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Sample Student final exam answers 2019 (2019 final exam assignment) Part 3: Model Research Reports |
LITR 4340
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Heidi Kreeger
The New Normal: America's Image in
2043
It fascinates me that when my
parents were born, interracial marriage was still illegal in much of America. Of
course we have grown as a country since then but I have personally witnessed how
slow the progress has been. I was born to a white American father and Korean
immigrant mother so I am mixed-race but growing up there was only one family in
our school that had one white and one black parent and everyone seemed keenly
aware of it. However, my generation seems to have embraced multi-cultural
marriage at a much larger rate and as I myself have half black children I am
curious if this trend will continue and what the face of America will look like
when my daughters have children. What do all the experts and projections have to
say about race in 2043, and will there be anyone left who can claim to be of
only one race?
Let me first address my choice of year: my mom was born in 1959 and had me in
1987 at the age of twenty-eight. When I turned twenty-eight I had my first
child, a daughter, born in 2015, and when she is twenty-eight years old it will
be 2043.I am a millennial who often hears about how our generation is so radical
and different with our parenting techniques. My hope is that radically different
parenting will lead to radically different views about inter-marriage between
both immigrants and minorities. As I mentioned my mother is a Korean immigrant,
but my parents’ marriage was rarely viewed as negative in the way that most
black/white marriages were at the same time. And black/white marriages were not
just frowned upon but legally prohibited until Loving v. Virginia in
1967.
A Pew Research report in 2012 corroborated much of this when it concluded that
“nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) say it ‘would be fine’ with them if a
member of their own family were to marry someone outside their own racial or
ethnic group. [However] In 1986, the public was divided about this. Nearly
three-in-ten Americans (28%) said people of different races marrying each other
was not acceptable for anyone, and an additional 37% said this may be acceptable
for others, but not for themselves. Only one-third of the public (33%) viewed
intermarriage as acceptable for everyone.” The same report also studied how
Americans of different ages, races, political affiliations, education levels and
even locations currently view mixed marriages. It found that “Minorities,
younger adults, the college-educated, those who describe themselves as liberal
and those who live in the Northeast or the West are more disposed than others to
see intermarriage in a positive light.”
These trends would suggest that as younger generations take over, mixed
marriages will become even more common as they are more likely to be minority or
mixed themselves, more likely to be college educated, and as another Pew
Research report from 2019 found they are more liberal than past generations.
Research shows that young immigrants are coming in better educated and with
better language skills than ever before. They are also more likely to have a job
than those who are native-born, all of which supports the theory that future
generations will be more ‘mixed’.
Exactly how mixed and how quickly is obviously speculation, however. Jenée
Desmond-Harris did an article for
The Root in which she lays out four
very different scenarios for how increased interracial marriage will affect us:
1. We could all finally reject the idea that biology
divides human beings into five racial groups.
2. We might develop more accurate ways to describe
our identities.
3. We could begin to shake off racial stereotypes.
4. “People of color” could lead the way on equality.
The fourth and last possibility is a theory proposed
by Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, who “says it’s
possible that people of color—blacks, Asians, Latinos—are on the verge of doing
something white people did a long time ago: identifying themselves as a group
and emerging as a powerful majority…White people didn’t identify as a race until
politically and economically it benefited them to do so—they were just Irish,
Italian, Greek, etc.,” I highlight her scenario because coincidently enough the
year 2043 specifically is mentioned when relaying Blackwell’s outlook: “The fact
that by 2043 the majority of Americans will be of color will be relatively
meaningless if blacks, Latinos and some Asian groups that are being
disproportionately left behind don’t come together to see what they have in
common and push for an equity agenda.”
My interest was piqued by Blackwell’s theory because it raises an additional
question beyond “what will America look like in 2043?” and asks “will Americans
still get treatment based on how they look in 2043?” For some reason this
thought had not occurred to me. I assumed that if the majority of Americans were
people of color or mixed race that societal attitudes would change naturally
along with it. It is almost certain that “whites” will be in the minority by
then, even recent census projections based on current rates have “whites”
reaching a minority by 2045. (Frey)
I suppose that if mixed-race Americans become the majority and have some
perceived control of the dominant culture then they will encounter some of the
same issues that ‘white’ Americans do in defining what makes them the majority.
Even though there is a large group of people labeled as “white” there are many
smaller groups included under that label, defined by things such as country of
origin. Amber Boone tackles these subjects in depth in her essay “The Dominant
Culture and ‘Whiteness’” and she brings up an interesting question when she
asks: “Though a large majority of ‘whites’ in the
United States would likely be more inclined to refer to themselves as simply
being “American,” does this label strip them of their cultural heritage?”. If
you apply this same question to a mixed-race majority it gets even more complex.
Perhaps in the end we will inter-marry enough that there will only be one race,
the human one, and we can get to a place where we all truly are “just American”.
If you are like myself and feel dissatisfied without a
physical estimation of what America will look like in the next generation the
best option I have found is an article that National Geographic did in 2013. In
it they try to piece together what that world would look like with pictures of
and interviews with modern day individuals of mixed decent. It is not a
particularly scientific example of what a mixed race America will look like but
it is a tangible one.
Progress in race relations may be slow moving but it
never stops, with each generation more accepting of others than the one that
came before. There are still many areas in which I worry for my girls and the
struggles they may endure. But I know that I worry less than my mom would have
in the same situation, and that my kids will worry even less. Perhaps if I’m
lucky they will even scoff at the idea that people used to concern themselves
with such things. All the research suggests that time will only produce more
children of color or mixed race kids in America. So ready or not, here we come!
Works Cited
Editors, History.com. “Loving V. Virginia.”
History.com, A&E Television Networks, 17 Nov. 2017,
www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/loving-v-virginia.
Frey, William H. “The US Will Become 'Minority
White' in 2045, Census Projects.” Brookings, Brookings, 10 Sept. 2018,
www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2018/03/14/the-us-will-become-minority-white-in-2045-census-projects/.
Guo, Jeff. “The Biggest Ideas Underpinning the
Anti-Immigration Movement Aren't Backed up by Data.” The Washington Post,
WP Company, 1 Oct. 2015,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/01/these-common-beliefs-about-immigrants-are-all-wrong/?utm_term=.8a85da0ec5d9.
Parker, Kim, et al. “Generation Z Looks a Lot Like
Millennials on Key Social and Political Issues.” Pew Research Center's Social
& Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic
Trends Project, 18 Jan. 2019,
www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/01/17/generation-z-looks-a-lot-like-millennials-on-key-social-and-political-issues/.
Staff, The Root. “The Future of Race in America.”
The Root, The Root, 12 Jan. 2017,
www.theroot.com/the-future-of-race-in-america-1790898742.
