Some people on the right are worried about that. immigration A large portion of America’s white population will be replaced by non-whites. This hypothesis is sometimes called the “Great Alternative.” There is a great turnover going on, but these worriers are looking at things completely backwards. (As an aside, this post will not consider the pros and cons of changing ethnic composition. Rather, the changes that are of concern are: not happening. )
To understand why the Great Replacement Theory is wrong, it helps to start with a little American history. A century ago, people tended to have a more narrow view of the white race. The first settlers in the 1600s and 1700s tended to be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) from Northern Europe. This was followed by new waves of settlers from countries such as Ireland, Italy, and Eastern Europe. Today we think of these recent immigrants as white, but originally they were considered members of a very different ethnic group, a so-called “minority.” Over time, they became more successful and assimilated into the majority of the WASP population.here it is screenshot In several books that discuss how these groups became “white” in a cultural sense. (Again, I am using race here as a social construct rather than a biological category.)
Currently, the majority of immigrants come from Latin America and East Asia. They are gradually assimilating into the majority white population, often through marriage. In 100 years, people of Asian and Hispanic descent will be viewed as white in the same way that Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, and Irish Americans are viewed today.
My daughter is a good example. People who meet her for the first time almost universally see her as “white.” Yet, her daughter’s mother is from China. So, in a sense, my East Asian wife has been “replaced” by my white daughter. That’s the real “big change.”
While it is true that there are slightly fewer marriages between whites and blacks, that fact does not change the fundamental situation. Since 1990, blacks have made up 12% to 13% of the U.S. population, about the same as in 1870. The Great Replacement Theory is primarily concerned with the influence of Asian and Hispanic immigrants, where assimilation is occurring rapidly.
You will sometimes see predictions that white people will become a minority at some point in the future. Please don’t believe it. I’ve seen this kind of prediction many times in my life, and in a cultural sense, white people are as dominant as ever. What changes over time is our concept of what it means to be white. This category will continue to be redefined so that whites are in the majority. Although some on the left may view the process with suspicion, I believe that assimilation is a very positive development. The greatest ethnic conflicts tend to occur in countries that do not experience assimilation.
