According to the Census Bureau, the US will become majority-minority by 2045, meaning it will be the first time in the history of the nation that white people will not comprise a majority of the population. Given the longstanding myth of America as a melting pot, people may think that such demographic shifts were inevitable.
They were not.
In 1960, America was largely a two-race society with whites making up 85% of the population and Blacks, 11%. Up until that point, the U.S. had a highly restrictive immigration policy with a quota system that resulted in 70 percent of immigrants coming from just 3 western European countries. Most others were shut out of the American Dream.
So what changed?
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, eliminated the quota system, opening up the U.S. to the broader world. It was passed as part of a larger bundle of civil rights legislation designed to “eliminate race discrimination from U.S. law” and is a distinct “result of the civil rights movement”. As a result of the Act, the United States went from being a nearly all white nation to becoming the number one destination of immigrants around the world.
Without the Civil Right Movement, it’s highly unlikely that the United States would have broken away from its racist immigration policy, or opened its borders to nations across Asia, Africa or South America. No one credits the Civil Rights Movement for the nation’s transformation, not to mention all of the other ways that the movement served as the blueprint for later struggles for equality, but history holds the receipts.
And it’s not even the first time the quest for Black liberation blazed the path for others.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were created to bestow citizenship rights for Blacks, but in so doing, reconstructed citizenship for all Americans, including proffering citizenship based on being born in the US. Affirmative action was first advanced by the Kennedy Administration to advance racial and ethnic equality but turns out, it has benefited white women most of all.
And guess what, we ain’t mad. Black movements have always been about calling the United States into a higher and better version of itself. And in that vision, we all win.
We’re proud of our legacy in making America better, more open and tolerant for everyone. Even if we don’t get our due credit, and continue to be forced to carry an undue share of the burden, history proves that when you support the advancement of Black people, you support the creation of a more just and vibrant America.
At BIA, we will not be duped into believing that racism is not real, nor will we be bullied into whitewashing our work. We know the power that Black movements have always held, and will continue to work toward normalizing racial equity work, which is the only way we’ll ever have a chance at achieving a race neutral America.
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