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Location: Born & Raised DC > Carolinas > Seattle > Denver
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Growing up in Washington DC, my school was LITERALLY split almost 4 ways. 25% white, 25% black, 25% hispanic, and 25% asian.
I'm used to being around people of all colors, shapes and sizes. I guess i was fortunate to grow up in an area like that. I've found that not many other US cities outside NYC, Chicago, and LA are as diverse as DC was.
I think a lot of people look for diversity because they feel they are themselves unconventional in some way. So in a diverse city they will feel less likely to stand out than in a monoculture town.
I've always found it odd that on City-Data multiculturalism and diversity are held in such high esteem, often to the point that if a city is predominantly white or any one ethnicity it's considered by many to be 'bad'. I can't quite work out why a city or area which is fairly racially homogeneous is viewed as worse to live in than a more diverse place. If the reason for that lack of diversity is that people of other ethnic origins aren't welcome, then that is obviously a problem, but there are many not at all shady reasons for a place not being particularly mixed race wise.
I live in a village in the south of England of about 4,000 people which is easily upwards of 99% white. It's a nice enough place, and the fact that most of its residents are white is just the way it is. If there was a sudden influx of other races, I'm sure some residents would actually be a bit annoyed or upset at the very least because they're not big on radical change, and because a huge surge in population regardless of colour would obviously change the village quite a bit, but it's not because the village is a hive of intolerance that it's overwhelmingly white, it's just the way it's always been and so it continues to be. I'm sure most City-Data users wouldn't want to live here because it's too small, but would it's lack of diversity really be a turn off to even white people on here?
To be clear, I don't diversity is bad, just that I don't see why a lack of diversity is.
Most people don't want to eat the same thing everyday, drink the same thing everyday, and if you live in an homogenized community, you miss different view points.
I grew up in a homogenous community and it took me making friends from Chicago and Minnesota to show me that I had missed a lot in socializing with people from different viewpoints. I mean even in the same race. I got friends of different religions now, who listen to different music. I had never really listened to rock music until I met one of my friends, now I listen to it all of the time without worrying if it's what "Black people would listen to" whatever.
That's what diversity does. I gets you out of the echo chamber of the same music, the same politics, the same religions, the same viewpoints.
Location: Born & Raised DC > Carolinas > Seattle > Denver
9,338 posts, read 7,106,572 times
Reputation: 9487
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lake County IN
Most people don't want to eat the same thing everyday, drink the same thing everyday, and if you live in an homogenized community, you miss different view points.
I grew up in a homogenous community and it took me making friends from Chicago and Minnesota to show me that I had missed a lot in socializing with people from different viewpoints. I mean even in the same race. I got friends of different religions now, who listen to different music. I had never really listened to rock music until I met one of my friends, now I listen to it all of the time without worrying if it's what "Black people would listen to" whatever.
That's what diversity does. I gets you out of the echo chamber of the same music, the same politics, the same religions, the same viewpoints.
Most people don't want to eat the same thing everyday, drink the same thing everyday, and if you live in an homogenized community, you miss different view points.
I grew up in a homogenous community and it took me making friends from Chicago and Minnesota to show me that I had missed a lot in socializing with people from different viewpoints. I mean even in the same race. I got friends of different religions now, who listen to different music. I had never really listened to rock music until I met one of my friends, now I listen to it all of the time without worrying if it's what "Black people would listen to" whatever.
That's what diversity does. I gets you out of the echo chamber of the same music, the same politics, the same religions, the same viewpoints.
Yes... but you also made an interesting point without realizing it. There is diversity everywhere, all the time, even if people look the same on the surface. It's called diversity of personality. Everyone is different. Skin color is superficial. Lets stop lumping people together as "all the same" just because they have the same skin color.
It is joined w the belief that u r moving on up which is a good thing.
this is a happy moment rainbow moment when everybody thinks they are guna get along.
but when then problems come up, and frictions and disagreements about what are the standards of conduct occur. its then when u realize u are not guna move on up as expected, the
accusations of racism often occur.
have seen it many many times.
Last edited by Huckleberry3911948; 04-16-2012 at 06:26 PM..
Yes... but you also made an interesting point without realizing it. There is diversity everywhere, all the time, even if people look the same on the surface. It's called diversity of personality. Everyone is different. Skin color is superficial. Lets stop lumping people together as "all the same" just because they have the same skin color.
You beat me to it; diversity has many more components than race. My tongue and cheek answer is living in a racially diverse area allows folks a chance to paint themselves as open minded, worldly and purveyor of fine cuisines.
90% of the people that claim to love diversity mean that they like diversity in small doses. Very few people actually prefer living in a neighborhood where they are the minority culturally, politically, or even economically. So when people say that they like diversity, what they usually mean is that they want to live in a place where most others are like them, but with some others thrown in to make it interesting. You can go to any number of these cities and experience how much self-segregation there is for proof.
I've always found it odd that on City-Data multiculturalism and diversity are held in such high esteem, often to the point that if a city is predominantly white or any one ethnicity it's considered by many to be 'bad'. I can't quite work out why a city or area which is fairly racially homogeneous is viewed as worse to live in than a more diverse place. If the reason for that lack of diversity is that people of other ethnic origins aren't welcome, then that is obviously a problem, but there are many not at all shady reasons for a place not being particularly mixed race wise.
I live in a village in the south of England of about 4,000 people which is easily upwards of 99% white. It's a nice enough place, and the fact that most of its residents are white is just the way it is. If there was a sudden influx of other races, I'm sure some residents would actually be a bit annoyed or upset at the very least because they're not big on radical change, and because a huge surge in population regardless of colour would obviously change the village quite a bit, but it's not because the village is a hive of intolerance that it's overwhelmingly white, it's just the way it's always been and so it continues to be. I'm sure most City-Data users wouldn't want to live here because it's too small, but would it's lack of diversity really be a turn off to even white people on here?
To be clear, I don't diversity is bad, just that I don't see why a lack of diversity is.
Approaching things from another point of view, here is my question to you:
Would the lack of diversity in a community like, say, Gary or East St. Louis be a turn off also, regardless of the reasons for that lack of diversity?
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