For white supremacists in the US, the apocalypse predicted in the Mayan calendar came true: in 2012, for the first time, more than half of all babies born here belong to ethnic minorities. If trends hold, white people (or ‘non-Hispanic whites’, to be more accurate) will themselves become a racial minority here around 2040.
For non-bigots, these changes are merely a reflection of one of the US’s great strengths: its status as a constantly self-renewing nation of immigrants. But whether one celebrates the reality of diversity or yearns for the ‘traditional America’ depicted in sitcom reruns from the 1950s (Theodore ‘The Beaver’ Cleaver*, present; histories of racism and segregation, conveniently missing), shifting demographics are already reshaping US politics.
