<p>The Browning and Yellowing of Whiteness </p>
<p>By Tamara K. Nopper </p>
<p>A Review of Who is White?: Latinos, Asians, and the New Black/Nonblack Divide by George Yancey (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003). </p>
<p>In 1903 the ever-forward looking W.E.B. DuBois declared, The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. A century later, the relevance of DuBois observation is being contested by those preoccupied with the increasing ethnic and cultural diversification of the US. Many argue that DuBois centralization of the boundary between the entangled black and white worlds is outdated, going so far as to propose that we now have colorlines. Such gestures are more than semantic and instead imply that blackness as the definitive social boundary for US race relations is either less pronounced or completely erased by the significant presence of nonblack racial minorities such as Latino/as and Asian Americans. </p>
<p>This is precisely why George Yanceys book Who is White?: Latinos, Asians, and the New Black/Nonblack Divide is such a necessary read. Yancey, a sociologist at the University of North Texas, provides compelling evidence that supports the (unstated) hypothesis that the color line of the twentieth century will remain firmly entrenched in the twenty-first. Using as his point of departure the popular projection that whites will soon be a minority group, Yancey opens his book by arguing that whites will remain the majority despite the growing populations of Latino/as and Asian Americans. How can the increase of Latino/as and Asian Americans enforce, rather than disrupt, the color line? Simple. By 2050, according to Yancey, most Latino/as and Asian Americans will be white. </p>
<p>For those who consider race to be a biological fact rather than a social and political one, Yanceys projection is sure to raise eyebrows. Yet his argument is grounded in an understanding of how whiteness, like any racial category, is socially and politically defined yet enacted in real and meaningful ways. Whiteness is also fluid and maintains itself when threatened by incorporating previously excluded groups. In the chapter How to be White, Yancey covers ground commonly discussed by practitioners of what is becoming institutionalized as whiteness studies, including the racialized discrimination and nativism that different European ethnic groups faced before they eventually became socially accepted by Anglos and then later by a more expansive pan-European race simply known as white. </p>
<p>Since it is generally argued that these ethnic groups were able to assimilate into whiteness because they had similar phenotypes and could trace their roots to Europe a point Yancey acknowledges what makes Who is White? so provocative is its author suggests that European phenotype or ancestry will no longer be prerequisites for becoming white. While the US Census Bureau treats Latino/as as an ethnic group of sorts by emphasizing Latin American origin, many are socially read as brown. Most Asian Americans are markedly non-European in phenotype and ancestry. Nevertheless, Yancey argues that while they may experience patterns of discrimination and racism from whites, both Latino/as and Asian Americans are following the same pattern of assimilation as Europeans did before them. </p>
<p>Grounding his study within the framework of noted sociologist Milton Gordon, whose work on assimilation emphasized social acceptance by the majority and identification with it from the minority, Yancey provides compelling evidence indicating that Latino/as and Asian Americans are well on their way to becoming white. In the chapter They are Okay Just Keep Them Away from Me, the author analyzes survey data on racial groups social attitudes regarding who they approve as potential neighbors as well as marriage partners for their children. </p>
<p>Contrary to the popular image of blacks as racially restrictive, Yancey discovers that black respondents are the most open to all other races. Yet despite being the most receptive to other groups, blacks in general are rejected by all nonblack groups whites, Latino/as and Asian Americans. While some assume that whites will be closed off to anyone not white, Yanceys research show that white respondents are more accepting of Latino/as and Asian Americans than they are of blacks. In turn, Latino/a and Asian American respondents are fairly receptive to one another as well as whites. Overall, Yanceys findings reveal that whites, Latino/as and Asian Americans do not tend to reject one another as possible neighbors or their kids spouses, but all three groups show a general resistance to blacks in these social roles. </p>
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