People are abandoning white status, almost as if it were a handicap

What are the trends in identifying oneself as white? Using GSS data, I made some charts:

Here are trends for all respondents. The percent saying they are white has dropped from almost 90% in the 70s to slightly more than 50% in this decade.

Next, let's look at trends by country of origin or ethnicity.

The chart above is for those who say their ethnicity is American Indian. The percent indicating their race is white fell from 77% in the 70s to 60% now. This next chart is for people saying they are of Mexican ancestry. 

For this group, you see a huge 1970s-2000s drop from nearly 100% white to one-third. The trend then reversed over the next decade.  Next, Asian Indians:

There is a 1970s-2000s drop from 40% to 10%. Notice how the percent saying they're "black" also fell. One clear trend with these group is more people embracing the "other race" category.  Here are Arabs: 

We see a pattern similar to Mex-Ams: a 70s to 00s drop, then a reversal. Next, Puerto Ricans:

Typical pattern: Big drop 70s-90s, then a plateau. People from Spain: 

Even these folks are now more likely to say they are not white. And other Spanish:

Same kind of pattern. Now, it's certainly the case that some recent immigrants have been genetically less white than older immigrants, and some people are marrying within race (rather than marrying whites and having mixed kids) now that they have larger concentrations in the country, but these trends also suggest that there has been a move away from white identification that has flattened (or even reversed) in the last few years. 

The movement away from claiming white status is inconsistent with the notion that whiteness carries with it all sorts of benefits; rather, it suggests that a white status is disadvantageous.