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A review by socraticgadfly
Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America by Rich Benjamin
5.0
Rich Benjamin goes to a number of Whitopias (the concept is defined, demographically, in appendices) and actually lives in three of them. He approaches his subject without apparent bias aforethought, and with excellent research eyes.
In his research he distinguished between different types of Whitopias, whether the reasons for their development are more conscious or unconscious. Beyond that, he extensively interviews individual residents, to give the different Whitopias an individualized profile.
He also notes that natives don't always "cotton to" outside whites.
He provides a few statistics that I didn't know, as part of the possibility America may be "majority nonwhite" by 2050. For the whites fleeing blacks and Hispanics for purely racial, or racial-economic reasons, and at the same time, often fleeing Asians because "their kids study too hard for our kids," he has "bad" news I didn't know... the Asian population is growing faster than even the Hispanic population.
Beyond that, he asks what do whitopias, more exurban ones like Forsyth County, Ga., than freestanding St. George, Utah or the Idaho Panhandle, mean for the future of American infrastructure, whith highways, sewer, zoning tussles and more. And, what do all whitopias mean in terms of future American cohesiveness?
Without offering undue condemnation, Benjamin offers condemnation where it is due for these exurbs being used as a shield to avoid discussing race, and worries that broader social integration may have peaked in much of the country, at least for now.
If you want a very insightful -- and very well-written -- take on modern demographics, this is it!
In his research he distinguished between different types of Whitopias, whether the reasons for their development are more conscious or unconscious. Beyond that, he extensively interviews individual residents, to give the different Whitopias an individualized profile.
He also notes that natives don't always "cotton to" outside whites.
He provides a few statistics that I didn't know, as part of the possibility America may be "majority nonwhite" by 2050. For the whites fleeing blacks and Hispanics for purely racial, or racial-economic reasons, and at the same time, often fleeing Asians because "their kids study too hard for our kids," he has "bad" news I didn't know... the Asian population is growing faster than even the Hispanic population.
Beyond that, he asks what do whitopias, more exurban ones like Forsyth County, Ga., than freestanding St. George, Utah or the Idaho Panhandle, mean for the future of American infrastructure, whith highways, sewer, zoning tussles and more. And, what do all whitopias mean in terms of future American cohesiveness?
Without offering undue condemnation, Benjamin offers condemnation where it is due for these exurbs being used as a shield to avoid discussing race, and worries that broader social integration may have peaked in much of the country, at least for now.
If you want a very insightful -- and very well-written -- take on modern demographics, this is it!