White people have been on the way out in America for a long time, but it’s finally official: the U.S. Census Bureau announced Thursday that, of all births in the 12-month period ending in July 2011, non-Hispanic white babies made up less than half. Of 2.5 million births, 49.6 percent were non-Hispanic whites, while 50.4 percent were Hispanics, blacks, Asians, and others of mixed races. The new racial makeup represents a milestone for a country founded by white Europeans, and represents a generational divide between younger Americans and those who grew up in a predominantly white society.
