The 2020 Census tells us what we already knew: the country is diverse and continuing to diversify at a rapid rate — in urban, suburban, and rural areas. The data clearly point to a country that is both more diverse and more multiracial than it has ever been. And while some sectors of our society have finally begun to reckon in positive ways with the changes in the country, many of our nation’s political leaders — at the local and national levels — either want to pretend it isn’t happening or are deliberately creating anxiety among white people that these demographic shifts will harm them.

Beginning this month, the census data will be used to draw new congressional districts and, despite the clear picture these data paint, many state lawmakers will deliberately contort their districts to keep power in the hands of an older, whiter group of voters. This disenfranchising of voters is not a new strategy, but it’s become ever more absurd and damaging as the country diversifies because it means Congress doesn’t really represent the electorate anymore.

For white people like me who embrace a multiracial country, we have some work to do. Not just to bolster our democracy through urgently needed legislation, but to both understand and begin to uproot the deep, harmful narrative that opportunity in this country is zero-sum, or as the author Heather McGhee characterizes it, that there is a “fixed pie of well-being.” It is this thinking that drives much of the fearmongering we are seeing today.

The new Census numbers aren’t just a snapshot of where we are now, they are pointing to where we are going. We can’t build a resilient country that can withstand the challenges we have in front of us without a robust alliance across race. Without understanding that zero-sum thinking harms us all. Without learning to reject the narratives that have been pushed through the culture to white people since our founding. It’s time to embrace some new narratives about our country — narratives that reinforce our connection to one another, celebrate our collective resilience, and take the blinders off about our past, so we can truly embrace the country we are becoming.

Read the full article about the 2020 census by Jeff Raikes at Medium.