It is already known that the overall American population has grown very slowly over the last ten years. But on Thursday, the latest census office said the slow growth was entirely due to non-white Americans and concentrated in major cities. For the first time in the history of the United States, less than 60 percent of Americans fall into the category of “non-Hispanic whites” or white Americans of European descent.

This is important data not only in terms of population but also socially and politically. The 2020 census – delayed by the corona virus outbreak – shows significant changes in the 2022 midterm elections. With this data, different states will draw new boundaries for their constituencies. This is a complete process because the so-called gerimandering was elevated as an art form that had all the advantages for one party and made it difficult for one state to ‘win’ over the other.

Social significance may be high. In recent years, conservative (mainly white) Americans have sounded the alarm about immigration under the heading ‘big alternative’ – the Democracy and Allies Forum in the Netherlands has been translated as ‘population’. In short, right-wing politicians and prominent providers on FoxNews claim that the Democratic Party is deliberately promoting (illegal) immigration to increase its followers. In the words of the Fox host Tucker Carlson in April: Democrats are trying to turn current voters into “new people, very obedient Third World voters.”

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Trump wins

The decline in the proportion of white Americans in the population pyramid evokes that feeling. Between 2010 and 2020, more than half of the districts’ population declined. Who Census map The abstract also sees where it is strongest: from South Dakota to Mississippi and from the Kansas area to Pennsylvania. The old industrial states in the northeast of the country, known as the Midwest and Rust Belt, consist of declining districts. It is no coincidence that these are the areas where Donald Trump won his presidency in 2016.

During that election campaign, journalist Evan Osnos (who will later write a biography of current President Joe Biden) New Yorker With a leading neo-Nazi, Richard Spencer. Trump said he “naturally feels it’s about the population.” Trump explained that “white people have a subconscious – their grandchildren will become a hated minority in their country. I think it scares them.”