Majority and Minority Relations and Dynamics

Case Studies

“Ongoing and projected demographic shifts in the racial composition of the United States have been heralded as necessitating, if not promoting, positive change in the racial dynamics of the nation. Although change in response to this growing diversity is likely, its direction and scope are less clear…”

“The racial and ethnic diversity of the United States has been increasing for the past several decades (Pew Research Center, 2015), a trend that is expected to continue. Indeed, recent US Census projections suggest that, somewhere between 2040 and 2050, the percentage of non-White Americans in the United States will surpass that of White Americans—that is, White Americans will comprise less than 50 percent of the population (US Census Bureau, 2015). Since the late 1990s, media reports of this demographic shift and noteworthy milestones reflective of it—for instance, the year that the US infant population became “majority-minority” (US Census Bureau, 2012)—have proliferated (see also Day, 1996). It is in the wake of this deluge of information documenting what seems to be an inexorable march towards a “majority-minority” country that social scientists began to explore what (if any) effects this information may be having on the racial dynamics of the nation.”

Excerpts above from:

Racial and Political Dynamics of an Approaching “Majority-Minority” United States - Maureen A. Craig, Julian M. Rucker, Jennifer A. Richeson

Maureen A. Craig is an assistant professor of psychology at New York University. Her research focuses on how increasing diversity and stigma shape intergroup relations and political ideology. Julian M. Rucker is a doctoral student in the social psychology program at Yale University. His research examines the psychological factors that influence perceptions of, and motivations to address, intergroup inequality across a variety of societal domains. Jennifer A. Richeson is the Philip R. Allen professor of psychology and faculty fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. Her broad research interests include the social and political dynamics of diversity, intergroup contact, and inequality.