Vice President Joe Biden welcomed a top Latin American leader to Washington by declaring that “those of us of European stock” will be the minority in less than two years, and, he added, “that’s a good thing.”
Biden made the comments during a State Department luncheon for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
Vice President Joe Biden. AP Photo
According to a press pool report of the event, Biden addressed several key issues in the complicated U.S.-Brazil relationship. The report then added:
“By 2017, those of us of European stock,” Biden said “will be an absolute minority in the United States of America.”
That’s “not a bad thing, that’s a good thing,” he added, because it means the U.S. is expanding the diversity of its people.
He has cheered the end of the white, European majority before. Last December, while in Morocco, he said:
“Ladies and gentlemen, in 2017, the United States for the first time, Caucasians of European descent like me will be in an absolute minority in the United States of America. The secret that people don’t know is our diversity is the reason for our incredible strength.”
According to the U.S. Census, America’s non-Hispanic white population will cease being the majority in 2044. It currently makes up 63 percent of the population.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
