I find it interesting that every television commercial I see these days has an African American in the ad. It made me wonder: what is the current ethnic population of the U.S.? Well, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released on August 12, 2021, as of 2020, non-Hispanic White Americans are the racial majority, representing 57.8% of the population. Hispanic and Latino Americans comprise 18.7%, while African Americans make up 14.1%. The 2019 census had non-Hispanic Whites at 60.3% of the population. That's a drop of 2.5% in one year. At this rate, Whites will be under 50% of the population in less than 4 years. I would have thought the percentage of African Americans would be much higher based on how often they appear in TV shows and commercials. A major factor in ethnic population perception depends on what part of the country you live in. Non-Hispanic Whites make up 79% of the Midwest's population. Currently, 55% of the African American population lives in the South. So, if I lived in the South and turned on the TV and saw every other person was African American, that would make sense. But, here in the Midwest, it doesn't reflect what we see in our community.
How can you have ethnic diversity when there is such a difference in where you live? In the past, they have bussed students between public schools to create diversity. This is a similar concept to what we are seeing in TV shows, commercials, and movies. Some call it "forced diversity". This has been happening to some degree, in many aspects of our lives, for a long time. If you search the Internet for this phrase, you will find it described as a buzz-word used by people who are against works featuring diverse people. I think it is fine when diversity happens naturally as a result of changes in the ethnic population. But, just like getting vaccinated or wearing a mask in public, some people in this country just don't like it when something is forced on them. For now, the current census numbers show a different reality.
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