# Whites no Longer a Majority in Texas **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 12, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701 "2005-08-12T07:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MAGunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@MAGunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MAGunter)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/1 "2005-08-12T07:16:27Z")
I’m quite surprised this hasn’t come up here yet. [There’s a nice graphic here.](http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050810/capt.gfx31508102311.census_minorities__gfx315.jpg) Here’s a little snippet about it per the Dallas Morning News(i believe it’s under the amount allowed under fair use): > [@](#): > > **Latinos edge whites out of majority** > > Texas is officially a majority-minority state with a distinctly cafe-con-leche hue, thanks largely to Latino population growth. > > Non-Hispanic whites dipped under the majority mark in Texas, around July 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. And minorities now make up about 50.2 percent of the state’s population, heralding further wide-ranging changes in commerce and culture, education and politics. > > The transformation was predicted three years ago by demographer Steve Murdock, who sees the shift as a “mixed blessing” and one that indicates where the rest of the nation is heading. > > The diversity brings a new energy and ideas, Dr. Murdock said, but it also brings challenges. It’s now more pressing that Texas improve services to its 22.5 million residents, as its future lies with the minority population, he said. > > Texas joins California, Hawaii and New Mexico as a majority-minority state. Five others – Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona – are next in line, with minority populations at about 40 percent, said the Census Bureau in a release Thursday. > > The Lone Star State’s new status is actually a re-transformation, said Roberto Calderon, a historian at the University of North Texas. He referred to Texas’ tumultuous entry into the United States following the U.S.-Mexico War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. > > “It’s a long time coming, despite the early history,” Dr. Calderon said. > > “Sometime before 2030, every single major city in Texas va a tener una mayoria Latina” or is going to have a Latino majority, Dr. Calderon said, switching into Spanish. > > Thus, the Texas of postwar national memory, of light-skinned oil barons and blonde beauty queens, is likely to blur in a state where minorities dominate. > > Some fifty years ago, the movie Giant etched its tale of money and prejudice through two generations of a Texas ranching family. Many remember Rock Hudson’s character getting beaten up in a diner for defending his Mexican-American grandson and his Mexican-American daughter-in-law. > > Today, some see a contemporary echo in that story line in the family of President Bush, whose Mexican-American nephew is a Dallas lawyer. > > And there are other signs of sweeping change in the state. At Parkland Memorial Hospital, eight out of ten newborns are Latino, and the No. 1 radio station in Dallas now has Spanish lyrics. The bustling wholesale zone along Dallas’ Harry Hines Boulevard was recently rechristened the Asian Trade District, thanks to the influx of Asian immigrant entrepreneurs. > > Two of the state’s largest cities, Dallas and Houston, have both recently had black mayors. In San Antonio, a Hispanic mayor recently completed his term… I’m not positive it’s a GD issue, but could very well see it becoming one, so I’ll start it here. After all, when Whites are actually a minority in the state-will they qualify under affirmative action? Will crime against whites be considered hate crime? Beyond the political ramifications (we all know an increasingly black/hispanic is the wet dream of the Democrats if they can appeal to them) what could this mean for the US when as a whole whites do become a minority? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/2 "2005-08-12T07:28:19Z")
> [@MAGunter](#): > > After all, when Whites are actually a minority in the state-will they qualify under affirmative action? Will crime against whites be considered hate crime? > > Beyond the political ramifications (we all know an increasingly black/hispanic is the wet dream of the Democrats if they can appeal to them) what could this mean for the US when as a whole whites do become a minority? No clue about affirmative action; I just don’t know enough about the program. Hate crimes are crimes in which the motivating factor is race, religion, ethnicity or color, so whites can already be the victims of hate crimes. [HIJACK]Does it have to be **the** motivating factor, or can it be **a** motivating factor?[/HIJACK] When whites become a minority as a whole… heck, it won’t bother me a bit. I’ve answered all “Race?” questions on official documents as “Human” for most of my life. If it turns out whites begin to experience adverse discrimination, I hope people go with “cracker” instead of “honky”, tho. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/3 "2005-08-12T08:37:46Z")
Hispanic people are considered to be non-white? 😕😕 Are they trying to say non-Anglo? ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/4 "2005-08-12T09:01:55Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Hispanic people are considered to be non-white? 😕😕 > Are they trying to say non-Anglo? I think they’re trying to say “Brown.” > [@](#): > > Beyond the political ramifications (we all know an increasingly black/hispanic is the wet dream of the Democrats if they can appeal to them) what could this mean for the US when as a whole whites do become a minority? Probably nothing drastic, so long as the change comes gradually enough. I’m strongly pro-immigration, but half of South America moving to the U.S. overnight would probably do serious harm to our commonly held civic values (respect for free speech, e.g.). Also, I doubt that the Republicans will be unable to win over their share of our new Hispanic overlords. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/5 "2005-08-12T10:42:42Z")
Funny. A hundred years ago, people were saying the same thing about the effect large numbers of immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe. I wonder who’ll they’ll be saying it about 100 years from now. I qualify as white. I’m mostly English, 1/8th Irish (see – I told you they’d take over!😉 ) with traces of French and German. I’m also an immigrant to the United States from England. That’s officially. However, my grandmother was born in India and I have some distant cousins who are definitely more Indian in appearance than English. It seems I may not be as white as I think I am. I also had the pleasure of living in Hawaii for seven years. While I can understand that it would be disconcerting for some who are used to thinking of themselves as being in the majority to find themselves in the minority, Hawaii is as good as an example of a working society as any I’ve seen. If anything, it may be a bit better since I saw less prejudice there, although even there it existed. I’ve never known what it’s like to be in the majority. As a young girl with a funny accent growing up in a small town, it was made quite clear to me that I was different and unacceptable. If whites ever do become the minority in America, I don’t see that as a bad thing. If anything, perhaps it will allow America to fulfill the ideals she embraces and which are written on the plaque the Statue of Liberty holds. CJ ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/6 "2005-08-12T11:37:25Z")
**Siege** raises a good point. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see, in the next couple of decades, the category of “Hispanic” disappear, as we reformulate whiteness to include Hispanic folk. I remember reading about the first wave of Cuban refugees that came to the US after Castro, and how astonished they were to find out that they were no longer white. As for affirmative action: AA is a set of programs that seeks to correct past injustices, not a program that seeks to benefit minorities. At the point where white people are not proportionately represented in colleges, boardrooms, etc., that’s the point where white people should benefit from AA. (Incidentally, there’s plenty of white people who currently benefit from some affirmative action programs. They’re called “women.”) As has already been pointed out, racially motivated crimes against white people are already covered under hate crime laws. I read many years ago that in some jurisdictions, prosecution of hate crimes against whites was more common than prosecution of hate crimes against blacks. Certainly such prosecutions have already occurred. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/7 "2005-08-12T12:00:00Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > **Originally Posted by Sunspace** > > Hispanic people are considered to be non-white? > > Are they trying to say non-Anglo? > > I think they’re trying to say “Brown.” Or even “Black.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/8 "2005-08-12T13:32:15Z")
> [@MAGunter](#): > > I’m quite surprised this hasn’t come up here yet. > > [There’s a nice graphic here.](http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050810/capt.gfx31508102311.census_minorities__gfx315.jpg) > > I’m not positive it’s a GD issue, but could very well see it becoming one, so I’ll start it here. > > After all, when Whites are actually a minority in the state-will they qualify under affirmative action? Will crime against whites be considered hate crime? > > Beyond the political ramifications (we all know an increasingly black/hispanic is the wet dream of the Democrats if they can appeal to them) what could this mean for the US when as a whole whites do become a minority? Do you have a specific problem with caucasians being in the minority? Do you believe that people of _other_ ethnic backgrounds who are currently in the minority should do something about increasing their population? If you want to start a debate, the least you could do is start by giving _your_ honest opinion on the matter. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/9 "2005-08-12T13:33:50Z")
This is news, but not big news. ‘Whites’ are still the majority. It’s just that now “Everybody EXCEPT ‘whites’” has more members than ‘whites.’ It will be a while before whites are a minority, and even longer, given socioeconomic conditions, before ‘non-whites’ enjoy the same advantages. And it is safe to bet that the establishment political party will find a way to draw distinction away from race and onto class in an effort to win/keep the votes of the better-advantaged ‘non-whites.’ Racial makeup is not as important as community of interest, and while they tend to run along the same lines, this is not as big a step toward change as people want it to be. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/10 "2005-08-12T13:50:55Z")
> [@Happy Scrappy Hero Pup](#): > > ‘Whites’ are still the majority. [nitpick]Well, they’re not the majority anymore, that’s the whole point of the term “Minority Majority”, that the majority of the people in question are minorities. Since there still seem to be a lot more white folks around than any other category, but not more than half of them, they’d have a plurality, I think.[/nitpick] But then, I’m not sure how arbitrary the definitions of “Majority” and “Plurality” are, so I could just be talking out of my ass (wouldn’t be the first time, no the last 🆒 ) ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/11 "2005-08-12T13:53:27Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘Whites’ are still the majority. > > It’s just that now “Everybody EXCEPT ‘whites’” has more members than ‘whites.’ Right, hence they’re not a majority, which is at least 50%+1. Whites in Texas are now a plurality. I agree that it’s not a big deal, though. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/12 "2005-08-12T14:13:29Z")
> [@MAGunter](#): > > Will crime against whites be considered hate crime? Yes, because a racially motivated crime against whites is _already_ a hate crime. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/13 "2005-08-12T15:02:07Z")
> [@MAGunter](#): > > After all, when Whites are actually a minority in the state-will they qualify under affirmative action? Whites are still a PLURALITY, just not the flat-out MAJORITY. So I don’t see why they would get or need affirmative action. AA is also (rightly or wrongly) supposed to help del with some social problems that white people in general were not harmed by. > [@](#): > > Will crime against whites be considered hate crime? It already is, as far as I know, if race is the motivation. > [@](#): > > Beyond the political ramifications (we all know an increasingly black/hispanic is the wet dream of the Democrats if they can appeal to them) what could this mean for the US when as a whole whites do become a minority? Unless “everybody who isn’t white” becomes a political bloc, arguably not very much in the short term. Republicans and Democrats are both scrambling to appeal to Latinos, as they are the largest minority group in America and growing fast, I think. White are a majority in all but four states (Texas, California, New Mexico, Hawaii), and fairly soon they may not be a majority in a few more. [Here’s the CNN article on this topic.](http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/11/census.minorities.ap/index.html) It notes that whites are projected to be the majority in America until 2050 or so. The terms “majority” and “minority” may be technically inaccurate, but I expect they’ll stick around. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/14 "2005-08-12T15:08:24Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Whites are still a PLURALITY, just not the flat-out MAJORITY. So I don’t see why they would get or need affirmative action. AA is also (rightly or wrongly) supposed to help del with some social problems that white people in general were not harmed by. White women were harmed by some of these social problems, and benefit from some of the compensatory programs. Dunno if that qualifies for “in general,” but it demonstrates that you don’t have to be a numerical minority to qualify for AA programs. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/15 "2005-08-12T15:16:17Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > White women were harmed by some of these social problems, and benefit from some of the compensatory programs. Dunno if that qualifies for “in general,” but it demonstrates that you don’t have to be a numerical minority to qualify for AA programs. That’s a good point and I meant to include it. I think the OP may have confused “whites are no longer a majority” with “whites are a minority group.” It would take a very long time for any one group of people to outnumber white people. It’s a little hard to state these as flat numbers, since there can be overlap between “white” and “Hispanic,” but in the 2000 Census 211.5 million people (77% of the population) identified as white, and 35.3 million (12.5%) a Hispanic. So that’s roughly six times as many white people as the next largest group. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/16 "2005-08-12T15:25:12Z")
Even if people of color outnumber whites five-to-one someday, whites will probably still be the “elite.” Numbers have nothing to do with power. Whites will likely still control the government, and also be the ones who own the businesses. Prejudice may actually _increase_ when the numbers of “minorities” increase. Racist whites will become more insular and exclusive of other groups in order to maintain their status. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/17 "2005-08-12T15:26:00Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > Prejudice may actually _increase_ when the numbers of “minorities” increase. Racist whites will become more insular and exclusive of other groups in order to maintain their status. You’d certainly expect them to get more and more frantic as the minority populations continue to grow relative to Whitey. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/18 "2005-08-12T15:45:27Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Hispanic people are considered to be non-white? 😕😕 > Are they trying to say non-Anglo? Which is indeed indicative of the folly of the “racial” classifications we’re working with. Under the census bureau definition, a “Hispanic” can be anyone who claims lineage from Latin American roots. Even if neither he nor his parents ever spoke a word of Spanish, and his only link to the “home culture” is an enjoyment of _chile verde_. If we were to use the most-of-the-world sense of the word “white” in racial terms, to mean looking “caucasian”, then a whole buncha “Hispanics” qualify easily (self included). So would most people of Middle Eastern roots. In much of Latin America, it would seem preposterous to claim that Bill Richardson is “nonwhite”. If we were to use the designator “Anglo” to mean _Anglophone_, i.e. whose native language is English, and whose primary cultural referents are mostly developed within USA society as it evolved since foundation – then “Anglos” are still an overwhelming majority since that would include virtually all African Americans as well. And that ties in with one thing that we often miss: if there ever was one _single_ monolithic “White Anglo” American culture, it was doomed from the start. There are and have always been Rural/Urban, Eastern/Western, Northern/Southern, “Old Arrival”/“Recent Arrival” upclass/downclass divides _within_ the “Establishment” culture. Rather than risk increasing friction, I too think that by 2050 TPTB will find a way to ditch the “minority/majority” component in this social taxonomy and, for instance, refocus AffAct on whether the person’s situation is associated with a disadvantage in opportunity (e.g.: the daughter of a poor rural white-anglo from Appalachia probably needs much more help than my son) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/19 "2005-08-12T17:36:35Z")
Who knew that George W. Bush would be our first minority president? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/20 "2005-08-13T00:22:17Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Hispanic people are considered to be non-white? 😕😕 > Are they trying to say non-Anglo? People from Latin American countries, are either predominantly Black, White, Native American, or various mixtures thereof. Somewhere along the line, ethnicity and culture got mixed up, and when people hear Hispanic or Latino (a cultural denominator), they automatically think non white, even though Hispanic and Latino have nothing to do with ethnicity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701.md?page=2)