|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
White Americans have the lowest poverty rate and second highest median household income and personal income as well as educational attainment levels in the nation, after Asians, who rank first in all said categories. But this assessment must also take into account that Asians represent only 4.3% of the United States population. Among whites, Jewish Americans rank first in household income, personal income and educational attainment among white Americans. In 2005, non-Hispanic white households had a median household income of $48,977, 10.3% above the national median of $44,389. The poverty rate was three percent below national average with 8.6% of white individuals living below the poverty line.[5] Overall, nearly one-third of white Americans had a Bachelor degree, with the educational attainment for whites being higher for those born outside the United States. Nearly forty percent, 37.6%, of foreign born and 29.7% of native born whites had a college degree. Both figures are above the national average of 27.2%.[6] American-born Cuban Americans (half of the Cuban American populace), almost all classify as white, and have a higher median income and educational attainment level than non-Hispanic whites.[7]
U.S. Census statistics and definitionsWhite American is the largest racial group counted in the 2000 Census, comprising 77.1 percent of the population. This includes about 2% of the population who self-identified as "white" in combination with one or more other races; about 8% also identified ethnically as Hispanic. The largest ethnic groups among white Americans were Germans followed by the Irish and the English.
Geographic distributionAccording to the Census definition, white Americans are the majority racial group in almost all of the United States. They are not the majority in Hawaii, many American Indian reservations, parts of the South known as the Black Belt, the majority-Hispanic Central Valley of California[8], and in many urban areas throughout the country. Overall the highest concentration of non-Hispanic whites, those referred to as white alone by the Census Bureau was found in the northern Midwest, New England, the Rocky Mountain states, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The lowest concentration of non-Hispanic whites was found in southern and mid-Atlantic states.[9][10][11] Income
According to Darlene Hine, Stanley Harrold and William C. Hine in their 2005 college textbook The African American Odyssey: "the modern day economic inequities running along racial lines are largely the result of white Americans having historically faced the least discrimination of any racial demographic and have as a result had more time to built up wealth."[12][13] Even though non-Hispanic white males, however, had the highest median income of any demographic, the same is not the case pertaining to non-Hispanic white females or Hispanic whites, regardless of sex.[14][15] Today, however, the median household as well as personal income for white Americans is the second highest of any racial demographic, largely the result of white Americans having the second highest educational attainment levels in the nation. Poverty rates for white Americans were the lowest while the median income per household member was the highest, since white Americans had the smallest households of any racial demographic in the nation. In 2006, the median individual income of a white American age 25 or older was $33,030, with those who were full-time employed between ages 25 and 64 earning $34,432.Image:Income inequity US.png In 2005, non-Hispanic white males had the highest median income of any demographic among those with earnings, above age 25.[16] Gender income inequality was the greatest among whites with white men outearning white women by 48%. Census Bureau data for 2005 reveals that the median income of white females was lower than that of males of all races. In 2005, the median income for white females was only slightly higher than that of African American females, indicating that income inequities seem to run along gender lines more so than along racial lines.[16]
SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2006 Historical meaningsImage:White American ancestries by ethnicity graph.jpg White American
15.2% 10.8% 8.7% 5.6% 3.2% 3.0% 1.7% 1.6% 1.6% 1,5% 1.4%
The 2000 United States Census defined the white race as follows: "The term White refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa." It includes people who indicated their race or races as white or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, Polish and Scottish. Other ethnicities reported include Dutch, French, Canadian, Australian and Scandinavian. The official definition of race used in the Census and other data collection gives national origin a racial value, which can be somewhat problematic for Middle Eastern Americans and North African Americans who are not commonly seen in social circles as white but are encompassed in the official definition. Many different peoples that are now considered "white" in the United States were not initially perceived as such. Irish Americans were not considered white until the idea of white shifted to an identity that contrasted themselves with black slaves.[17] The process of officially being defined as white by law often came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship, which in the early 1900s was allowed to only those immigrants deemed white. Another predicament is that by simply responding Israeli on the census can lead to a person being categorized as white. This disregards whether the Israeli (if Jewish) is of European (Ashkenazi or Sephardi) or Middle Eastern (Mizrahi) descent, or instead is of Ethiopian (Beta Israel), Yemenite (Teimani, considered by some to be a Mizrahi subgroup) or Indian descent. German AmericansThe first Germans arrived in the North American colonies in 1608[18] with the first German settlement, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania being founded on October 6 1683.[19] Because of their early arrival and Teutonic ancestry, they faced less discrimination than many other European arrivals. Today, Germans are the largest ancestry group in the United States[12] and some sub-groups such as the Amish and Hutterites continue to preserve the lifestyle of German pilgrims.[20][12] Most were seeking available land as well as religious freedom at the time.[19] Image:Jamestownzuniga.jpg Jamestown at the time of the first German arrivals to the colonies in 1608.[18] Many settled in the English colony of Pennsylvania. In the 18th century, many persons of English descent harbored resentment towards the increasing number of German settlers. Benjamin Franklin in "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.", complained about the increasing influx of German Americans, stating that they had a negative influence on the early United States. The only exception were Germans of Saxon descent"who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased". Benjamin Franklin most likely thought favorably of the Saxons because Anglo-Saxons like him were thought to be the descendants of Saxon invaders to Britain. By the late 19th century, despite some lingering nativist resentment towards new arrivals, Germans, along with Scandinavians and the Dutch, were included with the British as America's old stock, and thought of as racially superior to later immigrants from southern and eastern Europe.
Unlike most European immigrant groups whose acceptance as white came gradually over the course of the late 19th century (that is, in U.S. colloquial definitions, since all Europeans had been white by legal U.S. definition), German immigrants quickly came to be accepted as white. [21] German-Americans were the largest group of immigrants during the 19th century, outnumbering both English and Irish immigrants, making German-Americans the largest ethnic group in the United States today.[12] The Amish, who were originally from Zurich, Switzerland, arrived in Pennsylvania during the early 18th century. Amish immigration to the United States reached its peak between the years 1727 and 1770. Religious freedom was the perhaps most pressing cause for Amish immigration to Pennsylvania, which became known as a haven for persecuted religious groups at the time.[22] The Hutterites are another example of a group of German Americans who continue a lifestyle similar to that of their ancestors. Hutterites, much like the Amish, fled persecution for their religious beliefs and came to the United States in 1870. Today Hutterites mostly reside in Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota as well as in the western provinces of Canada. Hutterite continue to speak German, with most being able to speak Standard German in addition to their dialect.[20] Irish AmericansImage:Chicago River dyed green, focus on river.jpg The Chicago River is colored green every Saint Patrick's Day in honor of Irish Americans, who are America's second largest reported ancestry. In the 19th century, Irish immigrants were often discriminated against because of their heritage majority Catholic religion. Irish fear of Protestant indoctrination in public schools is what led to the drive to open U.S. Catholic parochial schools. This eventually led to the founding of the University of Notre Dame, along with many other Roman Catholic universities. Eastern European and Slavic AmericansSlavic Americans were classified as legally white upon their arrival at Ellis Island. However, they were considered "'ethnics'...and 'not quite white'" [1] by the colloquial understanding of the time. Legislation was also passed, such as the Immigration Act of 1924 to restrict and reduce their further entry. But they were not denied citizenship or prevented from full participation in American society. A wide variety of ethnic groups from Eastern Europe: Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Croat, Bosniak, Serb, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Ukrainian and Bulgarian, established communities in American major cities in the early 20th century, especially in New York City and Chicago. Jewish AmericansAccording to one source — although not supported by census records of the period which recorded all Jews as white — European Jews in America did not become accepted as 'white' until the 1940s.[23] As early as 1911, German/American-Jewish anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1952) purported in The Mind of Primitive Man, that "no real biological chasm separated recent immigrants from Mayflower descendants."[24] Ergo claims of difference were based on prejudice, whether religious or ethno-cultural, and had no biological basis. Anti-Semitism was prevalent in the world, including the United States, in the early part of the 20th century, but after World War II, public attitudes toward Jewish Americans changed to more positive depictions, and American Jews enjoy a relative acceptance. Nonetheless, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists continue to deny them recognition as whites. Italian AmericansMass immigration to the United States from Italy occurred during the late 19th and early 20th century. Italians had been colloquially considered "ethnic" or "not quite white" along with some other southern European immigrants, such as Greeks, Albanians, Romanians and Bulgarians.[25][2] However, northern Italian immigrants were seen as a more "desirable nationality"[3] after northern Europeans. Italians often fell victim to stereotypes of criminal involvement, anti-Catholicism, ethnic and cultural prejudices, and violence. Anti-Italian violence caused lynching in Tampa[4]; and eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans, one of the largest mass lynchings in United States history. The Immigration Act of 1924 reduced the entry of Italians into the United States. Southern Italians were classified as a different nationality primarily at the request of their northern Italian counterparts.[26]. Today, over 15 million Americans claim Italian descent. The largest communities are found in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Illinois, but many Italian Americans live in other states like Florida, Maryland, Louisiana, Indiana, and California. Hispanic AmericansHispanic refers to those who carry the cultural legacy that originated from the Iberian Peninsula, once the Roman province of Hispania), today comprisin Spain and Potugal. When applied today it may refer to peoples who may have more varied and complex racial and cultural backgrounds. Despite differences in ancestry from one Latin American to another — encompassing people from the Southwestern United States and Mexico to Central America, South America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean—they all tend to be labeled as Hispanic, often erroneously giving it a racial value. The term non-Hispanic white is used for clarity to designate those who do not belong to a racial or ethnic minority group. Of the over 40 million Hispanics or Latinos in the United States Census, 2000, a plurality of 48.6% identified as White-Hispanic, 48.2% identified as Hispanic-Hispanic (most of whom are presumed to be mestizos), and the remaining 3.2% identified as black-Hispanic. Judging by census intermarriage statistics, even non-white 'Hispanics' — that is, mestizos and mulattos — may be in the process of integrating into the majority community and often labeled as white. Mestizos and mulattos, however, are oft-times considered or consider themselves non-white. The media and Hispanic community leaders in the United States refer to Hispanics as a separate group from "whites" and the "white majority". This may be because white is often used as shorthand for non-Hispanic white. Federal agencies' standards have become more precise in this regard. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explicitly defines Hispanics as a separate and distinct "ethnicity."[27] Newer versions of this form [5] follow the Census Bureau in separating Hispanic self-identity from "racial" self-identity. The term "Hispanic" refers to the Spanish language and religion and may not include culture, because nearly all of the countries in Latin America, South America, and the Caribbean have roots outside of Spain and its culture. In Mexico, for example, roughly about 8% of the population has nearly all of its roots in Europe or to a lesser degree the Middle East. About 20% of the population descends solely from the indigenous peoples of the region, which would include the Mayas and the Aztecs, and remain to a degree 'un-hispanicized'. Many of them do not speak Castilian (Spanish), and practice both Native beliefs and Catholicism. The remainder of the population shares a mestizo racial and cultural legacy, influenced by Spainish as well as indigenous elements. Hispanic CaribbeanCaribbean countries such as Cuba[6][7][8], Puerto Rico and especially the Dominican Republic have a complex ethnic heritage since they include an indigenous and African legacies. Africans were imported to the islands in throughout the colonial period (and indeed Blacks accompanied the first Spanish explorers, with more arriving to harvest sugar in the 20th century prior to the Revolution[9]). Thus Cuba, as well as other Hispanic Caribbean islands have significant African roots. Over half of Cuban Americans arrived since 1980, reflecting a wide cross-section of the socio-economic and racial spectrum.[10] The move to "Whiteness" for Hispanics may be seen in the quote below from University of Texas researcher B.E. Aguirre, referring to Cuban Americans but reflecting wider racial history and realities for Hispanics. "This racial tradition or claim to Whiteness became a normative expectation; immigrant Cubans expected other Cuban immigrants to be White. The preference to Whiteness pre dates the minority community experience in the United States, for in Cuba—probably more so in the Republican (1902–1959) than in the Revolutionary period—racism was prevalent and it was common for Blacks and mulattoes to try to pass as Whites. It is unsurprising then that this shift to Whiteness continues among the newer arrivals even as it is challenged both from inside and outside the group. Inside it, there is the increased presence of mixed race phenotypes among post-Mariel Cuban immigrants. Side by side with it there is the presence of mass cultural images racializing and devaluing them. In contrast to the political exiles, the present day transnational community is darker and is faced with increasing unfavorable treatment by the federal government."[11] On the decennial census form, a respondent who checks the Hispanic or Latino ethnicity box can, in a following question, also check one or more of the 5 official race categories. Supporters of this policy claim that statistics on Hispanics as a group must be collected in order to track discrimination, for purposes such as affirmative action — in the same way they are for non-white racial groups, and for women. The bureau, in contrast, simply says that they are mandated to ask such questions by the United States Congress. Mexican AmericansThroughout the history of the United States, Mexicans and Mexican Americans have held different racial statuses, including that of whites. Today, however, according to U.S. Census criteria and other governmental legal constructions, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and any other persons of a Hispanic national origin are considered independent of any single race. Instead, a person may identify their Hispanic nationality, or identify generically as Hispanic or Latino and then separately indicate any one or more of the five officially recognized racial groups (or alternatively check other race). In the 2000 U.S census, however, around half of all persons of Mexican or Mexican American origin in the U.S. checked white to register their race (in addition to stating their Mexican national origin). [28] The 1930 U.S. Census form asked for "color or race." The 1930 census enumerators were given these instructions: "write W for White; Mex for Mexican, but from 1940 to the latter part of the century the instructions were: "Report white (W) for Mexicans unless they are definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race."[12], [13] When Mexicans were uniformly allotted white status, they were permitted to intermarry with what today are termed non-Hispanic whites (unlike blacks and Asians). They were allowed to acquire U.S. citizenship upon arrival; served in all-white units during the World War II; could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio; ran the state politics and constituted most of the elite of New Mexico since colonial times; and went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Angeles. Additionally, Asians were barred from marrying Mexican Americans because of their legal white status. During the Great Depression, Mexicans were largely considered non-white. Between one and two million people were deported in a decade-long effort by the government to free up jobs for those who were considered Americans. The campaign, documented in popular book called "Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s" by Francisco E. Balderrama, is known as the Mexican Repatriation. These action were authorized by President Herbert Hoover and targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas and Michigan. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support for the program when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts. It left festering emotional wounds that for many have not healed. Estimates now indicate that approximately 60% of the people deported were children who were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens.[14] Many of these people returned to the United States when the country experienced labor shortages during World War II. The federal government has since issued an apology. [15] Historic presence
The Hispanic presence in the United States is the second longest, after the Native American. Most Americans associate the early Spanish in this hemisphere with Hernán Cortés in Mexico and Francisco Pizarro in Peru, but Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States, too. The first confirmed landing in the continental U.S. was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida. Image:Spanish Empire.png An anachronous map showing areas of the United States and other territories pertaining to the Hispanic world at various times over a period exceeding 400 years. The Spanish colonial empire at its territorial height in 1790. Regions of influence (explored/claimed but never controlled or vice versa) or short-lived / disputed colonies. Portuguese possessions ruled jointly under the Spanish sovereign, 1580–1640. Territories lost at, or prior to, the 1714 Peace of Utrecht. Spanish Morocco and Spanish West Africa, 1884–1975. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the east coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Maine, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon. From 1528 to 1536, four castaways from a Spanish expedition, including a black Moor, journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California. In 1540, De Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present U.S., and in the same year, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today's Arizona-Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas. Other Spanish explorers of the U.S. make up a long list that includes among others, Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Juan de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English tried to colonize, at Roanoke Island. The Spanish settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico, also predates Jamestown, Virginia, and Plymouth Colony. Later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, to name just a few. The Spanish even established a Jesuit mission in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown in 1607. Two iconic American stories have Spanish antecedents, too. Almost 80 years before John Smith's rescue by Pocahontas, a man by the name of Juan Ortiz told of his remarkably similar rescue from execution by an Indian girl. Spaniards also held a thanksgiving, 56 years before the Pilgrims, when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans. As late as 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States (in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska). From 1819 to 1848, the United States and its army increased the nation's area by roughly a third at Spanish and Mexican expense, including three of today's four most populous states: California, Texas and Florida. Hispanics became the first American citizens in the newly acquired Southwest territory and remained a majority in several states until the 20th century. North African and Middle Eastern AmericansAccording to the U.S. Census definition, North African Americans and Middle Eastern Americans are classified as white, and U.S. federal agencies group all Middle Easterners and North Africans as white. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regulations also explicitly define white as "original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East," and the Census Bureau's decennial form offers no check-box for such a self-identity under the race question. North African and Middle Easterners, however, are usually not included within the general structural concepts of white American society. The U.S. Census classification of North African and Middle Eastern Americans as white is largely done in a legal context. Various other countries account for them in non-white categories. In the United States, common non-governmental, colloquial and social understandings of "white" differ from the country's official government definition by excluding Muslims even if they otherwise look white.[29] Self-identification should also be taken into account, since for example, most Egyptian Americans would not consider themselves white. A person who would have written Egyptian in entries relating to ethnic origin is automatically considered white. People who check Other race and wrote Egyptian or another North African or Middle Eastern country are still counted as white. Many forms specifically ask people of North African or Middle Eastern descent to check white for race. An Egyptian man once sued the U.S. government to have white removed from his immigration documents. [16] Similarly, the U.S. Census considers Egyptian and Berber Americans as Arabs, even though most Berbers and many Egyptians object to this classification. In the American context, the common contention of excluding these largely Caucasoid groups of North Africa and the Middle East from the popular definition of "white" (as opposed to the official government definition) has been based on the argument of their disparate cultural, religious, linguistic heritage and ancestral origins. It has also been based on the argument that there is a significant sub-Saharan component in their populations [17] — a long-spanning presence throughout the history of that largely contiguous region. While it is undeniable that some people in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula have enough black African ancestry or are dark enough — at times being as dark-complexioned as some African Americans — to be considered nonwhite by popular U.S. standards, some may also be lighter-complexioned by comparison, comparable to southern Europeans. Similarly, although some people of the Levant may also be as dark as those found in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, others are lighter-complexioned. Finally, a percentage throughout the Middle Eastern and North African region as a whole may even resemble northern Europeans. Lebanese and Syrian Americans are the most common in the U.S.[30] Iranian AmericansThe 2000 US Census estimated that 338,000 Iranian Americans reside in the United States. In 2004, the Iranian-American population was estimated at 691,000 by a group of Iranian Ph.D. candidates enrolled at MIT, working to compile statistics at the request of Persian associations and community leaders in the United States. Large concentrations of Iranian Americans live in California; more than 500,000 live in Southern California, particularly in the Los Angeles area with its Iranian American residents sometimes referring to as Tehrangeles among Iranian Americans, in allusion to the Iranian capital of Tehran. There are also large concentrations in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York City, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., and around Dallas and Houston, Texas. A sizable Iranian American community developed in Oklahoma since the 1970s and 1980s (mostly in the cities of Tulsa and Oklahoma City). An NPR report recently put the Iranian population of Beverly Hills as high as 20% of the total population. Iranian communities in the U.S. have varying religious and ethnicities (Mizrahi Jews, Bahá'ís, Muslim of secular backgrounds, Azeri, Armenian, Gilak, Kurdish, Mazandarani, Chaldean, Assyrian.) A study was launched by the Iranian Studies Group at MIT, to publish the socio-economic characteristics of the Iranian-American population. 338,266 U.S. residents claim to be of Iranian (Persian) ancestry, though many Iranians claim this number to be largely understated. The largest populations of Persian-Americans can be found in California, New York, Texas, and Washington. According to the study, 26.2% of Iranian-Americans attain a masters degree or higher, the highest percentage of the 67 ancestry groups. 56.2% attain a bachelor's degree or higher (2nd), and 90.8% receive a high school diploma or higher (2nd). The median family income is $42,000 (20% higher than the national average). Iranian-Americans have founded and/or participated in senior leadership positions of many major U.S. companies, including many Fortune 500 companies such as GE, Intel, Verizon, Motorola, and AT&T.
Asian AmericansSince the mid-19th century, the United States has experienced immigration from the countries of Asia. With this, there has also been mounting legislation which was passed trying to restrict these peoples from immigrating, most forcefully against the Chinese. The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted naturalized American citizenship to whites only.[18] As a result, in the early 20th century many new arrivals with origins in the Asian continent petitioned the courts to be legally classified as white, and hence there exist many United States Supreme Court rulings on their "Whiteness".[citation needed] In successful cases, such as the case for Armenians — who were then known as Asiatic Turks — their legal acquisition of whiteness was achieved with the help of anthropologist Franz Boas who had testified as an expert scientific witness [19]. In other cases, the courts appeared to contradict themselves on the parameters for whiteness, with the cases of Takao Ozawa v. United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923) being a prime example. In the first case, the court ruled that Takao Ozawa, of Japanese descent, was not white, despite the fact that he was of a pale complexion. The court stated that in U.S. law, the anthropology at the time which classified the Japanese as belonging to the Mongoloid race, overruled his pale pigmentation. In the latter case, the court ruled that Bhagat Singh Thind, of Indian descent, was not white despite the fact that Indians were deemed Caucasian by physical anthropologists. The court stated that in U.S. law, "the common understanding of the white man" overruled physical anthropology. East and Southeast Asian AmericansNineteenth-century Asian American people of East and Southeast Asian origin were not considered white.[20] These Asian Americans have therefore always been classified as Asian, or as belonging to the Mongoloid race.[21] In Jim Crow era Mississippi, however, Chinese American children were allowed to attend white-only schools and universities, rather than attend black-only sc | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
