Do not freak out about the white babies

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In a new Ill Doctrine video, Jay Smooth advises white Americans on "this baby thing"—the recent news that white births are now a minority in the US. Black, Hispanic, Asian and mixed-race births made up 50.4% of new arrivals in the year ending in July 2011. Watch the video at Animal New York, and follow Jay on Twitter.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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JonSchweitzer

Something tells me that the group of white people who watch Jay Smooth videos does not intersect with the group of white people who are afraid of minorities accounting for >50% of births.
- xzzy
  
  Maybe he should repost it under the title “review: miracle detergent to get stains out of your white robes”.
  
  Or “ultra slow-mo shooting watermelon with a hunting rifle.”
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/OKEONAMLFIOS5WI7MPQY6SXBCQ IRMO

Under the One Drop Rule, there is a mathematical certainty that as time tends to infinity, the portion of white babies born in the United States will tend to 0. *yawn*
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  The Daily Mail ran an article the other day about how, In The 31st Century, There Will Be Nobody In Japan Under The Age Of 13!!!
  - twianto
    
    No, that was a deliberately alarming quote as you can tell by the quotation marks. Qualified by “if the rate of decline continues,” which of course it can’t indefinitely as everyone knows. The Daily Mail is not at fault here, they just quoted somebody in Japan. One other pseudo-fact (that nobody believes, JFTR) making the rounds: in 100 years, there will only be two Japanese and they’ll both be female. It’s not meant to be a factual statement, just to make people think.
    
    Just FYI, this _is_ a very real and serious issue in Japan, hence all the frantic (and justified) alarmist rhetoric. They’ll have to figure something out as some point, be it a shift towards a more welcoming society for parents and children or immigration, which is one hell of a difficult issue for Japan.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      No, that was a deliberately alarming quote
      
      That’s what the Daily Mail sells, isn’t it?
      - twianto
        
        Yes, and I don’t mean to defend British tabloids, but this is more or less what you read in the hyper-accurate Japanese media these days when it comes to this topic.
        
        There is no chance that anybody will take this headline at face value, be it in Britain or Japan.
        
        Again, it was a quote.
- D Wyatt
  
  Same can be said for black, asian or hispanic. Eventually there will be nobody of original decent.
  - zarray
    
    new ethnic groups will be created in space colonies
http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

If there was a Like button on Jay Smooth’s website, I would click that thing so hard it would leave a dent in his webserver.
theophrastvs

The main thing that one could try to soothe any silly existential fears here is to restate the statistic: no one (nor two?) minority group has more births than “white” (however that’s defined) folks.

Then one might add (confusingly): this states that there are more new-borns, not (all tolled) people; (we are all anticipating that massive immigration from Iceland ~2038 right?).

Lastly, and i add this only for the deeply philosophical tribe here, (far away from the twitchy bible-belt, yes?) that these statistics mean (to me) that the American/U.S. model of culture has much to be proud of. America should properly reflect the global population, not some northern European artificially narrowed gene-pool. Hybrids are always stronger. Take pride in that – for we have so little else to be proud of – of late.
- Richard Wolff
  
  interesting (now thanks to the power of the internet no one can see my expression or hear my tone. allow random interpretation to ensue)
- oasisob1
  
  I disagree. My F-150 would destroy your Prius in a pulling contest.
  - Shane Simmons
    
    I bet I can go farther on $20 of gas than you can in your F-150.
    - Brainspore
      
      I believe oasisob1 was responding to the claim that “Hybrids are always stronger.“
    - oasisob1
      
      Not with me pulling you in my F150. :-) Honestly, I would rather have a Prius than the F150, but in reality, I drive a Fit – it’s pretty darn eco for the price I can afford.
  - AlexG55
    
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/82/55022_Royal_Scots_Grey.jpg/800px-55022_Royal_Scots_Grey.jpg
    This is a hybrid, and can probably out-pull your F-150 (or any truck on the road).
- http://www.facebook.com/Acmeaviator Brian Decker
  
  ”Hybrids are always stronger.” Yeah tell that to a mule.
  - millie fink
    
    But not to a mulatto.
Brainspore

I posted this to facebook yesterday to commemorate the occasion.
- SamSam
  
  I appreciate the sentiment, but in what way were pre-1776 Native Americans “Americans?”
  
  Was Julius Caesar an Italian?
Antinous / Moderator

As a queer person, I feel vastly more comfortable in a mixed race society. When there is no majority, I don’t have to be a minority anymore.
- http://dailygrail.com/ Red Pill Junkie
  
  You will always remain a minority of one.
  
  The one that matters :)
- Preston Sturges
  
  Don’t worry, we got this
Brainspore

Once again, this is one of those times that living in California kind of feels like living in a not-too-distant-future version of the rest of America.* Good news, my fellow white people! It’s really no big deal. In fact, your cuisine is about to get much better.

*Which is not to say that being ahead of the curve is always a good thing. We got Ronald Reagan before everyone else too.
Nylund

Who cares about a majority? Everyone knows that these days you need a super majority to get anything done. Otherwise, the other side can just filibuster everything.
- http://twitter.com/jenfoolery Jenny Reiswig
  
  I don’t recall that a supermajority helped anything much get done. Everyone was too afraid of losing in the midterms, which they did anyway. You need some f—ing courage to get anything done.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    The supermajority that they had for a few months?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1520888 Timothy Dalbey

This guy has done a nice job of over representing the vast minority of White Americans to the detriment of all Americans. Thanks dude.
- Brainspore
  
  He quite explicitly addressed the video to the subset of white Americans who actually do worry about this sort of thing. And unfortunately, those people aren’t as rare as you may think.
  - John Vance
    
    People in my family have announced plans to have kids as a direct result of this news story. These are people who shouldn’t be having kids. I apologize in advance.
Bonnie Ash

“In the mid-to-late 1800s states began passing laws that made abortion illegal. The motivations for anti-abortion laws varied from state to state. One of the reasons included fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly arriving immigrants, whose birth rates were higher than those of “native” Anglo-Saxon women.”–
http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/history_abortion.html I remember reading this info many years ago when I was very active in the Feminist movement, before having children took up so much of my time- tee-hee. I’m curious to see what the winds will blow from medical groups (right wing-”pseudo-medical”-see “Pregnancy Centers”, et al) to legit organizations. The fear of the unknown- read minorities,immigrants- has been at the heart of much legislation from border control to citizenship issues to work visas to political trends- i.e., How will the Hispanic Catholic vote affect the vote. While the economy may be the deciding factor for some, abortion is an issue that many see as “the” issue determining their vote. I suspect that this report will combine with immigrant issues and abortion to firm up the Republican conservative base, especially those who continue to see race as an issue when voting.
- faithnomore
  
  Hmmm, you’ve got me thinking. I wonder: if a (manufactured) “statistic” (from some christian-right friendly think tank, of course) is “leaked” saying that minority women seek abortions in vastly disproportionate numbers to “white” women, would some significant portion of anti-choice support suddenly disappear?
  - http://twitter.com/shesamazingnyc Shes Amazing
    
    I was always asking that question: “Why are the conservatives so against abortion, when (by their own fucked-up admission and complaint) THOSE people “breed like rabbits”?
    
    The answer was: They need cannon fodder. Poor people to fight their wars and fill their jails and buy their junk food.
http://www.facebook.com/kevin.yancey1 Kevin Yancey

Whew..maybe now I can go to college:)
foobar

I really need to watch his videos more often. I don’t know what it is, but I walk away with a smile every time.
http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

Search for articles regarding birth rates an when “whites” will be a minority in the USA.

Did you? Now you know it’s a scam for the most part.

Even applied with an even hand it doesn’t work out. Birth rates for minorities drops significantly as they integrate, so long as the USA continues to try and have an ERA.

Plus, an end to the middle class means many white people will be cast into abject poverty in short order, this will significantly raise the birth rate for these white folk.

MMMM. Kool-aid, fool flava
- Petzl
  
  So, what you’re saying is, there’s hope.
  - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
    
    No, I’m saying concerning oneself with birthrates based on ethnicity is a fools pastime.
Preston Sturges

Hitler haz a sad…..

“……What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe……Every thought and every idea, every doctrine and all knowledge, must serve this purpose. And everything must be examined from this point of view and used or rejected according to its utility. Then no theory will stiffen into a dead doctrine, since it is life alone that all things must serve. (Mein Kampf)”
- Wild Rumpus
  
  Does the above statement count as true to Godwin’s Law?
  - Preston Sturges
    
    Nope, Godwin does not apply to actual Nazis or to people who choose to fake indignation because someone mentioned real Nazis.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Godwin’s Law is descriptive, not prescriptive. It just says that any discussion that goes on long enough will get to Hitler or the Nazis. It doesn’t deprecate it.
  - millie fink
    
    No, it doesn’t. Because the ideological parallel being highlighted is a valid one.
  - Preston Sturges
    
    If you want an example of doing it wrong, check out pretty much anything written by Jonah Goldberg, or sodahead, or redstate, where someone compares liberals to Nazis, then proceeds to champion Nazi dogma since they established a priori that liberals are the real fascists. Why there’s someone on RedState right now serving up the Nazi apology! There’s where Godwin violations are raised to an art – compare to Nazis, then spout Nazi dogma.
    
    http://www.redstate.com/cmndr45/2012/05/18/nazis-had-the-jews-democrats-have-the-rich/
    
    See also the manifesto of Anders Breivik who is very very very concerned about the declining white population and “liberal fascism,” so he shot up a summer camp to defend his version of “tolerance.”
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

I know why the white babies are in decline….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cds7lSHawAw
- http://twitter.com/cjporkchop cjporkchop
  
  I’d forgotten about that clip. Thanks for reminding me! I love it so hard.
philllies

How could you alls offend me any more? I am NOT white. Albinos are white (my apology to offended albinos.) I am more of an earthworm color, or oatmeal. But if the sun hits me, my skin turns a sort of negroish color, like brown or chocolate. Except for where my underwear is. And my babies born are sort of this pink color. And when I die, I will turn sort of a sickly gray color. So, am I a colored person? A person of color?
Also I was born in Pennsylvania. PA is in the United States of America. So, am I a native American?
http://twitter.com/ErnestValdemar Ernest Valdemar

Well, fortunately for white supremacists, the US still has an infant mortality rate that’s the envy of the third world.
- http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
  
  I don’t get it? The supposed information is US specific, so how do infant mortality rates outside the US comfort the yokels?
  
  In most third world countries birthrates outstrip any ‘advantage’ that the low Western infant mortality rate would engender.
  
  Geez Imma wet blanket. Also, ethnicity+birthrate concerns are most often aimed at nimrods when pushed past sociological circles and into popular culture circulations.
Mantissa128

The solution is simple. Ensure minorities get their share of education and wealth.
LikesTurtles

I’ve have to admit, being in areas with white majorities creeps me out. You might think that’s expected but I’m white. I was born in Detroit, grew up in a rural community in the Black Belt of Alabama and moved to Atlanta after college where I live in the inner city. Going out to the suburbs, especially the ones where the white meter hits over 90%, feels Twilight Zoney. Maybe it isn’t really about skin color but rather the endless sea of people in Old Navy tshirts, cargo shorts, and white ankle socks in the parking lots of PF Changs (oooh, exotic) and Applebee’s.

I guess it’s just a matter of what one is use to.
- penguinchris
  
  I’m white and I grew up in the Twilight Zone-esque suburbs like you describe. I think it’s weird, and uncomfortable, too – and I’ve always felt that way, not only after I lived in Southern California for a few years :)
  
  (and of course SoCal’s white suburbs are some of the worst offenders, but that’s not where I lived or spent any time there)
  
  It’s a sea of conformity, simple-minded selfishness (except for those yellow ribbons on the back of the SUVs of course), and social conservatism. No creativity or thinking for yourself. Not surprising since people who aren’t like that wouldn’t be caught dead living in the suburbs.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ROVGMU7U6DJ2Y74KQWFLDY4HHQ octolover
    
    you know, not all of us who live in the ‘burbs are here because we’re brainless zombies. i’m north of the metro atlanta area, and i get so sick of friends who live in atlanta proper trying to convince me to move down there like it’s shangri-la. why, so i can pay higher taxes and deal with higher crime rates? i’ve already worked down there; i like my car windows non-broken, my belongings non-stolen, and my stop at a gas station non-threatening.
    
    and it’s not just the “cities are cool and suburbs suck” thing, it’s the “white people are inherently lame and intolerant” thing. do you ever take time time to get to know the guy in old navy clothing? do y’all also judge blacks who wear saggy pants? same difference — uniforms (and stupidity) come in all colors, and one does not necessarily require the other.
- Anon_Mahna
  
  It’s the roving gangs of Stepford Wives……
chgoliz

Part of the change in numbers is that there were always a lot more mixed race babies being born than were acknowledged. Now, it’s OK to admit you’re not 100% whatever. In some cases, there are even advantages (scholarships, etc.).
juepucta

Hispanic/Latin is not a race.
- twianto
  
  Well, good thing nobody said it was. (Neither is “Asian,” that should be a clue.)
  - juepucta
    
    I know, i know my bad. It is just that it comes up every single fucking time race is discussed by USians. Sorry for the kneejerk reaction.
    - twianto
      
      Don’t you usually use “Hispanics of any race” for demographic purposes? Granted, the “white” doesn’t fit in there but if you expand it to “direct descendants of European immigrants” it kind of makes sense from a cultural/demographic point of view.
      
      Not that it should matter at all, mind you.
retepslluerb

Ah, the one-drop-of-blood rule seems to be still in effect.
noah django

pertinent details at 0:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGLhx3oiU3M
noah django

pertinent details at 0:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGLhx3oiU3M
http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

The “Them Versus Us” narrative that everyone just accepts makes my face do these epic frowns.
rocketpjs

I grew up in an (almost) monochrome suburb. There is a very large reservation a few miles away, and there was absolutely zero evidence of First Nations anywhere in my community. Ditto any of the many immigrant groups that were coming into the city.

I didn’t even realize the issue until I was an adult. When I see my old friends from that time, their casual racism makes me extremely uncomfortable (part of the reason I never see them anymore). It is easy to be racist when everyone you know is also racist (or homophobic etc).
http://beautifulsynthesis.com Andrea

Going off on a tangent: Been doing some genealogy lately, which gets me into some of the attitudes and mindsets of American society generations ago, and it amazes me how the definition of ‘race’ changes. In this day and age, my ancestry is “white”. 100 years ago I would have been labelled German, which to a lot of people back then was a minority.

Here’s hoping we figure out how to stop thinking in terms of racial majority/minority altogether. Or at least worrying about it so much.

The other thing I’ve been learning is just how inbred my ancestry is. Men of other ethnicities are looking mighty attractive right now…
http://twitter.com/stevepan1 Steve Pan

wrap it up, whitey
Teller

Whiteophobia.
- Brainspore
  
  Are you sure you watched the same video the rest of us did?
  - Teller
    
    Think so. The funny take on the population thingie?
    - Brainspore
      
      OK then, who’s exhibiting a deep and obvious fear of white people now? Because that sure wasn’t my take.
      - Teller
        
        Not worth going into here since it would be impolite. One day at Specs, my friend.
Traska

I have long been a fan of Jay Smooths’s “Ill Doctrine” series of videos (disclosure: I wasn’t even aware they were available anywhere other than YouTube), and this one is the best to date to my eyes. Two big, opposable thumbs up, for those of my race who obviously lack said evolutionary features, judging by the sheer amount of backwards braying coming from their overprivileged mouths.
geth

The first few ”Ill Doctrine” videos I watched irritated me because I kept thinking, “geez, this white guy is pretty bold to be lecturing about racism.”