Late Thursday evening I was sitting in the downstairs study working.  I could hear, but not see, the TV in the living room.  Mrs. D was watching the Conan O’Brien show. 

In his monologue O’Brien mentioned the story out of the Census Bureau that deaths now exceed births among non-Hispanic whites in the U.S.A.

When they heard him say that, the studio audience broke out in cheers and applause.

I didn’t get up from my chair to go look, but as I recall, Conan’s studio audience is solidly non-Hispanic white.  So they were applauding the decline of their own stock.

What an odd thing!  Is there any precedent in history for such a widespread general ethnomasochistic joy?

I imagine the moving thought here—though I doubt it rises to the level of actual conscious thought—is something like: “Oh, good—soon there will be no more of that horrid race business!  Coffee-colored world!  We’ll all be cool together, like me and my hipster pals!”

Well, maybe.  Or maybe not.