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I don't care about race, I care about culture and political atmosphere. If the community's attitude is that they should be able to sit on their whereazzes with their hands out, collect from everyone else, that the world 'owes' them an education and whatever job/home/lifestyle that they feel they deserve without any effort on their part - and if they insist on voting for their friends who continually promise to give them everything they want without any expenditure of effort on their part, than - NO.
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In other words you don't want to live in a liberal neighborhood. Or a Democrat neighborhood. Or a blue state. Or a country with a Democrat president and congress. What are you doing here? You are one of the minorities in terms of "political atmosphere", who wants to call "the others" the minorities that you don't want to live near. And you also want to hijack this thread and turn it into another rant about all the people who are stealing your hard earned money because they have no personal responsibility. I respect your opinion on that subject, but please leave a few threads for those of us whose universe does not center on bashing liberals.
I do not believe the answers so far. I think that all of you are just being politically correct.
Even if the people were fine folks who took care of their yards and homes and respected each other, few of you would want to live in a neighboorhood where everyone other than you were a different race or ethnic group. It is against human nature.
There's more to the decision about where to live than the color of neighbors. We are where we are because of its proximity to places we frequent, because of the proximity to friends, because of the size and style and age of the houses and the neighborhood. (And because we can afford it.) A lot of families choose to be in neighborhoods with other families, and there are plenty of neighborhoods in the Sun Belt that are mostly retirees. Most major metropolitan areas have neighborhoods that are primarily gay. To say "well, I'll live there because I want to live in a black/white/Latino/whatever neighborhood" is generally not the only deciding factor.
The big picture is that cleanliness costs a lot of money. Trash does not disappear by the wave of a magic wand. Undeveloped nations have an untidy appearance because the economic resources do not exist for "cleaning up" the environment. People who grow up there are accustomed to the general aura of an unsightly mess. and amid the chaos of trying to learn to live in a new country, cleaning up the mess is not a very high priority. I'm not excusing it, I'm explaining it. I have, a number of times in the third world, walked from the most abysmally filthy streets, through a doorway into a most amazingly bright and cheerful and spotlessly scrubbed household. People have different priorities.
As far as personal cleanliness is concerned, people in the third world often do not have ready access to an unlimited supply of water to clean themselves. Yet, they still place a very high premium on personal cleanliness. When backpacking around the world, I often felt very self-conscious of the fact that I was the only person on the bus who had not put on freshly laundered clothes that morning. Their clothes are always clean, even though they get washed in cold water on rocks in a river.
Do not think an immigrant next to you on the bus is "dirty" just because you can detect an odor. First of all, deodorant is not a cleaning agent, and using it does not make you "clean". (It does the opposite.) Second, many people and their clothing and their homes smell like what they eat, and people whose family diet or cuisine is different from yours might very well have a detectable odor, but that does not mean they are not clean.
And finally, has it occurred to you that daily bathing is not necessary, but is just something that Americans do out of acculturation and habituation, and when you think you need a shower, it is not because you have become unclean, but because you need to recharge your personal sense that you have just taken a shower, which in our culture arises at least daily.
When I think of 'clean' and 'dirty' people, I also think of an attitude/lifestyle that accompanies it. Do they have parties a lot? Blast their music all night? Have drunken brawls on the lawn? Operate a drug or prostitution house? Is the man a creep who hits on you and watches you out the window when you're sunbathing or gardening?
Sorry-I have a problem with dirty people. Lived in apartments since I've been on my own, and one a few years back was great place-then some dirty scrubby people who smelled bad moved in and the building became infested with bugs.
Clean or not, I just don't want to smell anothers BO. But it's something we have to live with.
The neighborhood I am moving to is mostly white but I like the diversity in age, class, race, etc that I have seen while walking or driving around there. There is a good mix of old, young, white, Asian, Hispanic, etc there. I do not remember seeing many black people but there must be some there. I do not care what race or age (or religion or sexual orientation) my neighbors are as long as they are courteous, quiet, and keep their properties in good shape.
I hate threads like this because one is supposed to come here & give a politically correct answer but I wont, I'll just say it as I see it.
I once lived among Asians (the Chinese type of Asians not Indians) & they cooked pungent /foul smelling dishes I was not accustomed to. I wont even go on about how I considered these "dishes" "pets" not food. So, no I will not do that to myself again!
While I'm not racist, I'd rather live in my white surbubia where everything is familiar & I understand all the unwritten rules. I have frends of all races though, they visit me here & I visit them so I'm not racist.
I think the whole "living amongst our own" seems very simplistic, especially to only look at it in terms of race/ethnicity. I'm Hispanic, and my family immigrated already quite middle class (my father is a physics professor and my mother is now a nurse practitioner) so we have done quite well in this country. It's not a new concept the most of the Latino immigration in the country skews lower class. I may share a common ethnicity with poorer Latinos, but there are social mores (such as having multiple children at a young age or adulating/being gangbangers for example) that I do not care to be around nor do I want my future children to see them as a representation of what all Latinos are supposed to be like. For the most part since I'm quite culturally American at this point, I tend to view "my kind" as people who share similar socioeconomic ideologies as mine. An extension of "my kind" are Latinos with the same types of middle class values I have. When I want to teach my future kids about their heritage, I'll take them back to my grandparents' house where my father grew up.
Last edited by simpleharmonicmotion; 05-30-2009 at 05:18 PM..
I think the whole "living amongst our own" seems very simplistic, especially to only look at it in terms of race/ethnicity. I'm Hispanic, and my family immigrated already quite middle class (my father is a physics professor and my mother is now a nurse practitioner) so we have done quite well in this country. It's not a new concept the most of the Latino immigration in the country skews lower class. I may share a common ethnicity with poorer Latinos, but there are social mores (such as having multiple children at a young age or adulating/being gangbangers for example) that I do not care to be around nor do I want my future children to see them as a representation of what all Latinos are supposed to be like. For the most part since I'm quite culturally American at this point, I tend to view "my kind" as people who share similar socioeconomic ideologies as mine. An extension of "my kind" are Latinos with the same types of middle class values I have. When I want to teach my future kids about their heritage, I'll take them back to my grandparents' house where my father grew up.
I agree 100%. Its not a racial issue but a class issue. In that case, I'd live with anyone of the same class as me regardless of race!!
i think that's a cool thing about the south (speaking specifically about VA & NC) from my understanding in New england, a black person can bring down the property values. In NC & VA it's about the quality of the person, not the neighborhood. Neighborhoods are separated by class/values sometimes even age, but not by race. Even if one race dominates a neighborhood.
I think the politically correct answers so far show ignorance about human nature. It is not just a class issue. If you want to not have any social contact with your neighbors at all then moving onto a street where everyone else is a different race (but the same class) may be alright. But if you want to have a friendly sociable neighborhood then a more homogeneous neighborhood is better.
The street where my brother lives on is all white and professional class. Everyone is somewhat similar in profession, income, outlook, class and color. Everyone knows each other, there are block parties, visiting out in the yards and a pleasant what can I do for my neighbor feeling in the air. Also because everyone knows each other they are more careful what they do to their yards and maintain their homes. On the street I live on which is a United Nations, most of us are the same class but because 70% of the street's residents do not speak english well, we are isolated from each other. The immigrants do not speak to each other easily either because they are from different parts of the world. I wish I lived on my brothers street.
In other words you don't want to live in a liberal neighborhood. Or a Democrat neighborhood. Or a blue state. Or a country with a Democrat president and congress. What are you doing here? You are one of the minorities in terms of "political atmosphere", who wants to call "the others" the minorities that you don't want to live near. And you also want to hijack this thread and turn it into another rant about all the people who are stealing your hard earned money because they have no personal responsibility. I respect your opinion on that subject, but please leave a few threads for those of us whose universe does not center on bashing liberals.
I was indicating what sort of neighborhoods I had lived in, and the attitudes that those indicators extended to neighborhoods, as to whether or not it was comfortable for me. I was also emphasizing that color is not/was not an issue with me; but that political and social attitudes such as indicated in others' posts - issues that determine the way of life, as in multiple children at young ages, gang activity, the refusal or inability to not only respect their own property but others' property, etc - are directly related to whether or not I feel comfortable there. Sorry if you don't like my opinions based on my personal experiences, but that is what the OP asked for. I was quite comfortable living in a primarily black neighborhood where we all worked two and three jobs, where we had block parties and even formed our own political action group to do everything from rename our own streets (when 911 required it) to keeping a cement plant from locating at the end of our street. So please don't assume you know my motivations, because you so obviously don't.
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