Diversity in Denver (Aurora, Boulder, Castle Rock: salon, real estate, crimes)

[Fallingwaters]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

You can find racial diversity statistics on City-Data's main page for each city. I don't really know how Denver compares to Seattle.

Some people on this forum see Denver as very "white bread", homogenous, etc. Some see it differently. It seems to me, it may depend on how you spend your day. In a health care institution, there are usually people of different races and ethnicities working together. In an engineering firm, perhaps not. If your kids are in school, they see different races and ethnicities as well.

Ethnic restaurants are popular in Boulder. I don't go out to eat much in Denver proper, so I'm not sure. There are a lot of ethnic restaurants near the University of Denver.

To the first point, no offense, but I was saying that the statistical demographics for this question bear less weight than the cultural attitudes. Pointing people to a pie chart that says a city has x% of this group y% of that group is less important to me at least than avoiding a racially prejudiced environment. I just used WA as an example of a place that's not ethnically diverse, but is open minded racially, and speculating that Denver is probably similar culturally.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Fallingwaters

To the first point, no offense, but I was saying that the statistical demographics for this question bear less weight than the cultural attitudes. Pointing people to a pie chart that says a city has x% of this group y% of that group is less important to me at least than avoiding a racially prejudiced environment. I just used WA as an example of a place that's not ethnically diverse, but is open minded racially, and speculating that Denver is probably similar culturally.

OK, I'm with you on the first point.

However, I guess I don't understand how a city with very little ethnic diversity can be described as "open minded racially". It seems to me the proof of the pudding, so to speak, is in how people get along in a racially mixed environment, not how they theoretically would get along if such were the case.

Denver has fewer whites than Seattle. I see the race relations here as decent. We have a Hispanic senator. Denver had a hispanic mayor years ago, and a black mayor recently. That tells me that people, including the anglos, will vote for who they see as the best candidate.

[Fallingwaters]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

OK, I'm with you on the first point.

However, I guess I don't understand how a city with very little ethnic diversity can be described as "open minded racially". It seems to me the proof of the pudding, so to speak, is in how people get along in a racially mixed environment, not how they theoretically would get along if such were the case.

Denver has fewer whites than Seattle. I see the race relations here as decent. We have a Hispanic senator. Denver had a hispanic mayor years ago, and a black mayor recently. That tells me that people will vote for members of these groups.

It's in the political and cultural attitudes moreso than in the statistics. Here's an example, in Seattle, they had a "hispanic heritage" day event downtown -- it seemed that the attendees were mostly white people. Still, they were into "supporting the hispanic community" and showing the city's "diversity."

All in quotes just because, again, diversity is just another PC term that's come to really mean, I think, "we're not racist" as much or more than it means "we have this many people of this ethnic makeup in our population."

Some people might even say "liberal" attitudes promote "diversity," but that connotes that conservatives are all less tolerant or something, which is unfair. You can look at other areas (not talking WA or CO on this point, but other parts of the country) with higher percentages of different ethnicities, but with bad attitudes toward race in general. I won't bring up specific examples on that because it'll start to look like antagonism.

[Katiana]

Yes, well, I think we all know of places like you have mentioned. I can think of a few of these cities right off the top of my head.

I guess my point is, turning out for "hispanic heritage day", does not necessariy mean that one will relate well to actual people of hispanic heritage, if put in the situation. Does that mean you would vote for a hispanic candidate if the opponent were white? Does it mean you would treat a hispanic co-worker with respect, and not just think "hispanic heritage day" was a cute little festival to attend? Those kind of things.

[Fallingwaters]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Yes, well, I think we all know of places like you have mentioned. I can think of a few of these cities right off the top of my head.

I guess my point is, turning out for "hispanic heritage day", does not necessariy mean that one will relate well to actual people of hispanic heritage, if put in the situation. Does that mean you would vote for a hispanic candidate if the opponent were white? Does it mean you would treat a hispanic co-worker with respect, and not just think "hispanic heritage day" was a cute little festival to attend? Those kind of things.

Well, to be critical (as I tend to be of Seattle) some of it could be uber-political correctness and not so much genuine interest. Would these people learn to speak Spanish, research the history of Cortez's exlporations extensively, know how to cook with cilantro, and dance salsa? Eh, who knows? Probably not. Would they vote for a candidate from an ethnic minority, sure -- they have already in some cases. Would they treat people with respect -- of course; whether out of genuine open mindedness or fear of being branded racist (I think the fear factor is more prominent in WA state than they like to admit)

By the way, I do not like Washington state and am considering relocating to Colorado, despite my saying this positive thing about Seattle and using it as an example of how the implications behind the politically correct usage of "diversity" is not always tied to the racial demographics. It's not a Denver vs. Seattle thread (such as the others we've both posted on), but rather saying (and hoping) the two might share this positive similarity of at least surface racial open mindedness, no matter what the actual statistical demographics are. Sure, some people actually mean "are there many of this ethnicity" in a place but I think more often the questions connotes "are different ethnic groups well accepted".

[Addis McCarthy]

Polite people don't stare at other people, in the Denver Metro area or anywhere else. My opinionated (Older/conservative/Realtor) response is, Denver/Aurora are basket cases with crime and schools. Parker and nearby are big step up. My suggestion, is to save money on housing and send your kids someplace someplace like the Jeusit, High School, near Arapahoe Road. There are other choices but that is near the south east area.
Addis McCartrhy

[wanttomoveeast]

While I'm new to this particular forum, I'm not new to Denver at all. I'm in my mid-30s, black was raised in a practically all-white town. I have spent the last 20 yrs. living in Denver.

So my question. There are a lot of mixed responses here about diversity in Denver. I'm wondering why the mix.

For the people that think Denver is diverse --- are you white? Other ethnicity?

The people that think it's not diverse -- same questions.

Just curious. Thanks everyone for your responses!

[LisaCACO]

lol, good question.

i'm a black female, mid 40s and my vote is that it isn't really diverse.

okay, it's more diverse than, say, many places in Idaho or wyoming, or Maine, but it doesn't take much, lol.

[wanttomoveeast]

hi, I had actually started a new thread because I didn't want to hijack the OP's thread. But the moderators on this forum are strange. They hijacked the OP's thread. oh well.

I have noticed that the people who tell me that racism is not around, that Denver is diverse, well, they are always white people. None of my black or ethnic friends share this opinion. I think it's funny when people respond (on this site) to a question about whether they will have a hard time here (being gay or black or whatever) and the response comes from a white person saying oh, I've never seen anything bad like that before. UH, that's because you are white. I mean really, how many whites have been told to go back where they came from n---.??

[debbievance]

I live in Roxborough Park which is in northwest Douglas County, just south of Littleton. I found this post quite interesting. I've just never thought about "diversity" before because I just see all people the same. But I got to thinking about it and in our cul-de-sac, we have two couples where the wife is white and the husband is black and one family where one child is Chinese and another is Marshallese and the mother is from England. Next to them is a couple where the wife is white and the husband is hispanic. Then there is a couple where the husband is white and the wife is Chinese and another where the husband is white and the wife is Korean. We also have a Russian family. Oh, and we have several households where everyone is the same race. I could go on and on - does that mean we have diversity? I don't think anyone in our neighborhood ever really thinks about what race or color or religion people are but maybe I'm naive.