TO UNDERSTAND THE rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir.

You just need to know these basic facts:

In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.

In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority.

  • Flying Squid
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    53 months ago

    In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

    Especially now that you can “become black.”

    That said, I wonder if someone like Obama is counted in the “white people” part of that statistic. He should. He’s as white as he is black, just like Kamala Harris is as Indian as she is black.

    • Tar_Alcaran
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      93 months ago

      Especially now that you can “become black.”

      Well, if they’re all so scared that white males are the most discriminated against, they should all become black women. Problem solved!

      /S, of course.

      • Flying Squid
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        23 months ago

        Not a bad plan! Let’s get them to work on it!

        Anyway- I am definitely going to enjoy spending the next few months letting Republicans know that Obama is white based on Trump’s own ideas of race.

    • @almar_quigley
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      63 months ago

      I’d imagine he be classified as mixed race or something since he’s both not either?

      • @BottleOfAlkahest
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        63 months ago

        It’s only in the past few years that “two or more” races became an option on most demographic forms. Even into the early 2000s most demographic forms only let you pick one category so you had to make a choice. The 2024 number may more accurately account for mixed race people but there is no way that 80s number does at all.

        Source: was a confused mixed child asking adults which I should pick on official forms and just got shoulder shrugs and hand waving from them.

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        Three other day, I was reading through the parts of Mississippi constitution which regard marriages and got to the section about race-mixing. It was really disturbing to see some of those incredibly offensive terms merely crossed out from such a legally influential document.

        Also, I learned that you have to accept the existence of “a supreme being” to hold any office in Mississippi. Less fucked up, but still fucked up.

        • @almar_quigley
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          23 months ago

          I grew up in the south. Mississippi was too much even for a lot of us more country folk. My apologies to any decent people in Ms for getting lumped in with the rest of the terrible folks in that state….

          • @[email protected]
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            03 months ago

            Oof. I’m from Texas and had a friend in highschool who grew up in Mississippi. One day while discussing dominant and recessive traits in biology, she noted that she was born left-handed, but the teachers at her public school beat it out of her and got her to use her right hand. Anytime she’d use her left hand they’d

            smack her hand with a ruler

            because

            “that’s THE DEVIL’S hand!”

            Fucking beating kids in public school over superstitions! How we haven’t nuked Mississippi yet is beyond me. Fuck it, nuke everything from Texas to Florida up to South Carolina. I haven’t lived a perfect life, I’m sure I deserve a face-full of nuke, too.

            • @almar_quigley
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              33 months ago

              If you haven’t seen bittersoutherner.com I highly recommend it. A great publication that’s doing good work trying to counteract all the shit happening down there. A lot of stuff I love about the south but unfortunately even more that I’m ashamed of about it.

              • @[email protected]
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                23 months ago

                Thank you! Genuinely, I appreciate this interaction. You are getting tallied under “bright points” for my day.

    • @dexa_scantron
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      43 months ago

      The average Black American is ~1/3 white (because of all the rape of enslaved women, basically) so he’s not that much off the average there.

      • Flying Squid
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        43 months ago

        I don’t doubt it, but based on Trump’s reasoning, Kamala Harris has an Indian mother, so she’s Indian. Therefore Barack Obama has a white mother, so he’s white.

        Which is why I’m going to keep telling that to Republicans.