Acknowledging the existence of a contemporary color line dividing black and nonblack Americans does not mean we suggest that “nonblack” is a homo- geneous category synonymous with “white.” In fact, we propose that there are many shades of nonblack, making this category more nuanced and complex than the category often defined as white. Perhaps because whiteness as a cate- gory has expanded in the past to incorporate new immigrant groups, some may presume that it now is stretching again to envelop many Asians and Latinos. Some observers seeing the patterns of interracial marriage and multiracial iden- tification might argue that Asians and Latinos are indeed the next in line to become “white,” with multiracial Asian-whites and Latino-whites at the head of the queue. However, such an interpretation fails to consider that “whiteness” may no longer retain its previous meaning and significance. Hence, although Asians and Latinos may be nonblack, this does not necessarily mean that they are becoming white. This suggests that the old black-white divide will not reemerge but that a new category, nonblack, is emerging.

The Structure of This Book This book is divided into three parts. In part I we outline four alternative the- oretical perspectives concerning the origins and nature of today’s color line(s); review the history of the various ways the U.S. government, through its major population statistical agency, the Census Bureau, has sought to determine the racial status of the population in order to fulfill its constitutional and legal man- dates to provide data for political apportionment and other official government functions; and draw on 1990 and 2000 census data and on 2007 and 2008 American Community Survey data (Ruggles et al. 2009) to describe national and place-based trends in immigration, nonwhite population growth, diversity, intermarriage, and multiracial reporting. We also document the shifts in the ethnoracial demography of the United States in recent decades, especially the arrival after 1965 of a new wave of immigrants from non-European countries that has dramatically altered the ethnoracial landscape of the country and ush- ered in a new era of diversity.