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Uh.. no. You see A LOT of white guys with Asian females all over the city... I used to be one of them, lol.
I was on a date with an asian boy last week. I am a white girl. I don't think anyone glanced twice at us? Maybe me becasue the humidity was killing my coarse italian hair...
I think I read somewhere that Queens is the most diverse place in the country.
There's no question about that. I think it's the most diverse place ever, although London disputes the title. The State government says that 138 languages are spoken in Queens.
It is tough to say anything about racism not being existent. But NYC seems to be a bit more tolerant (whether by choice or not) of other races and cultures.
There will always be rivalries, and due to our own limited ability to remember individuals and our formerly helpful pattern recognition for behavioral traits, we have erroneously affiliated entire races to being crime prone, cheap, liars, or any other derogatory assessment. What kept us alive when faces with a clawed toothed animal we had never seen before in the wild is now mislaid in making people prejudge based on what they think is a pattern.
Anyway. I have never really seen too much in regards to racism in NYC/Manhattan. A bit more as you go into the other boroughs and surrounding areas, but still relatively calm. You do get a strange feeling when people start looking at you because you do not seem to fit in (white boy in some areas of Harlem), but some of that is your (my) own feeling of uneasiness being the minority when you (I) am used to being the majority.
At least for me, I feel odd when I am in a room full of only white people, unless I am related to them of course!!!!
I think the only other thing about NYC that makes it different is its general openness. It does not hid much. If someone does not like what you are doing, they will sneer, they will tell you. So where a southerner might ask "How y'all doin'?" when they really could not care less, a NYer would just ask "What you lookin at?". Sometimes that is a bit rough, but with less window dressing, you really know if you are looking at a nice apartment or an overdecorated poop-hole.
Anyway, I'm hoping to get out of 'Redneckville, Midwestern USA' at some point, but I'm not sure where to go and possibly NYC doesn't fit what I'm looking for.
If Redneckville is where you're trying to get out of, then you won't be disappointed in New York City. Yeah, we've got our objectionable characters here. But as a percentage of the population, we're a lot better off than just about anywhere else!
I'm mixed-race (Asian and European) and have never had a problem in New York.
I think racism is really classism in another form. Because this city is so stratified economically, racial views will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. In prime Manhattan or brownstone Brooklyn, it's socially unacceptable to overtly racist (or sexist or homophobic), but that's because it's filled with well-educated, upper-middle class (and mostly liberal) people. People literally like Obama: ethnically diverse/mixed and with very elite educations and jobs.
If people are racist in New York, I think it's really more about class, money and education than race.
I was reading another thread about Archie Bunker and whether or not he'd survive in Queens today. Some of the posters disappointed me. I'm white and married to an Asian girl. I had always assumed, perhaps stupidly, that NYC was more accepting of things like interracial marriage, etc. Some of the posters (perhaps NYCers, perhaps not) surprised me a little.
Many of the posts were pretty xenophopic, and things I would expect to see on the Alabama, Kansas, or South Carolina forum ('learn English!' and 'damn Jews', 'our superior country', etc), but not the NYC forum. When I was working in Asia, I had a native NYC friend (who's of Colombian and Syrian descent), and he warned me that racism was more noticeable in NYC than anywhere else he'd lived/travelled to but I didn't believe him.
It seems to me that since NY is and has been the United States' largest, most important city, and hence a major draw for immigrants, that people would live there expecting and accepting a constant influx of newcomers. Anyway, I'm hoping to get out of 'Redneckville, Midwestern USA' at some point, but I'm not sure where to go and possibly NYC doesn't fit what I'm looking for.
First, Xenophobia is like Homophobia, invented to obfuscate the underlying issues. People have legitimate issues regarding immigration and the way they want to live, and have no fear nor hate as the term(s) is/are meant to imply.
Second, as is the liberal nature, you are guilty of that which you disdain. You seek "openness" while you demonstrate the same stereotyping, classification, and prejudice, you seek to escape. You find it fine and in keeping with good liberal graces to use the term, "redneck", but if someone where to call your wife a C or a G, you'd probably have a problem. This is the problem with liberals! An unevenness and unfairness they find hard to comprehend and/or accept. Lecture over!
Yup, Archie Bunker would have a problem, his neighborhood and Borough has been overrun! Corona, wasn't it?
Racism is everywhere. There isn't a place it doesn't exist.
That said, people of a type tend to congregate. So, if you and your wife don't move to one of those areas, you shouldn't have a problem. My GF and I are also interracial and have few issues, but where to live most comfortably and afford ably is a concern. If you can't afford to live outside those areas things could be less comfortable.
In Manhattan, below Harlem, you won't have ANY problems whatsoever, though what goes on in people's minds, you won't know nor control. Say, in Harlem (which is being gentrified), you still wouldn't have any overt issues, though your wife might be commented upon, but not any more nor less than any white girl in a gentrifying area. The comments toward her, simply, might be more specific.
The same would be for just about anywhere you'd move.
That said there are areas, outside of Manhattan, where you'd, more likely, be more comfortable than others.
In the suburbs, is where you'd probably find more of those areas than in the city proper. The one city exception would be Staten Island, where you can still find pockets of ole school ethnics and racism can pop up.
Why is this so?
Simple, America and NYC, in specific, is "the melting pot", the rest of the world is NOT! Immigrants come from the rest of the world NOT America. Consequently, they bring their prejudices and presumptions with them. Which have been fed by our media, movies and TV, exporting distorted views of America and particularly minorities.
NYC is a city of what I term "ethnics" and immigrants. Yes, there is a cornucopia of races and ethnicities, but people don't so much mix as separate into groups of ethnicities and races. A particular neighborhood will contain, this race and that ethnicity, and another neighborhood will contain, some other ethnicity and, still, another ethnicity. Most neighborhoods have some dominant race or ethnicity.
Its not like some big happy family. Races and ethnicities tend to keep to themselves, perpetuate their root culture, language, and tradition. English and American culture is used to work and/or to do business.
Socially, the ethnics primarly spend their time and dollars in their respective neighborhoods (one of the ways they climb the monetary ladder). You'll find that overwhelmingly they don't go into Manhattan except to work and/or for things not found in their neighborhoods (which isn't much). So, there is a self-imposed isolation. You can find people who have lived here for decades and still don't speak English!!
Assimilation is a bit of a myth, particularly these days. There has always been a resistance to assimilation, and today it is very strong. For example, in Flushing, Queens, which is dominated by Koreans, two summers or so ago, the city had to strongly re-inforce an ordinace which requires public signage to be in English. Prior to this, for several years, virtually all the signage was in Korean! A native or non-native American would be hard-pressed to navigate the neighorhood, if not for the address. Not to mention the fact that it is sorta strange to be magically zapped to Korea, when you thought you were in America.
Now, Flushing is a very nice middle class neighborhood, today its about 50% Korean (and other Asians), and 50% 2nd and 3rd generation Americans. All of relatively equal middle class status. You might think they mix and frequent the stores and social venues----not on your life. There is ZERO mixing. The races and ethnicities live right next door to each other, in and among, they do not mix.
You and your wife could move to Flushing, and you wouldn't receive any hassles, but you wouldn't find "community". The Koreans are doing their thing, the ethnics are doing their thing, and there wouldn't be a place for you as a couple, but nobody will hassle you.
This is NYC.
Years back you might have had some hassle, pre-Obama, pre-OJ, pre-Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever". Going back ever year from that point the more hassle you would receive.
On Staten Island and in the Suburbs, there are still places where race is an undercurrent which can explode to the surface in a heartbeat.
Always believe the people who grow up here, natives.
First, Xenophobia is like Homophobia, invented to obfuscate the underlying issues. People have legitimate issues regarding immigration and the way they want to live, and have no fear nor hate as the term(s) is/are meant to imply.
Second, as is the liberal nature, you are guilty of that which you disdain. You seek "openness" while you demonstrate the same stereotyping, classification, and prejudice, you seek to escape. You find it fine and in keeping with good liberal graces to use the term, "redneck", but if someone where to call your wife a C or a G, you'd probably have a problem. This is the problem with liberals! An unevenness and unfairness they find hard to comprehend and/or accept. Lecture over!
Yup, Archie Bunker would have a problem, his neighborhood and Borough has been overrun! Corona, wasn't it?
Racism is everywhere. There isn't a place it doesn't exist.
That said, people of a type tend to congregate. So, if you and your wife don't move to one of those areas, you shouldn't have a problem. My GF and I are also interracial and have few issues, but where to live most comfortably and afford ably is a concern. If you can't afford to live outside those areas things could be less comfortable.
In Manhattan, below Harlem, you won't have ANY problems whatsoever, though what goes on in people's minds, you won't know nor control. Say, in Harlem (which is being gentrified), you still wouldn't have any overt issues, though your wife might be commented upon, but not any more nor less than any white girl in a gentrifying area. The comments toward her, simply, might be more specific.
The same would be for just about anywhere you'd move.
That said there are areas, outside of Manhattan, where you'd, more likely, be more comfortable than others.
In the suburbs, is where you'd probably find more of those areas than in the city proper. The one city exception would be Staten Island, where you can still find pockets of ole school ethnics and racism can pop up.
Why is this so?
Simple, America and NYC, in specific, is "the melting pot", the rest of the world is NOT! Immigrants come from the rest of the world NOT America. Consequently, they bring their prejudices and presumptions with them. Which have been fed by our media, movies and TV, exporting distorted views of America and particularly minorities.
NYC is a city of what I term "ethnics" and immigrants. Yes, there is a cornucopia of races and ethnicities, but people don't so much mix as separate into groups of ethnicities and races. A particular neighborhood will contain, this race and that ethnicity, and another neighborhood will contain, some other ethnicity and, still, another ethnicity. Most neighborhoods have some dominant race or ethnicity.
Its not like some big happy family. Races and ethnicities tend to keep to themselves, perpetuate their root culture, language, and tradition. English and American culture is used to work and/or to do business.
Socially, the ethnics primarly spend their time and dollars in their respective neighborhoods (one of the ways they climb the monetary ladder). You'll find that overwhelmingly they don't go into Manhattan except to work and/or for things not found in their neighborhoods (which isn't much). So, there is a self-imposed isolation. You can find people who have lived here for decades and still don't speak English!!
Assimilation is a bit of a myth, particularly these days. There has always been a resistance to assimilation, and today it is very strong. For example, in Flushing, Queens, which is dominated by Koreans, two summers or so ago, the city had to strongly re-inforce an ordinace which requires public signage to be in English. Prior to this, for several years, virtually all the signage was in Korean! A native or non-native American would be hard-pressed to navigate the neighorhood, if not for the address. Not to mention the fact that it is sorta strange to be magically zapped to Korea, when you thought you were in America.
Now, Flushing is a very nice middle class neighborhood, today its about 50% Korean (and other Asians), and 50% 2nd and 3rd generation Americans. All of relatively equal middle class status. You might think they mix and frequent the stores and social venues----not on your life. There is ZERO mixing. The races and ethnicities live right next door to each other, in and among, they do not mix.
You and your wife could move to Flushing, and you wouldn't receive any hassles, but you wouldn't find "community". The Koreans are doing their thing, the ethnics are doing their thing, and there wouldn't be a place for you as a couple, but nobody will hassle you.
This is NYC.
Years back you might have had some hassle, pre-Obama, pre-OJ, pre-Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever". Going back ever year from that point the more hassle you would receive.
On Staten Island and in the Suburbs, there are still places where race is an undercurrent which can explode to the surface in a heartbeat.
Always believe the people who grow up here, natives.
First of all man, you don't know me at all, so I really don't need the lecture about how I'm acting in the same way as rednecks. I'm from a very rural area (a town of approx 3000), born and raised 3 hours away from Kansas City, so I am what some NYers would call a redneck. I like football, I like to work on cars and with my hands and hunt, and I'm not even close to Ivy League. But, I'm also a little educated and not xenophobic.
I know what a 'redneck' is (and I think perhaps you don't) and have several in my own family who have given me non-stop hell for being in this relationship. I don't want to be around those people, especially if I'll possibly be raising a mixed child at some point in the near future. I just want to get away from the Confederate flag flying types that populate my area. Go ahead and spare the lectures until you know who you're talking to.
Just wanted to give my two cents. I grew up in NYC and I'm from Eastern Europe. The problem is that people assume EVERYONE in this city is this bleeding heart liberal. I knew Eastern Europeans who hated blacks and vice versa. Unless you live on the Upper East Side and make 120 grand a year, you're gonna experience reality. And that is that people here generally do not mix. If I'm not mistaken, NYC is one of the top 5 most segregated cities in the country. The fact that your wife is Asian doesn't matter because it seems like Asian women only date white boys anyway so no one even bats an eye to that anymore. But don't think you're coming to a liberal utopia here. In fact, I don't even know of one "mixed" non-rich neighborhood in this city. I guess Kensington, some parts of Flatbush. Otherwise, everyone sticks with their own. Black-white relations here are "tolerable" at best. And I don't blame the black people one bit for that (See: NYPD).
Come to think of it, this is a very typical liberal city in that regard: Everything looks good on the outside, but it's rotting from within.
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