The Browning of America

Wes White has given permission to post this excerpt from an earlier broadcast that he did.

The Browning of America

Wes:  I’d like to begin tonight’s segment by inviting you to go on a journey with me in a time machine.  Let’s go on a ride into history.  And we’re not going to visit a lot of different time periods– only two. We’re going to go back to the year 1500 AD and then we’re going to jump forward into time to our present time – about 500 years later. 

So again, just two time periods.  But…  we’re going to visit six locations around the world.

Are you ready?  Let’s go. 

China

First, let’s go to China.  Let’s get into our time machine and see what China was like in the year 1500 AD.  

Well, in so many ways, China was the most advanced part of the world 500 years ago. China’s dominance in manufacturing and commerce in the year 1500 were the very reason why Columbus took off from Spain in 1492.  Columbus didn’t sail west to find new lands.  He sailed west to find a shorter route to China so that Spain could establish direct trade with the richest nation on the earth at that time.   

Now, let’s stay in China, but let’s move forward in time to today.  What do we see in China today?  Well, a really similar situation.  Today, China has the largest economy in the world.  It creates tons and tons of manufactured goods that the rest of the world is anxious to buy.  

And just like China 500 years ago, today’s China exports all kinds of good to the rest of the world.  The world is beating a path to China to buy those goods.  If it weren’t for products from China, your Wal-Mart would probably go out of business.  

So what we saw of China 500 years ago is eerily similar to what we see in China today.

Middle East

Now travel back 500 years ago to the Middle East.   

When we get there, what do we see going on in the Middle East in the year 1500? Well, that part of the world quite medieval in its culture.  It was dominated by the Islamic faith.  That faith kept women in an inferior social position relative to men.  Its population was dynamic and growing to the point where it had actually expanded into parts of Europe.  And this population expansion caused a lot of friction with European leaders who wanted to the Islamic people pushed back to the Middle East. 

Let’s now move forward in time to today.  Don’t we see something really similar in the Middle East today?  Right now, the millions of Muslims who are moving into Europe from the Middle East have caused the proliferation of nationalistic movements in some European countries who want to see Muslim peoples pushed back into the Middle East. 

So 500 years later, many aspects of the Middle East don’t seem to have changed. 

Africa

How about Africa?  When we take our time machine to Africa in 1500 AD, we find a continent that’s has a predominance of Muslim Arabs in the northern part of the continent while the majority of the rest of the continent is dominated by the black race.   We also find that, in the year 1500, there’s no continental unity in Africa.  The continent is mostly composed of small, competing tribes and clans.  Economically speaking in 1500, we find that Africa is by no means booming.  There’s a lot of poverty.  

Then, as we move forward in time to today, we find a really, really similar situation in Africa, don’t we?  Not a whole lot of difference.  

Europe

And how about Europe?  Again, as we drive our time machine back to the year 1500, we find the European continent comprised of many nations, but they seem to be able to get along enough to have trade and commerce going back and forth.  In 1500, that part of the world was fighting to remove what they call “invaders” back to the Middle East. This whole conflict we see 500 years ago centered on both religion and race.  Remember that Queen Isabella of Spain isn’t famous today only because she financed Columbus’ voyage to the new world.  Isabella is also famous because she and her husband (in 1492) had run the Muslim Arabs out of Spain.  Many Europeans today long for another Queen Isabella.  

So. When we compare Europe 500 years ago to Europe of today, we find some really similar dynamics vying for control of that continent. 

South America and Mexico

How about Latin America – you know -- South America and Mexico?  As we travel back to the year 1500, we find that Latin America back then was inhabited by Native Americans.  500 years ago, these indigenous people had no desire to unify into larger nations.  Like Africa, South America was decentralized under many different tribes:  Aztecs, Incas, Mayans, and many others. 

Now let’s come back to our present time and look at its racial composition. Today, South America and Mexico are still inhabited primarily by the descendants of those Native Americans who populated the area in 1500 AD.   Demographically, South America and Mexico have the same basic racial population as it did 500 years ago.   Yes, a lot of European blood has been injected into the population of Latin America, but it’s still mostly of indigenous descent.  When we look at the politics, we see that South America is primarily a collection of many smaller nations.

North America

Let’s now move into North American.  As we travel back to the year 1500, we find that the central part of this continent is really similar to Africa and South America in the year 1500. The central part of the North American continent is composed of many different languages.  Different cultures.  

But, when we move forward in time to our present day, we find that something astonishing has happened to this part of the world.  When we move forward in time to today, we find three major nations controlling the North American continent:  Mexico, Canada, and the US.   So right off the bat, we find a completely different political structure on the continent.  

Further, we find something even more astounding.  In the area that’s now called the United States, we see a major change in the composition of the population.  Today, we see a totally different group living on this big piece of land than we saw 500 years ago. 

Question:  In what’s now called the United States, are the system of government and the people who live here in any way identical or even similar to what we saw 500 years ago on the same spot?  Absolutely not.

Again, in most places around the world, things today are fundamentally the same today as they were 500 years ago.  Except… in the land we call the US.

Today, the land upon which the US sets is controlled by a strong, central government. 500 years ago there wasn’t anything close to any kind of central government over this land.  The Native American tribes were separate from each other when it came to government.  They spoke many, many different languages.  Some of those languages weren’t even related to each other.  Some of these languages don’t even have a common parent language that they evolved from.  

And today, although there are indeed many languages spoken in this nation, the language of business and government and education in this piece of real estate is primarily English.  

And here’s the part that is so incredible.  Today, the population of the US is primarily (not totally, but primarily) composed of people who are descendants of Europeans.  

Unlike South America and Mexico where the population is primarily descendants of Native Americans, this North American nation we’re talking about is primarily composed of European stock.

And, in the scheme of history…this is startling.  What we see in the US today is unparalleled in man’s 6,000 years of history.  

As we compare the two snapshots of the overall world in 1500 AD and today, we’re tempted to say, “Things never change.”   And it’s pretty safe to say that because again, things in China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin American, the demographics and governmental systems are really similar today to what they were 500 years ago. 

But this statement – that things never change – in no way applies to the middle of the North American continent.  

So, as we look at the United States, we gotta ask ourselves this question:  Is this European racial dominance going to last?  I mean, demographers, historians, and social scientists tell us that the European race is – comparatively speaking – getting to be a smaller, smaller – percentage-wise -- of the total population.  And they say that, over the next 100 years, the racial composition of the US is going to be completely reversed in that it’s going to get a lot closer to the way it was for thousands of years before Europeans started arriving in the New World over 500 years ago.  They say the country is eventually going to be dominated by the descendants of the aboriginal races that lived here for thousands of years before Columbus arrived. 

In other words, while they concede that the racial composition of this land will never go back to being 100% Native American, they project that the Europeans will eventually become a minority and the aboriginal people who live here will eventually equal or exceed the number of European descendants who live here.    

Important Interjection

Now, let’s make some important points here before we start contemplating the ramifications of this monumental population shift that’s already upon us.

First of all, the topic of race is always a difficult one.  The topic of race is so difficult that many preachers and teachers won’t go near it.  They realize that, once they wander into the topic of race, they’re walking into a minefield.  So they avoid it like the plague.

But, as you know, I don’t mind taking on difficult topics if I feel the ecclesia can benefit from frank discussion.  And I believe the SOS audience eagerly embraces these discussions --  and that they use Christian maturity without getting hurt feelings and without taking on needless offence. 

Second point.  This presentation is NOT going to be some white nationalism rant about how wrong it is that the white Europeans are being pushed out of the way by people with darker skin.  We’re not gonna go there.  And Carl and Nancy, if someone in the Chat Rooms gets into any racist nonsense, please delete their comments.  We want to learn from each other by civil disagreement.   But we’re not gonna let anyone use this show to promote racial division.  

Remember that this show always teaches that every person who has ever lived on this earth was created for the purpose of becoming a member of the God Family. God loves every person who has ever been born because God wants that person to live eternally with him.  So I’m not going to be part of any movement that says we white people need to wake up because our country is being taken over by dark people.  That’s not what we’re about on SOS.  Our mission is to have Christian love for all people. 

Third point.  I’m not an expert on race.  For the 12 years I was in elementary school and high school, I never attended school with an African American.  Not a single one.  In the town I was raised in back then, we simply didn’t have any people of color.  

So I’m not even close to being an expert on other cultures and races.  And I admit it.  And this is why – over the decades – I’ve tried to do things like developing relationships with Spanish-speaking Sabbath keepers.  I try not to live in a white bubble.  Yes, I admit I have much to learn.  So, if I make an ignorant statement, please tell me I’ve goofed up so I can repent.  But then forgive me. 

All right.  Let’s move on. 

Let’s talk a little more about history.  Let’s try to understand how the US came to be where it is today and… why it’ll be where it is in the next 100 or 200 years.   

       

It’s important to note that, demographically speaking, Europeans didn't become the majority race in North America till sometime well after1800.  I think the European race became dominant in the US somewhere around 1875 – give or take 25 years in either direction.  Let me explain.  

Before 1789, the US was basically just thirteen squabbling, former British colonies clustered on the Atlantic coast.  Before 1789, Native Americans were the primary race of North America.  That statement is a no-brainer. 

After 1789, the US had become of nation with a strong centralized government.   By 1800, there were 16 states – the original 13 colonies plus Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee.

In 1800, in spite of the fact that the US claimed ownership of most of the land south of the Great Lakes… and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River – still -- in that big chunk of land, most of the areas were still populated by Native Americans and under the control of Native Americans So in 1800, the land called the US was mostly populated by Native Americans and most of the land was controlled by Native Americans. 

Then, in 1803, the US doubled in size by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France.  But the American nation was still in no way in control if that new land that it had just purchased.  That huge tract of real estate called the Louisiana Territory in 1803 was still populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.   Remember that when Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore this new acquisition, there were very few Europeans living there.  Most of the European people who lived in the Louisiana Territory were in and around the city of New Orleans.  

Again, all throughout the early 1800s, this piece of real estate that we now call the US was populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.   

            Then -- somewhere over the next 100 years -- the racial composition of this land was reversed.  The racial composition of this land became majority European stock. And, at that point, the land became primarily controlled by the descendants of people who emigrated here from Europe. 

So again, this switch took place somewhere in the late 1800s.  

And this was a seismic shift in demographics.  Something like this doesn’t happen very often in history.  I’m not sure the world had ever seen such a quick and dramatic change. Remember that this reversal took place over a huge piece of land and it took place over a period of time less than 400 years long.  

Again, this was unprecedented.  Now, we do see things like this happen in history on a smaller scale. 

Like in 721 BC when the northern tribes of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  And then the Assyrians sent a whole new group of people to populate that newly-vacated land. Then, by the time Jesus comes on to the stage of history, those people who were living in the land that was once populated by the northern ten tribes of Israel – those people were called Samaritans. But they weren’t of Israelite stock.  They were primarily a Gentile people.

So we do see demographic upheavals like this take place in history. But I don’t think the world has ever seen such a major change happen like we saw take place in North American between 1700 and 1800.  This was demographically seismic. 

Now, people always ask the question:  How did it happen?

Well, I suggest that there were four reasons why the Europeans were able to replace the Native Americans on such a huge scale.  Let’s look at those four reasons:

So in 1800, the land called the US was mostly populated by Native Americans and most of the land was controlled by Native Americans. 

Then, in 1803, the US doubled in size by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France.  But the American nation was still in no way in control if that new land that it had just purchased.  That huge tract of real estate called the Louisiana Territory in 1803 was still populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.   Remember that when Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore this new acquisition, there were very few Europeans living there.  Most of the European people who lived in the Louisiana Territory were in and around the city of New Orleans.  

Again, all throughout the early 1800s, this piece of real estate that we now call the US was populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.  

            Then -- somewhere over the next 100 years -- the racial composition of this land was reversed.  The racial composition of this land became majority European stock. And, at that point, the land became primarily controlled by the descendants of people who emigrated here from Europe. 

So again, this switch took place somewhere in the late 1800s.  

And this was a seismic shift in demographics.  Something like this doesn’t happen very often in history.  I’m not sure the world had ever seen such a quick and dramatic change. Remember that this reversal took place over a huge piece of land and it took place over a period of time less than 400 years long.  

Again, this was unprecedented.  Now, we do see things like this happen in history on a smaller scale. 

Like in 721 BC when the northern tribes of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  And then the Assyrians sent a whole new group of people to populate that newly-vacated land. Then, by the time Jesus comes on to the stage of history, those people who were living in the land that was once populated by the northern ten tribes of Israel – those people were called Samaritans. But they weren’t of Israelite stock.  They were primarily a Gentile people.

So we do see demographic upheavals like this take place in history. But I don’t think the world has ever seen such a major change happen like we saw take place in North American between 1700 and 1800.  This was demographically seismic. 

Now, people always ask the question:  How did it happen?

Well, I suggest that there were four reasons why the Europeans were able to replace the Native Americans on such a huge scale.  Let’s look at those four reasons:So in 1800, the land called the US was mostly populated by Native Americans and most of the land was controlled by Native Americans. 

Then, in 1803, the US doubled in size by purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France.  But the American nation was still in no way in control if that new land that it had just purchased.  That huge tract of real estate called the Louisiana Territory in 1803 was still populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.   Remember that when Jefferson sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore this new acquisition, there were very few Europeans living there.  Most of the European people who lived in the Louisiana Territory were in and around the city of New Orleans. 

Again, all throughout the early 1800s, this piece of real estate that we now call the US was populated and controlled primarily by Native Americans.  

            Then -- somewhere over the next 100 years -- the racial composition of this land was reversed.  The racial composition of this land became majority European stock. And, at that point, the land became primarily controlled by the descendants of people who emigrated here from Europe. 

So again, this switch took place somewhere in the late 1800s.  

And this was a seismic shift in demographics.  Something like this doesn’t happen very often in history.  I’m not sure the world had ever seen such a quick and dramatic change. Remember that this reversal took place over a huge piece of land and it took place over a period of time less than 400 years long.  

Again, this was unprecedented.  Now, we do see things like this happen in history on a smaller scale. 

Like in 721 BC when the northern tribes of Israel were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.  And then the Assyrians sent a whole new group of people to populate that newly-vacated land. Then, by the time Jesus comes on to the stage of history, those people who were living in the land that was once populated by the northern ten tribes of Israel – those people were called Samaritans. But they weren’t of Israelite stock.  They were primarily a Gentile people.

So we do see demographic upheavals like this take place in history. But I don’t think the world has ever seen such a major change happen like we saw take place in North American between 1700 and 1800.  This was demographically seismic. 

Now, people always ask the question:  How did it happen?

Well, I suggest that there were four reasons why the Europeans were able to replace the Native Americans on such a huge scale.  Let’s look at those four reasons: The first was population expansion by the Europeans.  Unlike today, at that time, Europeans had large families.  Europeans were outgrowing their continent across the Atlantic.  They had deforested their wooded areas.  They weren’t able to grow enough crops to feed all their people. So they pushed into North America.  

The second reason was the practice of forced relocation on the Native Americans.  Remember that Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears wasn’t the only time that Native American tribes were uprooted and forcibly moved off their lands and made to live in some other part of the continent.  Forced relocation was one factor in this demographic shift.

The third reason this population replacement happened was war.  

And the fourth reason this happened – and this was the biggest reason – was disease.   We can’t place too much emphasis on disease in shaping the population demographics in North America.  

Let’s go back to ancient times.  Right after the Flood, the people of the world were united at the Tower of Babel. Then God dispersed them all over the world…  for two reasons.  One was because He wanted the entire earth populated.  And the second reason is because of the one-world government rebellion that took place under the leadership of people like Cush and Nimrod and Semiramis.  So God confounded their languages and forcibly dispersed them so they wouldn’t remain clustered in what is now Iraq. 

From that dispersion out of the Mesopotamian Valley in the Middle East, people then migrated over the entire world.  

Anthropologists believe that people from Asia migrated to the North American continent from what is now Siberia.  Some of them may have come over the Pacific Ocean in boats. Anthropologists and archeologists are still debating this issue. 

The point is that – by the time Columbus showed up in North America in 1492 – the whole inhabitable world was populated.  But there were – for all intents and purposes -- two worlds: Europe, Asia, and Africa were the old world.  North and South America were the new world.   These two worlds had virtually no contact with each other for thousands of years. Each world didn’t even know the other existed. 

And during these thousands of years of separation, the old world inhabitants had developed some horrible strains of disease.  Here’s a list of diseases that the Europeans brought to the new world:

The plague, The plague, chickenpox, cholera, the common cold, diphtheria, influenza, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, sexually transmitted diseases,typhoid, typhus, tuberculosis, and pertussis (whooping cough).  Again, these are diseases we find in the old world before 1492.  

But we don’t find them in the new world.  The new world people had never experienced these diseases before 1492. 

Why not?  Many scientists believe that the Native Americans had never experienced these diseases was because they were cleaner the Europeans.  The Native Americans bathed.  They practice better oral hygiene.  They understood the importance of hand washing.  For centuries in Europe, bathing was frowned upon by the church. Another topic for another time. 

The Europeans were basically nasty.  They stunk.  They didn’t wash their clothes on a regular basis.  And they were too hung up on alcoholic beverages – something that didn’t exist in the new world before 1492.

So, for a lot of reasons, Europe developed diseases that had never touched the new world before Columbus.  And, because the Europeans had experienced these many diseases, their bodies had developed high degrees of immunity to those diseases. 

Unfortunately, the Native Americans had developed no such immunities.  They never needed these immunities before the Europeans showed up. 

So, when the Europeans accidentally infected the Native Americans with their diseases…

And let me add something important.  I can find nothing in history that indicates the Europeans every deliberately infected the Native Americans.  I’m not saying it never happened.  I’m saying that I can’t find anything in history that indicates it was ever done deliberately. 

Back to our point.  When the Europeans accidentally infected the Native Americans with their diseases, the people in the new world died by the millions.  I’ve read estimates that said up to 90 percent of the Native Americans died because of exposure to these nasty Europeans and their diseases.  90%!  

Many times, Europeans would move into an area of the New World and they wouldn’t see any people for miles and miles around.  So they thought it was land that had never been occupied. What they didn’t know was… that that land had once hosted a teeming population of Native Americans that had only recently died of European disease.  

So these are the four main reasons why there was this great demographic shift from majority Native American to majority European.   The Native Americans were dying off at a rapid rate and the Europeans were moving in and having lots of kids.  

And that’s why, by the year 1900, Europeans had become the dominant race and the dominant culture in this land that we call the US. 

Now, here’s where the demographers come back into our discussion. Because this story isn’t over. It’s far from over. 

While it took the anthropologists and the archaeologists to explain the past, it takes the demographers to tell us what’s coming in the future.  And the demographers say that European racial dominance over North America is going to end somewhere between 2040 and 2100 AD. They say that, between the years 2040 and 2100, European stock will no longer be the dominant race of the land called the US.    Some of you may live to see this switch.  

The demographers point out that the descendants of Europeans are already the minority in as many as 21 states.  

Some real quick facts from an article by Sabrina Tavernise of the NY Times.  It appeared on June 20, 2018:

n  Deaths now outnumber births among white people in more than half the states in the country.    

n Fertility rates in whites dropped drastically after the Great Recession of 2008 and mortality rates for whites have been rising, driven partly by drug overdoses.  

n  The majority of the youngest Americans are already non-white. 

n  In California, 52 percent of all children are living in homes with at least one immigrant parent.

            So now, let’s get back into our time machine and now let’s go into the future.  Let’s take a look at the year 2100.  If the demographers are correct, when we get to 2100, we’re going to look at the US and see that the European race’s dominance of NA lasted only about 200 years!  That is, European racial dominance went only from the year 1900 to the year 2100!

Only 200 years!  And 200 years is nothing in the overall scheme of man’s 6,000 year history.  200 years is just a blip on the radar in man’s history.  

Now, I suppose that, in some ways, this development may shock us. But maybe we should look at this as civilization’s natural desire to be like it was in the past.  

Now, are we saying that this demographic reversal is a bad thing or a good thing?  No.  These are just the facts being related as accurately as we can.  We’re not putting any value on this demographic data.  It is what it is.  

Further, we must never forget that we don’t always know what God’s plan is in all this.  We’re just finite beings trying to look at the big picture.  And this is so difficult for us because we tend to obsess with the micro here and now…and ignore the macro overall.