Are White New Yorkers not as friendly as minorities? (Washington Heights: neighborhoods, living in)

[ocean2026]

This is tounge-in -check not a flame. My sample is only wandering around with my 11 yr old daughter and sometimes 19yr old son. We are white my son is Hispanic. This is not statistically significant and anecdotal evidence is inherently unreliable.

We spent a week going through Corona Queens each day and night as well as a few hours walking through Ebbets Field area of Brooklyn and 180th street western areas of Bronx.

Smiling or saying "Hi" to a whilte person was often ignored- maybe 40% of time unless they were tourists and then they would chat. This never happened with the many Blacks Hispanics and to a lesser extent Asians that we talked to. Blacks and Hispanics would often initiate conversations.

Many years ago I grew up in NYC and left in 1969. As a young white person I was told people who look you in the eye may be crazy as would any who talked to you. Maybe at one time this was true.

[availableusername]

In for this inevitable cluster#@$% of a thread...

[nykiddo718718]

Oh boy, this is gonna be brutal!

First off, you and your daughter are White, he's Hispanic? I think you mean your White and he is obviously mixed race.

Also in this city there is no real majority.

Well, I would have to disagree. It depends on the person.The more residential neighborhoods slow down some and are not used to as many tourist as the Midtown or Downtown CBDs. More incline to chat. It varys too much here.

[SobroGuy]

The minorities in NY are white...they are 35% of the population...Hispanics and Blacks combined are 55% approximately...the majority. But please continue.

[sheaosaurus]

Maybe they just had a bad day? I know sometimes I won't respond to people. And I am mixed (giving that information for the purpose of this thread.)

The other reason was they thought you may try to lead them into a conversation and ask them for money. This is not the south where people strike up random conversations in line at Wall Mart - (completely generalized and my biased opinion).

[nykiddo718718]

I guerentee you a lot of those unfriendly "White people" were mixed race or White Hispanics or White Arabs as well so it's not ethnic or linguestic. You also said the Asains were "stuck up" so it's not racial. I guess a stereotype could be stated for a certain class of people.

I think if anything MONEY is the dividing factor. Still people are so different here. It varys. Plenty of poor *******s too, if not more.

[jcoltrane]

Everybody, STOP and think!

This NOT a race issue the OP is mistaken in her perception.

It is a NYC vs the rest of America issue.

As many NYers may have experienced when visiting or living in the rest of America, especially the south and midwest, people greet each other on the street.

In NYC, people do NOT greet each other, often when people do, they are seen as strange, even threatening.

In most other places in America, when you come upon a stranger on the street, you and the stranger will greet each other with a 'Hello', Howyadoin' or some such gretting; AND many times strangers upon greeting will, indeed, stop and chit chat.

Being a born and bred NYer, the first time I left NYC and experienced this I was a bit taken aback, but quickly got used to it and came to appreciate it MUCH! After having lived in the south for awhile, returning to NYC, it took awhile to regain the naturally rude demeanor.

I believe the OP, not being a NYer, acted with the common manners she was accustomed to, greeting people she came upon on the street.

The race thing probably comes into play, because she was white, and in a minority area, blacks saw her as nonthreatening, and so returned her greeting, and may have stopped to chat with the crazy white lady. This is even more likely if she came upon older blacks who are closer to their southern roots.

In contrast, whites are more likely to view her behavior and approach strange and possibly threatening, and acted with a NYers customary rudeness, in other word she was simply ignored.

This is quite likely, given that the neighborhoods she visited were generally minority areas, and the whites walking the streets there are likely not residents, there for business/work and are likely 'on guard', as a natural state when traversing a minority area.

Strange white lady with the friendly greeting is probably setting them up to be robbed. This is what a white NYer in that situation might think. The natural reaction is to put your head down and keep moving.

Make sense?

So, lets not go all racially ballistic!

[UpsonDowns]

There also are cultural differences. For example, a few years back I moved from a mostly Dominican building in Washington Heights to a more mixed building. I immediately noticed the majority of my "white" neighbors were slow to respond to my greetings. I told my white friend, "I miss my neighbors saying 'Hello' in the elevator." My friend said to me, "Oh, you are just moving up in the world."

Her upper-middle class white take was that strangers/neighbors don't speak in the elevator. I'm glad I had a friend from a different culture explain it to me.

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

Many years ago I grew up in NYC and left in 1969. As a young white person I was told people who look you in the eye may be crazy as would any who talked to you.

That's weird. I grew up white too and was taught something very different.I was taught that if a person DIDN'T look you in the eye they were shifty and untrustworthy.Can't imagine being taught not to look people in the eye.

[frenchy93]

I noticed that, most of the time, the poorest people tend to be the ones who show the most solidarity, indeed humanity don't cost anything...