USA300H1 Lecture Notes - United States Census Bureau, Statistical Population, Big Data
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
USA300H1 – Diversity Explosion
• Different approaches to American Race
o Both Sollors and Frey interested in the making and effects of race
▪ Fre: desries a eplosio of iorities that he predicts will be viewed as a
transformational event in the future; giving us the scale of his argument
▪ Sollors: tracing a distinct American version of personal identity based on self-
definition as opposed to definition based on descent
• Differing methodologies: Frey working with demographic statistics,
while Sollors working with a body of literary texts
• Sollors examines what makes an American; Frey what makes America
• William Frey: demographer known for research in political demographics
o Frey widely published in both scholarly and more popular presses
▪ Contributor to public policy, consultant in re: urban populations (an area of his
expertise) and to United States Census Bureau (also his epertise
▪ I the ase of this ook, Fre ated to speak to a geeral audiee
• Fres log areer i deograph led hi to otie a startlig shift i
American populations, the move towards a majority-minority nation
o The study of demography: statistical population science, analysis of data
▪ The work of analyzing data (e.g. population increase/decrease) and gathering
conclusion: not engaged in affecting the behaviors of population, etc.
• Cf. Lees attetio to idiidual ehaior: deographers ofte also
under the sociology umbrella, but interested in big data, not microcosm
• Shifts in demographics, their surprising-ness and their visibility
o Geographial ialae: soe parts of the outr dot see these hages
▪ People in these sectors may be unconvinced by the imminence of this change
▪ Reflection in politics: race, representation, and change objects of public interest
• The fact of this trend in ethnic shift is widely accepted, but the question
of the outcome of this shift very much under discussion
• The results of this shift really involved with issues of electoral politics
o Eergee of Ne Miorities ad dereasig Old Miorities
▪ Old Miorities of Afria-Americans and indigenous a small fraction of pop.;
Ne Miorities of Hispais, Asias, ad ultiraial people groig rapidl
• Region and Generation in Demographic shift
o Signal of racial shift: already, more minorities babies being born than white babies
▪ Demographers interested in under 18 populations, since these are the
populations of the future, predictors of future trends
▪ ‘apid agig of hite populatio: ee now, fewer white babies born
o Strongest implication of population shift in the demographics of children in the
southwest, California and south; pockets of the north in cities
▪ Ne Meltig Pot states: oetratio of iorities i eltig pot ities like
NYC, Chicago, no longer the dominant pattern in minority growth
• Ne raial iorities residig i e plaes: the rural south, et.
• Challenging what we expect demographic change to look like
▪ Conclusions drawn from generationality and regionality of change: shifts in
American racial makeup not about immigration policy, and so on
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