Ethnic diversity ?

[Marshall]

We're really a lily white bunch. I'm wondering how many people we all see of different ethnicity in a given week. Most all my friends are lily white. I go to open mics and it's mostly just old white guys where I go. But when I go to the Mall (Woodfield Mall) in Schaumburg, just 5 miles away, I'd say more than 50% of people are of some foreign ethnicity. A lot of Indians, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, blacks, Eastern Europeans (you can tell them by their accents and language.)

Also when I go to the Lifetime Fitness center, also in Schaumburg, where I have a free Medicare membership, (I like the place), the situation is the same. More foreigners than WASPy people.

I'm certainly not complaining about anything. But I wonder how many of you see people of different ethnicity in the course of your usual week.


I'm reminded of a comment a woman made to me when we were in SW Texas at the Big Ben National Park. She was from Texas. A nice lady. We were all getting along, until she spouted out, "Why are there so many black people in TV commercials? Don't these companies know this is a white nation?" - A silence fell over our conversation and I said, "Goodbye and safe travels," right after that.

[brucemacneill]

My county is about 50-50 black and white with a few Asians and a few Hispanics. My handy man is a tall younger than me black guy. I was his first customer and use him and his now helpers several times a year so if I call him he comes ASAP. I recommended him to several people and now he's a very busy man. A couple of landscapers I have used were all blacks. Most of the help at the grocery store are blacks. We all get along maybe because I generally pay cash.

[Rob Hanesworth]

My sister's husband is Mexican so my two nieces are half Mexican. One of them adopted a Mexican boy and a Chinese boy in addition to her own natural child.

One stepdaughter's husband is from El Salvador, giving me two delightful Hispanic grandchildren.

One of my brother's girls and her husband adopted three Russian children, a girl and her two brothers.

My wife's nephew married a terrific Vietnamese/Thai woman who bore two super kids.

All of these people are wonderful and I couldn't be happier to have them in my family.

Viva la diversity!

[Marty]

Old neighbor next door, Penny, was from the Red Lake Tribe. She moved to Duluth and now Angie and Shawn are there, both white. Other side is Megan and Fazezz, black and white. Next to Shawn and Angie is Jose and across the street is Jorge. Two doors down the other way and across from them are both Asian families. There are more non-white than white on my block.

My block itself is nice people that get along just fine but down on the corner across from the DQ is a little convenience shop, they are contested ground for several gangs in the area and a hangout for drug dealers. Come Summer things can get quite out of hand down there and we get several shoot outs every Summer.

[billhammond]

When I was working in the office, I was surrounded by colleagues of many diverse cultures and backgrounds, but now that I'm working from home, my exposure to other ethnicities is pretty much limited to shopping and restaurant diving. The Twin Cities is blessed with a wide range of ethnic groups, though, and eateries are a good way to learn more about them (and mingle with immigrant customers, too). Plenty of times I've dined at places where I was the only Anglo in the joint.

[epaul]

The ladies that live next door are from California. And one of them has a couple tattoos!

[Russell Letson]

Bruce, paying cash will certainly endear us to small-business service folk of any ethnicity. But my suspicion is that most people of all kinds (with the inevitable exceptions among the young or socially inept or plain old assholes) would just as soon get along with their lives and their fellow citizens (whether or not they're actually citizens) and proceed as though we really were all just getting along. We've had African-American families in the rental next door, and they were friendly working-class people. I don't know what they really thought of the old white college people they were greeting and commenting on the weather with, but we all behaved as though we were just, you know, people. (And FWIW, the original owners of that house were drunks, criminals, bigots, and assholes--and white.)

As for diversity in any given subcultural/social group, I also suspect that most people just follow their interests and enthusiasms. Acoustic-guitar nerdery is demographically dominated by old white guys (and a handful of gals), and as Yogi Berra pointed out, if people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.

Right now I'm dealing with the folk society's periodic grant application, and the diversity questions have finally started to appear. There are no easy and conventionally-acceptable ways of pointing out that in our neck of the woods, the audience for "folk music" is overwhelmingly old and white. There's a considerable population of color in St. Cloud, but it is either African (mostly Somali) or "urban" (trans.: working class) African-American, and neither of those segments have much interest in singer-songwriters or even the blues. (The middle-aged African-Americans next door favored hip-hop--and would ask if it was playing too loud.) The application also asks about the "youth" audience, and I really don't want to have to explain that, short of offering free beer, we can't think of a way of inducing them to come hear traditional music. And this in a college town.

[Hobson]

My immediate neighborhood is mostly white. Tucson is less than 5% Black, so I don't see a lot of Blacks and don't have any Black friends. But I have quite a few Native American and Hispanic friends. Tucson is about 45% Hispanic and we hear Spanish spoken a lot. My half sister was an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe. Growing up in Montana I had a few Native American friends and never thought much about it at the time.

[david]

In the local stores, I see several ethnicities. The 15 occupants in my current office building are all white. In my neighborhood, I would guess it is 95% white. If yard service or construction work is going on most of the laborers are Hispanic.

I had reservations about moving into our neighborhood because I wanted my kids to be raised in a more diverse area.

[howard lee]

I live in the city known as "The Melting Pot," among other names. I was raised in an integrated neighborhood.

The people who live in my building are Black, Latino, Asian, White, (East) Indian, Caribbean, our building staff is mostly Latino, the owner/manager and subordinates (mostly his nephews) of our local supermarket are Palestinian. Our neighborhood is a rich mix of ethnicity and culture. I ride the subway every day and it is a veritable mosaic of people from all over the world. I work with Orthodox Jews, non-Jewish Whites, Latinos, Blacks, Asians. There's also one Irish guy.

That's all I've got.

[paleo]

Before I retired, my work took me all over the world. I still have friends around the world, but now I rarely see them. I miss that, they taught me a lot.

In Urbana it's pretty white, although one of the gals on next week's ski trip has a black SIL and mixed grandkids.

[t-bob]

Where I live there's 70 seniors and 'diversity'

I live in northern california - diversity LGBT, hippies, old hippies, rats, Teslas, old broken 1950s trucks, VW buses, bikes, scooters.....

And most of my friends are all black, yellow, half B/W, red

I have MILs - Spanish & Russian .... grandkid (citizen USA/Russian - two passports). I had a Norwegian wife - (Duluth Minn) and second wife - Altanta GA (that's a different country isn't it?) Most of the crackers talk differently anyway with marbles in mouth

* monday's opinion* Toosday's opinion

[John B]

Growing up in and around a town with a large (20K+ students) university, I thought of myself as one relatively exposed to different cultures; moving to DC really opened my eyes, as did living in San Jose. In my current hometown it is very midwestern, very white, but with some diversity due to the number of engineers who work here. We are 75% white, 12.5% Asian, 6% Hispanic and the rest is a mix of other ethnicities.

[PaulKay]

You can’t live in Arizona without being around many hispanics. We have found them all to be friendly and open.

[Village Idiot]

The diversity in my neighborhood is 2% Caucasian, 49% deer, 49% turkeys. I was thinking of a neighborhood potluck so we could all get together and know each other.

[Dub]

Jan 22, 2024 20:19:30 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

The diversity in my neighborhood is 2% Caucasian, 49% deer, 49% turkeys. I was thinking of a neighborhood potluck so we could all get together and know each other.

Things will go downhill when the coyotes move in.

[epaul]

Jan 22, 2024 20:19:30 GMT -5 Village Idiot said:

The diversity in my neighborhood is 2% Caucasian, 49% deer, 49% turkeys. I was thinking of a neighborhood potluck so we could all get together and know each other.

Steve, DO NOT try this in your neighborhood!

[theevan]

Jan 22, 2024 16:44:37 GMT -5 howard lee said:

I live in the city known as "The Melting Pot," among other names. I was raised in an integrated neighborhood.

The people who live in my building are Black, Latino, Asian, White, (East) Indian, Caribbean, our building staff is mostly Latino, the owner/manager and subordinates (mostly his nephews) of our local supermarket are Palestinian. Our neighborhood is a rich mix of ethnicity and culture. I ride the subway every day and it is a veritable mosaic of people from all over the world. I work with Orthodox Jews, non-Jewish Whites, Latinos, Blacks, Asians. There's also one Irish guy.

That's all I've got.

An original Brooklynite here. However I was raised in a burb of San Francisco. The developer of our neighborhood (Eichler) put strong anti-discrimination language into the covenants. As a result, our place was mostly Japanese and Chinese with a smattering of other origins in the mix (ex-pat German Jews next door, Tongolese across the street, etc.). I only had two white friends growing up. Scott's dad was a relief pitcher for the SF Giants, and Fred's dad was Air Force.

[jdd2]

I'm the diversity in my neighborhood...

I was talking to one sister, the last call or the one before. She taught for years in chicago, went back for an MPA, and ended being principal at an elementary school in Skokie. She said they had over 30 languages at that school, and gushed on about how thankful the people were to have their kids in school there. No sense/air of entitlement from either the parents or the kids.

[Cornflake]

I don't think about this subject much. We tend to spend our time with people who have things in common with us. Given where I've lived and how, and the realities of this country during my lifetime, the people I have things in common with are mostly white. I don't view that as good or bad.