Cepeda: Racial demographic work should inform, not inflame

But these sorts of pieces usually fall short of the mission to make people with racial anxiety relatable — and instead reinforce some of the very tropes that put many on edge.

For instance, the Post article included this nugget: “Studies have shown how some whites, who are dying faster than they’re being born in 26 states, react when they become aware of a tectonic demographic shift that will, with little historic precedent, reconfigure the racial and ethnic geography of an entire country.”

This language reinforces the extinction-level threat that some white people feel when demographic data are presented as “tsunamis” that result in “the browning of America.”

In a 2017 New York Times essay, sociologist Herbert J. Gans criticized the U.S. Census Bureau and its “majority-minority” forecasting for ratcheting up the demographic hysteria. “These numbers have become a handy data point for whites fearful that they are being threatened and overwhelmed by a growing tide of darker-skinned people,” Gans wrote.

Using demographic data as a weapon harms everyone, whether it’s to say “Haha, brown people are going to be the majority soon and then white people will see what it’s like,” or “Us whites have to protect our culture and our heritage against all these brown people and immigrants.”

It’s also harmful to make generalizations about any demographic group based on a tiny handful of individuals who are used to exemplify a larger trend.

Beware of demonization

There is a rigorous study on the subject by a group of researchers from the University of Illinois, Coventry University and Columbia University. They visited five cities — New York; Phoenix; Birmingham, Alabama; Dayton, Ohio; and Tacoma — between August 2016 and March 2017 to ask more than 400 people who identified as “white working class” for their views on identity, immigration, race and change.

The study concluded that “working-class Americans” are far more diverse than they’ve been described. They are often college-educated and embrace the concept of racial diversity, usually citing people of different races in their own families and communities.

Yes, many expressed concerns about undocumented immigrants and people of color receiving preferential treatment for jobs, services or benefits, as whites’ quality of life declines. But not all identified as Donald Trump supporters, and many expressed genuine conflict about both the 2016 presidential candidates.

The point here is that our perceptions about any racial groups shouldn’t be shaped by people or organizations who seek to demonize, valorize or elicit fear or pity about members of certain races.

There are nonpartisan, not-for-profit organizations, such as the Pew Research Center and the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, that do demographic research designed to inform, not inflame.

Look to their work and then make up your own mind about how different racial and ethnic groups see the issues you care about.