Shifting Demographics in the United States

Almost from its inception, the United States has been undergoing demographic transitions. Still, although it has always been a multicultural society composed of different cultures from numerous parts of the world, its peoples have always been joined as one country; diverse cultures living together in the belief in the universality of the American principles of freedom, equality, and self-government. But the United States has also always been a complex and often contradictory society and clashes between its various ethnic groups have been prolonged and common throughout its history. The misunderstandings and prejudices that have caused such clashes, however, have the potential to be exacerbated in the future as technology moves the United States toward a more global society. Essentially, during the 1990s, the United States will have shifted from a society dominated by whites and rooted in Western culture to a global society characterized by a variety of racial and ethnic minorities (Riche, 1991, p. 26).

While America's racial issues have traditionally been divided along the lines of black and white, the future of race relations in America will be radically different. Black and white Americans are now a declining portion of the population (Hacker, 1992, p. 21). Since 1970 individuals of European ancestry have declined by about 10 percent, while the national total of Americans of African ancestry rose by only one percent, largely due to new arrivals from the Caribbean (Ha

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