# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/41 "2005-08-13T20:08:21Z")
> [@jimpatro](#): > > “White” apparently is a vague classification. Which is why I jumped your shit earlier upthread (no offense, btw; I hope you didn’t take it personally). It gives me the willies. Did you know that in South Africa under apartheid the Japanese were considered white and the Chinese not? Does that make any sense to you at all? [PBS ran a series on the history and absurdities of race a few years ago. Trying to [url=http://www.pbs.org/race/002\_SortingPeople/002\_00-home.htm]sort people](http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm) into preconceived categories is like herding cats. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/42 "2005-08-13T20:24:25Z")
So, they’re still a plurality. As anyone who’s followed mass politics should be able to tell you, a plurality is usually close enough. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/43 "2005-08-14T00:19:53Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Nobody forbids me from claiming that my white freckled redheaded native-North-Carolinian self is Korean, so I’m absolutely sure that you’ll be allowed to claim that you’re not white. Race is an unscientific concept (at least in the fashion that we’re using it here–there are, I believe, extremely limited fashions in which it may be used with scientific validity), and you can claim that you’re any race that you want to claim. > > Daniel Actually, I prefer to use ethnicity over the word race because I know that we are all part of the human race. However, I also believe that there are minor genetic differences between me, somebody who’s black, an Asian, Native American, etc… And as for the way I’m using it, well, that’s kind of complicated, but then, it is a complicated issue, which is why, I’m sure, most people tend to sometimes blur ethnic, cultural, and national identities. Oh, and not that it makes any difference, but I was born in America. ---
**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 14, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/44 "2005-08-14T12:58:53Z")
> [@Master Control](#): > > Oh, and not that it makes any difference, but I was born in America. As opposed to in Mexico? 😉 Yeah, I agree that it’s a complicated issue. While there are some scientific realities behind race (without doing any genetic testing on either of us, I know that my kids are less likely to suffer from sickle-cell anemia and more likely to suffer from skin cancer than the kids of my next-door neighbors), these are very rough categories, and they don’t really correspond to what folks are talking about the vast majority of the time they talk about race. There are cultural realities to race, of course, but these too are rough and inexact and often inaccurate. I like Kurt Vonnegut’s term _granfalloon_, which describes any arbitrary group that a person identifies with. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/45 "2005-08-14T13:49:45Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > I like Kurt Vonnegut’s term _granfalloon_, which describes any arbitrary group that a person identifies with. > > Daniel “To discover the nature of a granfaloon Examine the skin of a toy baloon.” It is fascinating to me how things I read oh, 35 years ago (and not since) have stayed with me, and shaped my thinking. ---
**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 14, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/46 "2005-08-14T14:39:24Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > “To discover the nature of a granfaloon > Examine the skin of a toy baloon.” > > It is fascinating to me how things I read oh, 35 years ago (and not since) have stayed with me, and shaped my thinking. 😃 That’s the one! That rhyme goes through my head very often. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/47 "2005-08-14T20:30:46Z")
I work for a large mortgage company. We’re required by the federal government to ask people about their race and ethnicity (although the borrowers are not required to answer). The first question asked is “Are you Hispanic or not Hispanic?” the second question is “What is your ethnicity?” These are the federal government’s classifications. So, yes, you can be, say, Hispanic and Asian (what, never heard of Peru’s criminal president Alberto Fujimori?). I have three cousins who are Hispanic and white. Two are redheads, one is blonde, all three have blue eyes and light skin. And they’re Mexicans. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/48 "2005-08-15T12:33:29Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > 😃 That’s the one! That rhyme goes through my head very often. > > Daniel Now I’m thinking it’s “puncture the skin of a toy balloon.” Hell, I guess it’s time to go to Amazon and re-stock some Vonnegut. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/49 "2005-08-15T13:09:48Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Now I’m thinking it’s “puncture the skin of a toy balloon.” Hell, I guess it’s time to go to Amazon and re-stock some Vonnegut. Form the horse’s mouth– “If you wish to study a granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon.” ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701/50 "2005-08-15T23:04:10Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Who knew that George W. Bush would be our first minority president? No, it’s going to be George P. Bush by a margin of 49% in 2050. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whites-no-longer-a-majority-in-texas/316701.md?page=2)