The Coming White Minority [Paperback]

Dale Maharidge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1999

The 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of And Their Children After Them presents four Californians--Black, White, Asian, Latino--and their search fo r a new center in the shrill immigration debate, and how it can guide the country. Graphs, maps.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As of 1998, whites are a minority in the state of California. Part of the state's response to its increasing multiculturalization is rooted in a conservative backlash that has launched successful voter initiatives against bilingual education, affirmative action programs, and the extension of public services to illegal immigrants. On the other hand, Latino voting rates have more than doubled, establishing a new, unignorable electoral bloc, and nearly one out of every five children born in California in 1996 came from a multiracial family.

These points are all worth mentioning because history shows us that where California goes, the rest of the United States will eventually follow. But while most of the political debate over the state's transformation has been marked by extremism on both sides, Pulitzer-winning journalist Dale Maharidge has chosen to talk to the ordinary people--white, black, Latino, and Asian--who are quietly creating the California of tomorrow. The Coming White Minority is a remarkable work of social journalism that combines intimate portraits with expansive history lessons; what Maharidge has to say about Californian society will prove illuminating for all Americans.

From Publishers Weekly

"California is America's multicultural tomorrow," declares Maharidge, coauthor of And Their Children After Them, which won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize. So he aims to sketch the "California that is bewildered and trying to adjust," by focusing on four characters over the past four years: a Latina lawmaker, an immigrant Chinese college student, a black sheriff's deputy and an increasingly conservative white suburbanite. His book is worthy but flawed. Maharidge preachily declares at the outset that immigration is less the problem than "unbridled multinational capitalism." His major characters hardly cross paths, making the narrative somewhat disjointed. Maharidge charges that Latino and Democratic lawmakers let Governor Pete Wilson shape anti-immigrant sentiment by refusing to acknowledge white anxiety or to criticize white employers who benefit from cheap labor. He suggests that the campus climate at UC-Berkeley is not separatist but rather reflects the transition to a new multicultural mix. He notes that the huge sums now being devoted by California to prison construction might be better diverted to steer youth from crime. He urges a search for common ground in the press, at the workplace and at schools. Echoing commentators like Todd Gitlin and Michael Lind, Maharidge urges a focus on inequality rather than on ethnic difference; he also observes trenchantly that the coming white minority must recognize that its future lies in "interdependence based on common interests." Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (April 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679750088
• ISBN-13: 978-0679750086
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,707,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My new book with photographer Michael Williamson is "Someplace Like America / Tales from the New Great Depression." Bruce Springsteen has written a foreword. This book is about our 30 years of covering workers. We bring the story up to the present grim time for so many millions of Americans. You will read about people we found homeless back in the 1980s and find out how they are doing today. Also included are many new stories. It will be published in May by the University of California Press.

For a lot more information, go to Facebook and type in "Someplace Like America: The Book." If you are not a Facebook member, you can still view the page and blog by typing that in, plus "Facebook", in Google.

I have made pages for two other of our books on Facebook, plus my next one, "Bringing Mulligan Home," which is to be published in 2013 by Public Affairs. To see them, type in FB:

"The Last Great American Hobo by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson"

"And their Children After Them By Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson"

"Bringing Mulligan Home"

Dale Maharidge - January 7, 2011

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive, November 30, 1999

By 

L. Yang - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming White Minority (Paperback)

An extraordinary and perceptive work on the issues of race and ethnicity and future of this country. The author makes effective use of the stories of four people caught up in the political maelstrom of California and race politics- (actually culture and ethnicity, as race is a cultural construct).

However, he does not provide any easy answers nor does he provide a convenient scapegoat. What he does provide is a lucid understanding of the problem: the levels of white fear, the complex interaction of race and class, and the complex interaction among the 'non-white' ethnic groups. It's not just a black and white issue.

Anybody seeking a deeper understanding of issues, without the extremist rhetoric (from both sides) clouding the view should check out the book. He truly makes an attempt to seek out all sides of the issue. After all, this is a multi-facted issues that has a wide spectrum of views.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRAVE NEW WORLD?????, January 9, 2007

By 

D. W. Rossa "D. W. Rossa" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming White Minority (Paperback)

I lived through all the years Dale Maharidge described in his book "The Coming White Minority."

I live in Chicago. In this city we have Large Neighborhoods of Hispanics. Mr. Maharidge described the situations and attitudes accurately.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of the current immigration situation, July 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coming White Minority: California's Eruptions and the Nation's Future (Hardcover)

This book is a great overview of the current race and immigration situation in the state of California. The book is largly unbiased and informative, although the author's constant scapegoating of California's jail construction projects gets old. As wasteful as all the prisons may be, they are not the primary cause of California's economic troubles.