ABSTRACT
California is neither a melting pot nor a salad bowl. From the first Native American communities, through the period of Spanish conquest and the cultural imperialism of the missions, to the period of Mexican settlement, and ultimately the mass white
migration of the 1870s and 1880s, California has evolved into an often uneasy jigsaw of competing interests. California’s complex network of urban, suburban, and rural areas make up what is now the nation’s most diverse population, representing hundreds of distinct cultures and communities. Ethnicity is arguably the most salient cleavage in American politics. Yet a striking trend in California’s demography is the rate at which the present plurality ethnic group, non-Hispanic whites, is moving from the majority to become the largest minority. In 1940 whites comprised 89.5 percent of California’s population; Latinos, 6 percent; Asians, 1.9 percent; African Americans, 1.8 percent; and Native Americans, 0.2 percent. By 2000, non-Hispanic whites made up only 46.7 percent. As Table 4.1 shows, California has become far more diverse than the nation as a whole. Latinos grew to 32.4 percent of the state population, Asians and Pacific Islanders collectively rose to 10.9 percent, African Americans to 6.7 percent, and Native Americans, 1 percent.1
