The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream

Richard Alba

Published by Princeton University Press 2020

The Great Demographic Illusion

Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream

Richard Alba

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691202112

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why the number of young Americans with ethno-racially mixed backgrounds is surging and what this means for the country’s future

Americans are under the spell of a distorted and polarizing story about their country’s future—the majority-minority narrative—which contends that inevitable demographic changes will create a society with a majority made up of minorities for the first time in American history. The Great Demographic Illusion reveals the flaws in this narrative and how it obscures a more transformative development: the rising numbers of young Americans from ethno-racially mixed families, consisting of one white and one nonwhite parent. Examining the unprecedented significance of mixed parentage in the twenty-first-century United States, Richard Alba looks at how young Americans with this background will play pivotal roles in the country’s demographic future.

Assembling a vast body of evidence, Alba explores where these mixed families fit in American society. Most participate in the mainstream, as seen in their high levels of integration into social milieus with whites and frequent marriage with them. Yet, racism is also evident in the very different experiences of individuals with black-white heritage. Alba’s portrait squares in key ways with the history of American immigrant-group assimilation, and indicates that, once again, mainstream American society is expanding and becoming more inclusive. He discusses social policies that might enhance mainstream assimilation and argues that the future is more likely to resemble a gradual evolution from the present rather than a stark overturning of an established order.

An outlook on social change that counters more rigid demographic beliefs and predictions, The Great Demographic Illusion offers a new way of understanding American society and its coming transformation.

Author / Editor information

Richard Alba is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. His many books include Strangers No More (Princeton), Blurring the Color Line, and Remaking the American Mainstream.

Reviews

"Examining issues of broad concern, The Great Demographic Illusion challenges the idea of an inevitable majority-minority society, shows the significance of the growth in the number of people of mixed origins, and describes the likely emergence of a new multiracial mainstream. An innovative, insightful account of the assimilation process today, this is an outstanding book with much to offer."—John Iceland, Pennsylvania State University

"The Great Demographic Illusion tackles a crucial, central theme underlying racial debates in America, namely the presumption of a durable binary division between white and nonwhite in American culture and politics. Building his arguments around the rapidly growing group of people who are of mixed parentage, Alba addresses the majority-minority question in a serious way. It is time for an updated thinking about race, and in this regard, this is a landmark book."—Dowell Myers, University of Southern California

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction: The Narrative of the Majority-Minority Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Enigma of November 2016 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
3. The Power of the Demographic Imagination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
4. The Demographic Data System and the Surge of Young Americans from Mixed Family Backgrounds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
5. What We Know about Americans from Mixed Minority-White Families Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
6. Some Ideas and History for Understanding Today’s Ethno-Racial Mixing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
7. Assimilation in the Early Twenty-First Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
8. Social Policies to Broaden Mainstream Assimilation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
9 Toward a New Understanding of American Possibilities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303