What is with the diversity myth? (Seattle, Sammamish: houses, quality of life, living)

[jjinla]

Our move is still 2 months away but I have to chime in on the myth that NY is some diversity utopia. Yes, there are a ton of other cultures here but with very few exceptions, unless you are caucasian you are relegated to service jobs and blue collar work. I just don't get that vibe in Seattle...there are a ton of skilled workers from other cultures.

Who cares if 75% of the people you see in the city are from another culture if you hardly ever work alongside them, and they have to take the subway to one of the tougher Boros at the end of the night. If you are successful in NY, I'd venture to guess that when you go home at the end of the night, your block is whiter than any in Seattle.

[eskercurve]

Originally Posted by jjinla

Our move is still 2 months away but I have to chime in on the myth that NY is some diversity utopia. Yes, there are a ton of other cultures here but with very few exceptions, unless you are caucasian you are relegated to service jobs and blue collar work. I just don't get that vibe in Seattle...there are a ton of skilled workers from other cultures.

Who cares if 75% of the people you see in the city are from another culture if you hardly ever work alongside them, and they have to take the subway to one of the tougher Boros at the end of the night. If you are successful in NY, I'd venture to guess that when you go home at the end of the night, your block is whiter than any in Seattle.

As a former Chicagoan, I can say the same thing. People out here 99% of the time don't care about skin color. In Chicago, pretty much only one or two neighborhoods qualify as truly integrated, and one is the gay district, the other is highly affluent.

[Nicomis]

Originally Posted by jjinla

Our move is still 2 months away but I have to chime in on the myth that NY is some diversity utopia. Yes, there are a ton of other cultures here but with very few exceptions, unless you are caucasian you are relegated to service jobs and blue collar work. I just don't get that vibe in Seattle...there are a ton of skilled workers from other cultures.

Who cares if 75% of the people you see in the city are from another culture if you hardly ever work alongside them, and they have to take the subway to one of the tougher Boros at the end of the night. If you are successful in NY, I'd venture to guess that when you go home at the end of the night, your block is whiter than any in Seattle.

Ditto for Atlanta.. I will say that many neighborhoods surrounding Tampa are really diverse, but mainly because everybody is poor. lol

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by bxtx

I agree. I feel that Seattle has a "I work with a black guy and I voted Obama so I am obviously multicultural" attitude.

"By the way, I had dim sum once."

It just seems so freaking delusional to me that I find it hard to grasp. Admit that you're white and 67% (or more in most cases) of the people you see on a daily basis are white and quit trying to live a lie!

Seattle is not diverse by even average American standards.

P.S. Before somebody says, "What am I supposed to do then?" The answer is, QUIT MAKING STUFF UP TO TRY TO BE COOL!

LOL! There was a guy in my office in Seattle who lived in the Central District. He wore his address like a badge, to show he was down with African Americans, he was the big liberal. But every time he went on vacation, his neighbors would rob his house, they'd clean him out. So obviously, they didn't reciprocate his supposed warm-and-fuzzy feelings toward them. Even after he had kids, and his wife insisted on moving to a safer neighborhood for the kids, he refused to move. He adjusted to the robbery issue simply by not replacing his stuff after his insurance company replaced it the first time. So his wife had to put up with all this. I've never seen a more extreme case of wanting to be cool (without actually doing anything constructive to contribute to the neighborhood, mind you.... No community participation).

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by wlw2009

All of the diversity is in the rundown suburbs now. I welcome diversity, but not if it means that the crime rate is going to skyrocket. Ask Federal Way, Skyway, Renton, Kent, and Tukwila how un-diverse we are.

Also, I don't understand stories like these. Think of a city like Detroit or Atlanta which are near, what? 70-80% black? Are those cities "diverse"? (While you are at it, look at those wonderful crime rates, sounds like paradise).

Really, people need to get over this forced diversity crap. There are more than proportionate (nationally speaking) of Asians, Hispanics, and middle easterners in this metro area (many choose to live in Bellevue, Redmond, etc....whats the difference?)

Also, why is it always a black person in these stories?

Why not show an Asian who is complaining about diversity or Hispanic or whatever? Never makes sense to me.

Atlanta is closer to 50-55% black

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by thatguy950

wlw2009 hit it on the head.

The idea of forced diversity is pathetic, and that's coming from a mixed blood person. I believe it's those hippies, hipsters, and hard-core libs that try and hammer home we MUST have "diversity," as if it's going to cure all that ails us. Let the chips fall where they may, forcing diversity only breeds contempt from all sides. If Seattle happens to be primarily white, so be it. My dad is [mostly] white and he doesn't understand this white shaming that is so prevalent in Seattle, nor the sense of white guilt for no apparent reason. People should be judged on morals, character, and conviction; special privileges for minorities (like me) need to be done away with if we really want to move past this race issue. I find it humorously ironic that the very people who think they are helping to promote a racially-blind society are the ones perpetuating the problem.

I know that isn't exactly what this thread was about, but it just happened.

/end rant

^This. let the chips fall where they may. There are cities that are quite diverse and the representation is fairly even. they got that way on their own and as a result, there's little racial tension. As a black man I have been aware that Seattle is very white. Hasn't stopped me from wanting to move to the area. it's not the actual racial make up of a place one should look at. More like the attitude of of those that are there. Los Angeles fro example is a very racially diverse city. However there is a good amount of segregation and cultural dissonance among the population.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by jjinla

If you are successful in NY, I'd venture to guess that when you go home at the end of the night, your block is whiter than any in Seattle.

I think you're in for a surprise then.

[jjinla]

^ My town is 93% white and has a median HHI over $165k (over 200k for familes). Want to make a bet?

Diversity in affluent parts of the northeast means having a Mexican gardener and a Jamaican nanny. I'd much rather have a few successful minority families in my town than a ton of marginalized ones so I can pat myself on the back and make myself feel more evolved somehow.

[Adrian71]

Originally Posted by bxtx

Seattle has a ton of great things, but diversity is not one of them.

Here in Renton, I live in a neighborhood with white families, black families, a black-white couple, Hispanics, a Japanese-American, and a lesbian. We have Democrats, Republicans, and libertarians, we have meat eaters and vegetarians, and we have Christians and agnostics. If that's not "diverse," I don't know what is.

And really, who cares? "Diversity" doesn't automatically make a place better, and being monochrome doesn't automatically make it worse. I don't sit around and think about how my neighbors are black, white, gay, or straight. They're nice people. That's all I care about. They could all be green-skinned atheist polygamists for all I care.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

LOL! There was a guy in my office in Seattle who lived in the Central District. He wore his address like a badge, to show he was down with African Americans, he was the big liberal. But every time he went on vacation, his neighbors would rob his house, they'd clean him out. So obviously, they didn't reciprocate his supposed warm-and-fuzzy feelings toward them. Even after he had kids, and his wife insisted on moving to a safer neighborhood for the kids, he refused to move. He adjusted to the robbery issue simply by not replacing his stuff after his insurance company replaced it the first time. So his wife had to put up with all this. I've never seen a more extreme case of wanting to be cool (without actually doing anything constructive to contribute to the neighborhood, mind you.... No community participation).

Do we know it was his African-American neighbors that robbed him, or could it have been somebody else?


In the early 90's, my parents divorced, and my mother was left to raise us in a poor majority-Latino neighborhood, and during this time she made friends with some rather shady characters. We got burglarized several times during this time period, and every single time it was by somebody that my mother had been "friends" with, somebody that had been over to our house (learned the layout), somebody that had seen all the cool and/or valuable stuff that we had. The guys' that had robbed us were both White and Latino -- the two racial/ethnic groups that made up 99.5% of the neighborhood at the time. It wasn't their backgrounds that made them rob us, it was the fact that they were lowlife scum looking for something to sell for their next fix.

We'd usually find our VCRs at the pawn shop down the street.