Demographic Racial Transition

Tukufu Zuberi, University of Pennsylvania

The word “race” does not appear in the titles of the sessions listed for the 30th International Population Conference organized by the IUSSP in Brisbane, Australia. This paper argues that practice of racial demography divides societies and continues to drive war and conflict between nations. A realignment of sensibilities and controversial issues have moved the body politic, including demographers, towards a conversation about racial demography. Issues such as births, death, migration, population growth, sickness and pandemics, diversity, and multiculturalism are ideas promoted by academics, journalists, politicians, and social movement activist. By the 19th century the earth was re-organized around our modern systems of racial lines distinguishing citizens from second class citizens, and non-humans. In this context, the racialized category of the citizen has become one of the most contentious components of the foundation of inequality. “The Demography of Race” is a modern white logic that racially proscribed justifications of racial hierarchies nationally and internationally. Has demography as a field of study intellectually proscribed race by ignoring the impacts of racism? This paper will provide alternative answers to this question.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Historical Demography, Population Policies, Population and Development

See extended abstract.