion - it was fun, and mocking. "So, those slobs think we're yankee doodles? Let's just show them how a yankee doodle can whip their asses!" https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/short-history-yankee-doodle/ [allthingsliberty.com]
The rehabilitation of words referring to Black folk was dead serious. Things like Yankee are the subject of school boys, juvenile young soldiers, and the slightly older young soldiers, not to mention every drunkard in any pub.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:10AM
We were at a party with some of her friends and mine when one of her friends called me that. My friends missed it. Her friends were horrified at the social lapse.
When explained to my friends they thought it was an awesome nickname.