The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the US Population: Emerging American Identities

TLDR

Images and interpretations of the American racial and ethnic landscape are contradictory, with most accounts emphasizing increasing diversity from immigration and natural growth, while little attention has been paid to how intermarriage and ethnic blending shape and erode identities, and census classifications rely on folk categories that shift over time. The authors illustrate these issues through an in‑depth examination of the racial and ethnic reporting by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in the 2000 census. They analyze 2000 census data on racial and ethnic reporting for these four groups to assess how identities are constructed and reported. The study finds an “Americanization” pattern of simplified racial identities with little acknowledgment of complex ancestries for whites and blacks, national origin as the predominant mode of reporting for Asians and Hispanics—especially first‑generation immigrants—and predicts that continued immigration, intermarriage, and social mobility will likely blur contemporary divisions and boundaries.

Abstract

Images and interpretations of the past, present, and future of the American racial and ethnic landscape are contradictory. Many accounts focus on the increasing diversity that results from immigration and differential natural increase as well as the proliferation of racial and ethnic categories in census data. Less attention has been paid to the formation and erosion of racial and ethnic identities produced by intermarriage and ethnic blending. The framers and custodians of census racial classifications assume a “geographic origins” definition of race and ethnicity, but the de facto measures in censuses and social surveys rely on folk categories that vary over time and are influenced by administrative practices and sociopolitical movements. We illustrate these issues through an in‐depth examination of the racial and ethnic reporting by whites, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics in the 2000 census. The emerging pattern, labeled here as the “Americanization” of racial and ethnic identities, and most evident for whites and blacks, is of simplified racial identities with little acknowledgment of complex ancestries. National origin is the predominant mode of reporting racial and ethnic identities among Asians and Hispanics, especially first‐generation immigrants. The future of racial and ethnic identities is unknowable, but continued high levels of immigration, intermarriage, and social mobility are likely to blur contemporary divisions and boundaries.