OUR FINDING: FALSE
Last month data from the 2020 Census indicated that Whites were now 23% of Whittier's population and the end of White majority districts was trumpeted. However a deeper look at the new numbers indicate that those who identified as White actually didn't go anywhere but were instead relabeled as something else. According to the data, Whittier's Indigenous American population rocketed from less than half a percent of the population to a record breaking 5% of the population. The increase did not come from an increase in births among the Indigenous peoples in Whittier nor from immigration from the reservations. Those who immigrate from Latin America or Canada are not included in the count because for Census purposes, Indigenous American means only those people who are Indigenous to the United States of America itself. So what happened? Many Whites, who for the first time had the legal right to identify their other backgrounds, made the decision to do so. We saw the same with the increase in the number of Whittier residents identifying as partially Black. As one Census employee informed us, Whites who put down on the census that they had Indigenous American ancestry were to be marked on the final results as Indigenous American exclusively or Black exclusively in order to inflate the numbers for those groups. As with Whites, all Blacks in the US who have been here for centuries are racially mixed with all having White ancestors and a few having Indigenous ancestry.
Even more interesting is that according to the Census, the White and Black populations on the reservations have increased in some cases and this is due to the fact that in the US there are entire tribes, such as the Cherokee and other eastern US tribes, where members are racially and ethnically mixed with other groups. It was found that the most common mixture for both Indigenous peoples and Black Americans was White ancestry.
However most of this was not reportable on the census due to the fact that manner in which the census did its data reporting remained relatively unchanged except in a couple of circumstances. This led to the impression that Whittier's population dropped to 23% when what really happened is that most Whites were relabeled as something else if they had even one ancestor that was that something else. We did see an increase in the mixed race population and that particular group is actually White people who are mixed with some other population such as Indigenous American, Black, Indian, South Pacific Islander, or even Central/South American.
One big even that is affecting the numbers is the those who are taking the data to draw new districts are misrepresenting Hispanics/Latinos as a separate race when that group is actually just a cultural group, not a race nor an ethnicity. In fact most Hispanics/Latinos are racially White such that when you draw Council districts that are majority Hispanic you are still drawing majority White districts. The only thing that has declined is the number of Whites who come from Northwestern Europe. Instead we have a lot of White people who are coming from places outside of Northwestern Europe such that while we will still end up with White majority districts, Whittier will not have any Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, or German majority districts. Indeed most Whittier council districts are likely to be Hispanic White majority districts. Whether it is Anglo White or Latino White it is still White. The cultural affinities make zero difference in the matter.
As with Blacks, all Whites who have been living in the US for the last 4 centuries or longer are, in point of fact, racially mixed. Even the members of the KKK were and are racially mixed with the very groups they profess to dislike such that it was literally the case that you had people with Black ancestry burning crosses in front of the homes of other people with Black ancestry. And you have Jewish people of mixed race backgrounds spooling out antisemitism against other Jews. The only Whites and Blacks who are not racially mixed are those who arrived here after the 1860's. It is the same with the nation's Indigenous peoples. the only pure Indigenous in most cases are people who immigrated from Latin America and whose people are not in fact indigenous to the USA. Most people who are Indigenous to the United States are racially mixed with both the Whites and the Blacks. And they were here before the newly arrived immigrants from Latin America. So when a White person says they were here before the Mexicans, they are speaking truth if they were here prior to the 1860's. And we have been seeing this with Whites with old colonial ancestry where they had both Black and Indigenous American genetic ancestry versus more recent arrivals from Europe who had no such mixed ancestry.
In addition we also have long had Whites with Indian and other South Asian genetic ancestry and this was due to the Romani mass migration to Europe just before the Age of Discovery which resulted in Whites who had South Asian ancestry they themselves were unaware of until the genetic testing industry came along and revealed that before Columbus, American's White ancestors mixed with people from Northern India.
And we have the same with regards to Jewish ancestry. Every White and Black American whose family has been in the US since the 1500's and 1600's has Jewish ancestry. For many Whites, a lot of that ancestry actually traces all the way back to Europe itself where Jews and non Jews would often mix. Ashkenazi Jews are basically Jewish people who are mixed with non Jewish groups as are the Sephardic Jews.
You mix these groups, Whites, Blacks, Indigenous people of the USA, Indians, and Jews together and you get the Native American ethnic group called Ethnic Americans. Ethnic Americans are just another group of Native Americans whose family lines are Indigenous to the United States. Which is something we've been preaching for the last two years while being bashed and slandered by those who had no clue what they talking about when it comes to American history and American ethnic groups.
What Census 2020 has done proven that we were right and our opponents were wrong about this particular issue. Many White Americans are Indigenous to this country because of the fact they do in fact have Indigenous ancestry. However, it is also true that while a lot of Whites, particularly those of us with ancestors who were here in the 1500's and 1600's have Indigenous ancestors, most Whites, especially those who arrived post 1860, do not. It is very rare to find a White person whose family came here in say the 1870's, who also has Indigenous American ancestry but such people do in fact exist.
However none of this is reflected in how the Census reports its findings. While it improved the way people are allowed to report their ancestry and ethnic mixtures, the manner in which the Census reports those numbers and the manner in which disticting consultants report those numbers has not kept and the old method is still being used to draw new districts and this can lead to a big misunderstanding with people thinking they are drawing districts where the majority has no White ancestry at all only for people to find themselves in districts where most residents do in fact have White ancestry, hence putting them again in White majority districts.
So in the end, what happened this year is that a legal right, that was for at least a century extended only to non Whites, became available to Whites for the first time ever and many Whites chose to take advantage of it. And it is opening a lot of eyes. Last year when we interviewed a lot of participants during the protests, we ran into a lot of Black and Brown people who insisted that mixed race Whites didn't exist. This must be an eye opener for them. But the existence of those mixed race Whites were the only reason why so many White people were supporting the George Floyd protests. Whites, via genetic testing, were becoming more aware of their own mixed race backgrounds. It was just that back then as now most Blacks, Hispanics, and other non White peoples are unware of and totally unappreciative of just how mixed White people in the US, and in Whittier in particular, really are. The only Whites who opposed the protests were those few who had no mixed race backgrounds. Most White Americans are mixed with non White groups. And non White activists exclude mixed race Whites to their own peril.
So the statement that Whites are small minority in Whittier is false when all data is accounted for. By extension that means that the statement that there will be no White majority council districts in Whittier is also false. Just as the manner in which we report our ancestral heritage has changed, so must the way in which we use the data for districting also change to reflect the reality. What is true is that Whittier will not have Anglo White majority districts but will instead of Hispanic White majority districts. Let those who have eyes see and understand these things.
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