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I don't know if it's actually an obsession with race or it's just the nature of the "My City Can Beat Up Your City" type threads where people are scrambling for any kind of quantifiable data showing that one city is better than another. I think that ethnic diversity is a good thing and other things being equal would prefer to live in a more diverse city. However, I think intellectual diversity is infinitely more meaningful, but not many people seem to value intellectual diversity.
Ethnic diversity is great, but for how much people on here go on and on how it is an absolutely necessary quality for a city for relocation, I wonder what it means to them personally. Because I feel for a lot of people it ends up just being--hey we've got a great selection of ethnic restaurants. And nothing wrong with that.
Furthermore a lot of places become diverse not because immigrant groups are looking for diversity--on the contrary they are looking for a place with their specific culture(or something similar) represented in a community. Chinese people don't flock to Monterey Park, California because it's 25% Mexican, they're there because it's 47% Chinese. When my ancestors came over from Poland roughly a 100 years ago or so, they weren't excited to live somewhere next to Irish and Italians and Germans and Eastern European Jews--they just wanted to live somewhere they could make a living and recreate Krakow with a bunch of fellow Polish Catholics. The places that are really diverse are often diverse because they have good economic opportunities.
I don't know if it's actually an obsession with race or it's just the nature of the "My City Can Beat Up Your City" type threads where people are scrambling for any kind of quantifiable data showing that one city is better than another. I think that ethnic diversity is a good thing and other things being equal would prefer to live in a more diverse city. However, I think intellectual diversity is infinitely more meaningful, but not many people seem to value intellectual diversity.
Agreed. Statistics tends to be used and abused a lot here lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3
Oh i know i know prejudice is alive and well, sometimes blown out of proportion by the media and sensitive people who scream "racist!" every time someone gives them the wrong look. but yea it still exist.
Especially with all the labeling, Americans are mostly very integrated and we are mostly a melting pot nation compared to most nations. just the labeling and the race obsession is a big problem.
We can't segregate ourselves by what country our great great great grandparents come from.
You see Swedish flags all over MN on cars and houses but most of the people can't name a city in Sweden other than Stockholm and they watch American football at home and eat Hamburgers
Quote:
Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3
Oh i know i know prejudice is alive and well, sometimes blown out of proportion by the media and sensitive people who scream "racist!" every time someone gives them the wrong look. but yea it still exist.
Especially with all the labeling, Americans are mostly very integrated and we are mostly a melting pot nation compared to most nations. just the labeling and the race obsession is a big problem.
We can't segregate ourselves by what country our great great great grandparents come from.
You see Swedish flags all over MN on cars and houses but most of the people can't name a city in Sweden other than Stockholm and they watch American football at home and eat Hamburgers
I agree that labeling is bad since it's used for evil purposes and that a lot of Americans tend to focus on their ancestors ethnicity out of a sense to be different, but I do not think that means that we should not pretend that like they don't exist. I do not believe that we are a melting pot nation as that implies some sort of uniculture. Look at a tv ad for instance and take note of how there really isn't a lot of diversity and what this means about notions of beauty for example. There are ethnic and cultural differences from people who celebrate their backgrounds. African-Americans are Americans, but their culture and traditions are going to be a lot different than Native Americans from different tribes or White Americans. Just to give an example, African Americans are very spiritual and tend to be in religious denominations that were accepting of African Americans compared to Latinos who tend to be Roman Catholic because that was the official religion in Spain when the Spanish colonized the Americas compared to white Americans who mostly protestant. Religion has a very huge influence on a group's values and beliefs which helps shapes that group cultures.
We should celebrate cultural differences since being a country of many different cultures is something that I believe is American. We should also realize that we are human, take note of how similar we are to one another, and realize that no one culture is superior to another. I used the language examples of how there's a tendency to pigeonhole and pressure other groups to assimilate into this "normal" American culture.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deezus
Ethnic diversity is great, but for how much people on here go on and on how it is an absolutely necessary quality for a city for relocation, I wonder what it means to them personally. Because I feel for a lot of people it ends up just being--hey we've got a great selection of ethnic restaurants. And nothing wrong with that.
Furthermore a lot of places become diverse not because immigrant groups are looking for diversity--on the contrary they are looking for a place with their specific culture(or something similar) represented in a community. Chinese people don't flock to Monterey Park, California because it's 25% Mexican, they're there because it's 47% Chinese. When my ancestors came over from Poland roughly a 100 years ago or so, they weren't excited to live somewhere next to Irish and Italians and Germans and Eastern European Jews--they just wanted to live somewhere they could make a living and recreate Krakow with a bunch of fellow Polish Catholics. The places that are really diverse are often diverse because they have good economic opportunities.
Agreed. Statistics tends to be used and abused a lot here lol.
I agree that labeling is bad since it's used for evil purposes and that a lot of Americans tend to focus on their ancestors ethnicity out of a sense to be different, but I do not think that means that we should not pretend that like they don't exist. I do not believe that we are a melting pot nation as that implies some sort of uniculture. Look at a tv ad for instance and take note of how there really isn't a lot of diversity and what this means about notions of beauty for example. There are ethnic and cultural differences from people who celebrate their backgrounds. African-Americans are Americans, but their culture and traditions are going to be a lot different than Native Americans from different tribes or White Americans. Just to give an example, African Americans are very spiritual and tend to be in religious denominations that were accepting of African Americans compared to Latinos who tend to be Roman Catholic because that was the official religion in Spain when the Spanish colonized the Americas compared to white Americans who mostly protestant. Religion has a very huge influence on a group's values and beliefs which helps shapes that group cultures.
We should celebrate cultural differences since being a country of many different cultures is something that I believe is American. We should also realize that we are human, take note of how similar we are to one another, and realize that no one culture is superior to another. I used the language examples of how there's a tendency to pigeonhole and pressure other groups to assimilate into this "normal" American culture.
Agreed especially on the ethnic foods part.
Good post.
We do have some differences but we also have alot of similarities and we bring all our cultures into one great culture (American culture).
When talking about food, Korean Tacos and Tex Mex foods are good examples
I think some of the "obsession" the OP speaks of comes from people who live in fairly homogeneous communities who don't have much opportunity to interact with people of other races. This forum should be a fairly safe place for them to ask their questions, even though some of the questions may seem naive or ridiculous to someone who is more worldly.
I grew up in a small town that was about 80% white and 20% black with just a small number of other minorities. I am white. Though classes and activities, I got to interact with the black kids my age and I felt I had a richer school experience as a result of doing so.
As an adult, I moved around a lot before settling down for 26 years working in Houston. Houston has a rich mix of Anglo, Hispanic, African American and Asian cultures. In addition, there are a number of people who live there from all over the world because Houston is the center of the US energy industry. In those years in Houston, I was inspired to learn new languages, attend performances of African American and Hispanic theatre companies, attend Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo and Juneteeth celebrations, and eat foods I might never have known about in the homes of friends and in small ethnic restaurants. As a result of these experiences and others, I feel privileged to have caught a small glimpse of the world through eyes other than my middle-aged white ones.
As a result of my experience in Houston, diversity was indeed a factor I considered when choosing to move to a new city a few years back. If folks want to live in areas where everyone else is like them, that is their free choice and I don't judge them. I, however, purposely sought to live in a diverse city - not because it is "politically correct" to do so, not because I wanted to brag that my city is better on some internet forum, but because my life is richer as a result.
Ethnic diversity is great, but for how much people on here go on and on how it is an absolutely necessary quality for a city for relocation, I wonder what it means to them personally. Because I feel for a lot of people it ends up just being--hey we've got a great selection of ethnic restaurants. And nothing wrong with that.
It means a lot to me personally. I am white. I wouldn't live somewhere that didn't have a strong Southeast Asian population. My spouse is a native of Laos and she and I both love the fact that there is a strong Thai, Vietnamese, and Lao community in our city. We like the food and the culture. I also like a community with a strong Indian community because I love the food and culture.
I don't know if it's actually an obsession with race or it's just the nature of the "My City Can Beat Up Your City" type threads where people are scrambling for any kind of quantifiable data showing that one city is better than another. I think that ethnic diversity is a good thing and other things being equal would prefer to live in a more diverse city. However, I think intellectual diversity is infinitely more meaningful, but not many people seem to value intellectual diversity.
So-called "intellectual diversity" should be seen for what it is: A code word(s) from right-wingers who are angry that much of the media, academic, and entertainment worlds don't reflect their culturally and politically conservative views. There has always been intellecutal diversity in the U.S. and there always will be. But the right-wingers aren't demanding intellectual diversity in the boardrooms of banks and major corporations, in the increasingly crazy GOP Caucus of the House of Representatives, or in the pulpits of the big megachurches. Where they hold sway, they are content, and where they don't, they claim victimhood and a lack of "intellectual diversity."
Last edited by citylove101; 09-23-2013 at 09:28 AM..
The more liberal you are the more you are going to talk about equality...the more you talk about equality the more you will talk about race...The more you talk about race the more you will look for fault in a race...the more faults mentioned creates a bias and suggests that all people belonging to ONE race are all the same....which is impossible...same as all people are NOT equal...all people are different.
What is the deal with this obsession everyone has over race? you can visit the Toronto vs Houston forum and pretty much 70 percent of the post are people repeating how diverse each city is.
Why does it matter how diverse a city is? and why do people care so much about what race their neighbors are?
I don't care what race my neighbors are, and that's the beauty of diversity. It has helped make me a tolerant person, and not a one-sided mind like I've seen in less diverse areas.
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