When the majority is no more

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has a very interesting web page at https://sites.google.com/a/dpi.wi.gov/dpi-vista-project/resources-1/pow….
It deals with the issue of whites in America and their advantage of privilege in this country. Take a look at it.
As reported on its own website, “The [Wisconsin] Department of Public Instruction is the state agency that advances public education and libraries in Wisconsin.”
It speaks for itself. In this column my point is much larger than the issue of privilege and I will take no sides on it or the other issues I cite here, so hold your fire and wait for my conclusion below.
In the northern suburbs of Atlanta, several areas, all part of Fulton County, Ga., the location of the city of Atlanta proper, have chosen to incorporate as their own distinct cities, pulling tax dollars into their domain and out of the reach of Fulton County. These include Milton, Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Chattahoochee Hills and Johns Creek. If you do not live in the area, you will not find any meaning in this other than to note it has not just been one or two isolated incidents.
Since arriving in Atlanta, I have always lived in Gwinnett County, just because it was convenient. I did not know about these other governance jurisdiction issues until recently.
The Economist magazine had an article about Sandy Springs a few months ago, citing it as an excellent example of how, with a fresh start, a city can be crafted that works.
As reported in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on March 29, 2011, The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking dissolution of these cities based on violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution (these new cities are predominately white, while Fulton County is 44 percent white, 44 percent black).
The whisper around town is the black leadership bemoans the loss of tax revenue which, through the taxing vehicle of Fulton County, could funnel county tax funds to prop up the city of Atlanta proper.
The lawsuit has been dismissed and is being redrafted. Who know the true motives? But that is still not my point. Read on.
We come to the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2012. In an article titled “Census Official, Citing Increasing Diversity, Say U.S. Will be a ‘Plurality Nation.’”
The lead paragraph of this article states: “The term 'minority,' at least as used to describe racial and ethnic groups in the United States, may need to be retired or rethought soon: By the end of this decade, according to Census Bureau projections, no single racial or ethnic group will constitute a majority of children under 18. And in about three decades, no single group will constitute a majority of the country as a whole.”
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There are more interesting issues raised by the NYT article, but for another day (related to an aging population and so forth, matters we covered a couple of weeks ago).
Since Reconstruction (which in my own thinking really lasted from 1865 until about 1965, with the passage of LBJ’s Civil Rights Act) the steady drum and theme has been that whites, i.e., the majority of the population, have had a long-term posture of suppressing the African-American (minority) population in conscious and subconscious ways.
Key to this postulate has been the white population arrived in what became the United States first and brought the African-American population here against their will and subjected them to all sorts of inhuman, unspeakable treatment.
Further key to this narrative is the descendants of the African-American population should expect the majority White population descendants to make amends through many, many avenues for actions taken by their long dead ancestors.
Finally, we get to my point. What happens to the attitudes and narrative when whites are no longer a majority in this country, a condition on the threshold as we speak? In the case of the plurality cited by the NYT article, it is obvious that several future voting blocs will exist: Blacks and Whites; Blacks and Hispanic; Hispanics and Whites.
Further, I can see situations where it is to the interest of these coalitions to all exist simultaneously.
Blacks and Hispanics may form a majority opposing abortion.
Whites and Blacks may form a majority wishing for stronger immigration laws.
Hispanics and Whites may promote removal of bureaucratic red tape on small business formation.
Politics, if not already interesting, is going to become even more so when there is no majority.
For when there is no majority, there is no straw man. The Hispanic population, soon to be as large as any other, has no role in the ancient narrative on slavery. This likely means they will have no interest in their tax dollars supporting any accommodation of these old grievances.
Some may think these coming demographic changes will jolt whites the most. I don’t think so. I think it is the African-American population which will be the segment most affected by this new order, for their long effective narrative may not be as successful as it has been. It will be an interesting new dynamic, politically speaking.
Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.