Race Through the Years

There is an assumption that race has changed in the last fifty years in America. Indeed, the past dozens of years introduces plenty of changes in the modern United States' structure. The so-called cold war has finished, computer and telecommunications revolutions begin to transform economy into more stable and more sustainable structures, there are some changes brought into the lifestyles of the U.S. citizens. Apart from that new waves of immigration made American society more culturally diverse, and made a significant contribution into the issue called by one of the scientists "the first universal nation" in the world (Cose, 1997).

Further evolution of the United States of America on the basis of its strengths and weaknesses related to race issues became the hearth of these rapid changes. Racial and ethnic aspects played an important role, as these aspects had great impact on further development and the future of the country. However, ethnic and racial situation in the modern America is inextricably entwined with global economic crisis, which seems to become a real threat to the international security issues.

National and ethnic issues should be obviously considered the most important for the U.S. society, especially when they are examined within the framework of the events that occurred during the past few decades. Ethnic and racial conflicts appear on a regular basis throughout the world, thus making possible to speak about the existence of certain regularity. It should be taken into consideration that national question, as well as the process of change of race through the years in the United States may be examined as the evidence of confrontation of the two tendencies. Both these tendencies are objective, as both of them are accomplished and realized in the actions of millions citizens.

The first tendency is related to the nation's desire to achieve self-acknowledgement and independence, while the second one, on contrary, exemplifies the desire to create huge polyethnical communities and formation of powerful super nations, where various ethnic groups, traditions and cultures form the integral whole (Morgan, 2006). Taking into consideration the tendency of changes of "race" through the years, it is difficult to make an assumption concerning which one will be prevailing over the next decades.

Yet, it seems that both these tendencies have the aim to overcome all, both new and old, forms of national and ethnic inequality. To a certain extent it can be referred to as democratization of inter-ethnical and international relations, but, despite its advantages, the democratization gives birth to even more complicated issues. For example, while exploring how the race did change through the years, we should necessarily examine America and its part. In this case, the United States represents some sort of an open space for collaboration aimed to facilitate cooperation and interrelations of various ethnical communities and races within the frameworks of super-nation.

However, the risk of ethnical collisions and ethnical conflicts appears to be relatively high, and, therefore, may become a preventive factor to the future success and sustainable growth. Current structure of the U.S. super-nation, with all changes the race undergone through the past decades, in conditions of liberalism expansion provides no sufficient guarantees neither for further development of democratic society, nor for its economic prosperity. Besides, as it is claimed by some researchers, the 'melting pot' operates inefficiently if compared to the previous years.

At the same time, there is an important empirical fact that under the influence of mass immigration from the Asian, Latin American, and African countries the so-called "porosity" of ethnic space becomes more and more evident, as there appear more or less significant dissemination of Chinese, Korean, Burmese, Vietnamese, Mexican, and other communities. This fact becomes the issue of primary importance for the further development of racial and ethnical relationships within the U.S. community.

Obviously, there are specific examples of these "porosities", such as China-towns, where the citizen of U.S. origin had almost no access to. According to the opinion of some researchers, such porosities like China-town became the turning point in formation of the U.S. nation. Indeed, in the country, there the territory was the main state-formatting element started to appear the territories, where inhabitants had almost no need to speak English, as these were the places where racial and ethnical minorities lived. In fact, it became the obvious proof to the fact that the U.S. melting pot failed to cope with the nationalities, whose ethnical dominant in self-identification, self-actualization and self-expression was relatively strong.

For example, within the last fifty years China-towns established traditional social structure peculiar to Chinese society, with all distinctive peculiarities and features (Confucianism, the cult of formal and informal authorities, congener priority, isolation, and, finally, criminal triads). All these features were unable to fit the traditional U.S. system. In case the U.S. authorities were capable to cope with European criminal structure, no one have ever heard about the successful attempt of the U.S. authorities to control Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Korean, or Vietnamese criminal structures and criminal groups.

In fact, the U.S. authorities are unable to control them effectively, as, due to various racial conditions there is almost no possibility to integrate into their structures. The subject at issue is also that the very difference lays not only in direct racial features, such as color of skin, or eye size, but rather in something more important, which is inaccessible to the Americans of Asian, or Latin American origin.

The logic of development of racial and ethnical processes in the United States, similar to the processes that occur throughout the world, may lead to the dusk of segregation related to various ethnic and racial communities. In its turn, it may result in social pathologies able to transform the United States significantly. For example, there is a concern that American may soon become a country with the unmistakably Asian color due to abundance of Asians in the United States. Nowadays the United States exposes the tendency to become the country, where the percentage of white Americans will be lower and lower with each subsequent year.

It should be also taken into consideration that it was racial and ethnical factor that provided a specific "shade of color" to the U.S. community. As it is asserted by the scientists, among other events and factors that are claimed to stipulate the specifics of American civilization, racial and ethnical factor was, arguably, the most decisive one. In contrast to other world communities, such as European and others, racial and ethnical relations, along with the conflicts at different stages, played an independent, and even a major and decisive role in the U.S. social environment; moreover, they correlated with social class delimitation but never were subordinated by them.

At the present stage of development of the American society racial and ethnical factor plays an increasingly important role in social environment. The U.S. sociologists more and more often use the term 'multicultural' (this term implies, before all, multiethnicity) while attempting to analyze the modern society in the United States. This fact serves the evidence to the importance of racial and ethnical changes in the U.S. within the past fifty years. Naturally, America has always been a nation of immigrants, however, since the early 1970s the famous American melting pot seemed to be unable to 'melt' racial and ethnical multiculturality. The increasing diversity of races and ethnical groups stipulated social dynamics and tension in the U.S. society to a greater and greater extent.

It is also important to note that the development of multiculturality is one of the brightest and fundamental events of the American reality (McCaa, 1993). Multicultural diversity has many manifestations and, in particularly, it brings awareness to the fact that various racial and ethnical communities refuse to accept a certain integral concept of the U.S. society.

Along with these worrying issues, the U.S. does have tolerance in racial and ethnical relations. National tolerance and respect for each other are really amazing. Yet, the U.S. society's tendency for racial and ethnical segregation is obvious. The contrasts in conditions and social constraints and tension in relations and communication between the whites and the minorities are significant. The statistic data also shows different results concerning multicultural and racial segregation aspects. Although the U.S. society claims to be the multicultural society, where all races and colors are welcomed, only 5 percent of respondents answered the question about their ethnical origin as "Americans", while the remaining part of the respondents related themselves to the specific ethnical group (Morgan, 2006).

For a lyrical digression, it is interesting to examine ethnical groups and their share in the U.S. community. So, according to the previous survey, the largest ethnical groups are German, Irish, English (British), and African-American (where each of the groups makes up over 20 million people). The next seven groups in order of decreasing are Italian, Mexican, French, Polish, Native Americans, Dutch, Scottish-Irish, where each of the given ethnical groups make up over six million people. Finally, there are 28 ethnical groups of over 1 million people each (Morgan, 2006).

During the past twenty five years the United States was almost absorbed in a, probably, the largest wave of immigrants from the time of the end of World War I. From the early seventies onwards over 16 millions of legal immigrants have crossed the U.S. frontiers. The exact number of illegal immigrants is quite difficult to define; however, it can be told for sure it is measured in millions of illegals. The increase in population due to immigration became the natural consequence of economic stability and prosperity of the United States. In case in the range from 1960 to 1970 the immigrants made up about 11% of the increase in population, in the next ten years, from 1970 to 1980 they made up already 33%, and in the subsequent ten years - about 39%. The share of population that was born outside the United States also increases. Nowadays it makes up about 8.7 percent, or over 20 million people (Waller, 1998).

The U.S. government tried to undertake the appropriate measures in order to find solution to the problem of changing race and to 'save' the 'face' of America. In 1965 the U.S. government has passed the new immigration law (Waller, 1998). The qualitative and quantitative indexes of immigration were changed significantly. For example, before the law was adopted, more than 70 % of the U.S. visas were provided to the immigrants from England, Ireland, and Germany (compared to about 1 percent of the U.S. visas for African countries, and 2 percent for Asian countries). The liberals of the mid-1960s were unable to foresee the outcomes of the new legislation. Kennedy considered that the new regulation would be unable to make the U.S. cities and towns overcrowded with immigrants and, naturally, would be unable to violate the ethnical structure of the U.S. society (Rosenbaum, 1994).

However, the results of the immigration law were completely different from those of predicted by the U.S. government. The immigration law of 1965 resulted in, probably, the hugest inflow of immigrants (besides, the majority of these immigrants were of Latin American and Asian origin). In 1992 the U.S. White population made up 212,912,000 while non-White U.S. population made up 66,408,000 persons (i.e. 72.6 percent and 23.8 percent correspondingly). The blacks made up 31,635,000 persons, Hispanics - 24,238,000 persons, Asians - 8,401,000, and Native Americans made up about 2,134,000 persons accordingly (Morgan, 2006).

This so-called ethnic unevenness of inhabitation of the various racial and ethnical groups over the territory of the country was conductive to creation of non-White ethnic clusters (the areas of habitation where the given ethnic group makes up 35 and more percent of population), such as Texas, California, and New Jersey, to mention a few. The process of hispanization of the U.S. South Western territories continues to occur. Some researchers compare this hispanization to a so-called peaceful re-conquista of the territories that were previously taken away by the U.S. citizens from Mexico in the past century.

Nowadays Hispanic population makes up about 28 percent of Texas' population, and 31 percent of California's population (Morgan, 2006). At no time before the United States faced such kind of mass concentration of the representatives belonging to one strong ethnic group that, besides, consistently replenishes itself and becomes more and more populated due to the immediate vicinity of Mexico and the endless inflow of immigrants. The similar tendency can be traced also in case we examine the concentration of the immigrants from South-Eastern Asia, and the islands from the Pacific Ocean regions at the Western coast. In result of territorial concentration the U.S. experiences the rapid growth and development of cities that became non-White (such as Miami, Washington, Detroit, Atlanta, New Orleans, and New York, to mention a few).

The process of immigration in the United States causes a number of historically unprecedented issues in cultural and political areas. One of them directly relates to the unpredictable consequences of deceleration of the assimilation process in America. The U.S. researchers focus attention on segmentary character of assimilation in the ethnical and racial groups of immigrants. As they claim, the immigrants enter the groups that have much in common with them. Especially it relates to the original culture that significantly differs from the traditionally American one.

To a certain extent, one can claim that the so-called 'melting pot' is gradually replaced by the mosaics of racial and ethnical communities. The increasingly low percentage of mixed marriages (interracial and interethnic marriages) may be also called on of these changes. According to one of the recent surveys, only 2 percent of the White marriages were mixed (with Hispanics or non-Whites). What concerns African Americans, only 4 percent of them married people of the other ethnic origin (6 percent of males, and 2 percent of females, accordingly), and 70 percent of Hispanics, who were born in the U.S. married Hispanics (in the majority of cases of the same ethnic origin) (Morgan, 2006).

Two thirds of Asians marry Asians (similar to Hispanics, in the majority of cases of the same ethnic origin). Japanese are the most endogamous among all other Asians (Sanjek, 2001). In such a way, the metaphor of the universal 'melting pot' that was uniting the immigrants from various countries into one universe nation, hardly corresponds to the reality, and, therefore, it was replaced by the concept of 'mosaics'.

According to the concept of 'mosaics', there are specific ethnical 'dissemination' in the ethnic space of the modern White Anglo-Saxon America (Cose, 1997). The quantity of these "disseminations" has considerably increased in result of so-called conjunction of various immigration groups, such as Russians, Latin Americans, and the representatives of the South-Eastern part of Asia. As far as America declares the philosophy of pragmatism, it strives to make the model of ethnical 'mosaics' an attractive one, claiming that this dissemination expresses the country's cultural diversity in its diversity of cultural communities.

However, this kind of fragmentation of ethnical identity may lead to tension and even conflicts due to diverse groups of interest and specific pressure on the process of decision making. This may occur, primarily, due to the fact that each of these ethnic groups displays interest to their ancestor's countries and strives to help their former co-countrymen. In order to understand the seriousness of the problem, it is enough to remember the activity of Irish, Jewish, Armenian, Greek, Ukrainian, Russian, or African lobbying.

Indeed, the race has gone through drastic changes during the past fifty years. The problem of ethnical lobbying can be considered in fact as an issue related to interpolitical boundaries of the foreign policy. It is difficult to forecast whether the presence of self-circuited racial and ethnical groups, those, who still have elements and stereotypes peculiar to their native cultures, may serve as the reliable and strong protection to the U.S. policy. The problem of ethnical sub-cultures and mentality may become the issue of primary importance in the country, where more than one third of the U.S. army is the representatives of various racial and ethnical groups.

The United States experience the stage of drastic changes in its racial composure. However, it should be taken into account that these changes are not over. According to some researchers, these changes are so great that in less than one hundred years the non-Whites, such as Latin Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans, will exceed the Whites, the Americans of European origin. As it is claimed by the researchers, by 2080 the proportion of the Whites will decrease to 50 percent (from its present 74 percent), whereas the overall quantity of the non-Whites will considerably increase (Latin Americans to 23 percent, African Americans to 15 percent, and Asians to 12 percent, accordingly) (Sanjek, 2001). The changes in race are so great that there is an assumption that by 2035 only 49 percent of the U.S. children will be Whites.

As we have already mentioned before, the multiracial changes occur very quickly, compared to the other countries. In the coastal territories and large cities the changes in race occur considerably faster than in the small towns, suburban areas, and the villages. Many cities have crossed the majority-minority threshold approximately twenty five years ago, and the changes continue to occur.

However, the changes in race are not as threatening as one can consider. These changes, to a great extent, reflect multicultural model of the United States, and the conviction that cultural, racial, and ethnical changes are not only welcomes, but also are valued and treated as the nation's strengths. Racial and ethnical diversity is the chance the nation should use, but not the obstacle that should be overcame on the way to the U.S. nation's prosperity. The major task of the U.S. society is not to get rid of the racial and ethnical differences, but rather to find an appropriate way to manage society with such an abundance of races and ethnic groups.

References

Cose, E. (1997). Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World. Portland, OR: Frank Cass.

McCaa, R. (1993). Ethnic Intermarriage and Gender in New York City. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 24 (2), 207-231.

Morgan, A. N. (2006). The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rosenbaum, E. (1994). The Constraints on Minority Housing Choices, New York City 1978-1987. Social Forces, 72 (3), 725-747.

Sanjek, R. (2001). Color-Full before Color Blind: The Emergence of Multiracial Neighborhood Politics in Queens, New York City. American Anthropologist, 102 (4), 762-772.

Waller, L. (1998). Newspapers, Diversity and You. Princeton, NJ: The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund.