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When you search for "most diverse city" online, all the results show which cities are the most ethnically diverse (most are in California). Though race and ethnicity is a part of diversity, there's more to it than that. San Francisco, for instance, is less than half white, but good luck finding anyone in that town who is not upper-middle class and liberal. While considering race, but also immigrant communities, social class, economy, religion, sexuality, politics, etc, what cities are really the most diverse?
My picks:
Houston
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Chicago
Suburban Detroit
When you search for "most diverse city" online, all the results show which cities are the most ethnically diverse (most are in California). Though race and ethnicity is a part of diversity, there's more to it than that. San Francisco, for instance, is less than half white, but good luck finding anyone in that town who is not upper-middle class and liberal. While considering race, but also immigrant communities, social class, economy, religion, sexuality, politics, etc, what cities are really the most diverse?
My picks:
Houston
Los Angeles
Atlanta
Chicago
Suburban Detroit
Perhaps Oakland and Jersey City. Some Rust Belt and up and coming Southern cities may fit due to the factors mentioned.
You have a little bit of everyone here. Even though it's majority upper middle class and liberal, there's still a conservative population, there's also still a lower class population. I mean, it's just diverse in pretty much every aspect.
Honestly, New York City, for the following reasons.
1. It's of course fairly racially diverse, with large white, black, Latino, and Asian populations. Queens is the most diverse county in the country measured alone, with nearly half (48.5%) of the population born outside the U.S.
2. Beyond racial diversity, there's huge diversity in terms of national origin. There are many "white ethnic" enclaves left in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island in particular. Some of the white ethnic groups, such as Albanians and Russians, are first-generation as well. Probably over half of the black population is actually not African-American, but first or second-generation migrants from the Caribbean or Africa. The Latino population is diverse, because no one Latino group dominates. There are more Puerto Ricans and Dominicans than anyone else, but there are large populations of Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Salvadorans as well.
3. Compared to the rest of the U.S., there's tremendous religious diversity as well. New York famously has a large Jewish population. 23% of the population of Brooklyn is Jewish. Many of the Jews in New York (especially Brooklyn and Queens) are also ultra-Orthodox Hasids now, and still live in their own ethnically segregated neighborhoods and speak Yiddish.
4. New York has tremendous income diversity, even with the tremendous gentrification of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. The Bronx is still mostly very low income, containing one of the poorest congressional districts in the country. Queens is the only county in the country where black families have a higher median income than white families.
5. Although little known, for a major U.S. city NYC is pretty politically diverse. It's Democratic overall, but with many Republican enclaves. Staten Island as a whole leans Republican, and many of the southernmost neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens are also Republican, with a few enclaves elsewhere as well. The ultra-orthodox neighborhoods do not generally support Democrats any longer, for example, and tend to vote around 90% Republican in presidential elections (higher than most places in the deep South!) The residual "white ethnic" areas aren't anywhere near that right wing, but if you're white and don't live in a gentrified area, you do tend to be somewhat conservative. This Republican lean among white ethnics in the "outer boroughs" is how Giuliani got elected (Bloomberg was nominally a Republican, but didn't count as much, since he had a broader coalition).
Though race and ethnicity is a part of diversity, there's more to it than that. San Francisco, for instance, is less than half white, but good luck finding anyone in that town who is not upper-middle class and liberal.
Plenty in Chinatown. About 35% of household earn less than 50k/year
You have a little bit of everyone here. Even though it's majority upper middle class and liberal, there's still a conservative population, there's also still a lower class population. I mean, it's just diverse in pretty much every aspect.
You have a little bit of everyone here. Even though it's majority upper middle class and liberal, there's still a conservative population, there's also still a lower class population. I mean, it's just diverse in pretty much every aspect.
I nominate my sister and most of my friends in the Inner Richmond, T.I., Sunset, etc...
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