[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by SoCiEtY's ReBel

Very interesting... But the point I was making is that generally, the young population of Omaha do not know about the Hmong. I'm sure there were/are a few Hmong families living in Omaha, although I never really saw them while I was there.


If you were to pick a random class at, say, Northwest High School and ask them to tell you about Lormong Lo, I bet no one, except maybe, and I stress maybe, the teacher would be able to tell you anything.

-Rebel

Seems our perspectives are different... you are thinking of high school students and I guess I was looking at my peers (40-55 year olds)... guess I can't speak for the younger...

[nephthys]

I went to highschool at Benson and North 8 years ago with tons of Hmong students. I knew Lormong Lo also, I used to rock his signs and stickers when he was campaigning near the school.

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by nephthys

I went to highschool at Benson and North 8 years ago with tons of Hmong students. I knew Lormong Lo also, I used to rock his signs and stickers when he was campaigning near the school.

A young person from Omaha that knows what a Hmong is - NO WAY... you are all supposed to be ignorant of anything cultural...

[nephthys]

Originally Posted by Dave1215

A young person from Omaha that knows what a Hmong is - NO WAY... you are all supposed to be ignorant of anything cultural...

LOL im from North O, im as cultural as they come.

[SoCiEtY's ReBel]

Originally Posted by Dave1215

A young person from Omaha that knows what a Hmong is - NO WAY... you are all supposed to be ignorant of anything cultural...

No need to be sarcastic, man... I am impressed though, my wife graduated from NW in 2007 and she didn't know any Hmong people...

[Fern435]

As a native Californian (Santa Barbara County and Bay Area) who lived in Omaha/Bellevue for three years, I'll jump in here and state we *loved* living in Nebraska. Omaha is a terrific area--all the amenities of a larger city (actually better amenities than other cities we've experienced) with very few negatives. My husband's only complaint is there are no mountain ranges. We had to go to the Black Hills for that.

I knew several married couples in Omaha who were racially mixed, and they were very happy there. Declaring the Omaha area as racist after only a few months of residence indicates a reaction against another inaccurate stereotype--the "all-white midwest". If you want to see racial divisions in communities, try moving to Montgomery, Alabama or the Washington DC area. The races do not mix easily in these places. I'll take Omaha over most other regions ANY day!

[Fern435]

Omaha's humidity is extremely mild compared to the DC region. DC's humidity is appalling!

Omaha's seasons were all beautiful, to us. Winter usually had enough mild days mixed with the snow (we love winter and snow).

[guy4omaha]

I really don't get all this talk about diversity and how a comparative lack of it is somehow a thing to be ashamed of. I would contend that you can find racists and bigots and closed minded people in areas that have ethnic diversity as easily as those that don't.

So Omaha doesn't have the same percentages of various ethnic groups as San Francisco. Well yeah. Cities in Finland may not be as diverse or have the same groups represented as San Francisco or Rome or Shanghai. Uh yeah, different groups settled near the Arctic Ocean than elsewhere. Same concept here in Omaha. Hence the ethnic mix is different. Really what are we supposed to do? How about let's round up some buses and take a few to Mexico, a few to Spain, a few to China, a few to Russia, a few to Angola, etc, etc and tell the peoples of these places that we need them to fill up our buses so we can route them back here to Omaha so we can cure our problem that others seem to view us as an inferior place because not enough different ethnic groups have chosen to settle here yet. For one thing Omaha is a young city at 150 years compared to most of the world so our pot hasn't melted as much yet.

Another thing I can't help but take offense to is these statements about a lack of culture here. Like every place there is on this planet, Omaha has culture. It just happens to be Omaha's culture in our case. San Francisco culture does not exist here as in this ain't freakin' San Francisco. There is culture in Wasilla, Alaska as there is in Shreveport, Louisiana as there is in the Florida Keys as there is in New York City. But if you go to those places expecting to find San Francisco's culture. Yep, you're going to be disappointed. But if you go there curious about what is great about those places and peoples, there is much to appreciate.

I am sorry but some of the comments on this thread that seem to accuse Omaha and her citizenry of being non-cultured, non-diverse and other things negative do nothing more than make me suspect that it is in-fact the owners of these comments that are showing narrow-mindedness. How about accepting and learning about what there is to celebrate about the values, recipes, communities (some of them are awful, WASP communities (sarcasm) but they have their own unique and valuable contributions too) and cultures? No it may not be the same as where you're from but it is rich and proud for the people of that culture nonetheless.

Finally the comment about "there are people here who are proud of being white." What's up with that comment? Should people who are German be ashamed? How about Poles, Lithuanians, Swedes, Czechs, Anglos, Danish? Have we missed some of the white ethnicities. There is a whole bunch of ethnic diversity amongst this so-called homogenous "white" mono-culture you're seeing. And none of these cultures have nothing to be proud of, right?

A lot of people here are just neutral or color / race / ethnicity blind. We're too busy raising families, working jobs and building our cultures here further. Are there bigots, racists, homophobes, etc. here? Yes there are. But they are nowhere near the majority any more than other places.

So we can choose to focus on the few warts or we can focus our energies on building what is uniquely positive in our Omaha way. But if you want Omaha to be someplace else with someone else's culture, then your stay here is indeed going to be a long miserable one.

On the fish taco thing, I don't know if Omaha has good fish tacos or not. Just sounds gross to me. Yuck. I can't even bear to try one. There goes that Backward Omaha gene in me again. I guess I really have to break down and try one at the Taco Del Mar in my neighborhood.

Bottom-line: There is culture here. As evidence of it is the cases of Culture-Shock going on here.

[Stacy From Cali]

Guy 4 Omaha,

One of the reasons that there is less racial diversity in Omaha than in other places like Chicago (which also owes its growth to the meat packing industry) is that Omaha's citizens drove minorities out of town. One extreme example of this is the Greek race riots of 1909. There used to be a huge Greek Town in South Omaha, something which were it to exist today would be a huge tourist draw...and an example of (dare I cay it) a cultural experience. This is something that no longer exists because the white population of Omaha literally kicked the Greeks out of town. Sure, things like this happened in other places in America (I am from Detroit after all), but it illustrates that there is no such thing as "because not enough different ethnic groups have chosen to settle here yet" going on here. Learn your history dude. Of course more recently Omaha has welcomed diversity, but that doesn't take the place of a longstanding cultural tradition.

So fill me on on what is so special about culture in Omaha, that is different from elsewhere else? I'm dying to know. The strip malls and the suburbia? The white flight? The religious diversity? The steak houses and grills on every corner?

Let me share an experience with you. The first day I set foot in Nebraska was the day that California legalized gay marriage. I was sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast and CNN was blasting over my head. There was an interview with the mayor of San Francisco (Gavin Newsom) on...and the guy sitting across from me stated, loud enough for the whole place to hear, that "we should just go to war against those damn f@gs; shoot to kill. That would solve the problem." So yeah, coming from San Francisco myself and not having even heard that particular insult since High School (over 15 years ago) I was shocked. Recounting this story right now has me just as angry.

The difference is that bigots like this certainly exist in a more tolerent place like California, but they are less likely to open their mouths, so I don't have to deal with their crap.

So yeah, culture shock certainly exists for me here. Sometimes because of the people I encounter (Gerta from Gerta's Bakery asked "what do you want" and looked at me like I was sprouting two heads when I went in there, and half of the customer service folks in this town won't talk to you), sometimes because the food tastes different than what I am used to (YOU try being a vegetarian in Omaha). Sometimes because you are looking for the counterculture and there does not appear to be one. Fine. Everyone's boat floats on a different tide.

If you are the welcoming comittee than its no wonder that I feel culture shock.

Btw you forgot the Irish...and they are the ones that I find the most annoying. "Proud to be Irish." hah! You're American not Irish anymore. Even the Irish (in Ireland) think that so-called Irish-Americans are just crazy Americans. Go ask them.

[Fern435]

People who come on here determined to punish Omaha for their own unhappiness living there are a real drag.

Go do something better with your time, if you are so open-minded and enlightened. Duh. Sorry, but the Nebraskans I know are too polite to say anything.

I live in northern Virginia/DC right now, and it has the things you criticize Omaha for not having. Everyone is cranky with the upcoming elections. There's diversity! Weirdos! Egos! Crime galore! Everyone trying to outdo each other with who's more important than who! But you'd probably love it here....all the drama.

I love my native California, and I have enjoyed the many different places we have lived as a military family. But Omaha has been our favorite "home."