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Whenever I hear ethnic minorities talk about their ethnicities and races in the US, something that always wierds me out is how they find it acceptable to prefer to mingle around their own ethnic group (a.k.a minority racism).
Usually it's considered bad to prefer one's own ethnicity. And I still find it bizzare that you could get into a situation where most of your friends are of the same ethnicity or race.
Save for some problems with certain races, the most common sight would be to see an ethnic minority with mostly (85% +) friends of a different race.
It's really not weird. I've studied this in my psychology class. For one people naturally self racially segregate. People prefer their own race. Just like rich people hang around rich, poor hang around poor. People prefere people that are like them. So if we're being racial you will prefer people that look like you, have the same language as you, and have the same culture as you. Also everybody likes to think humans are so complex, but they really aren't, they are just like other animals. Take a look at a bunch of birds, the geese all hang together, the ducks all hang together, and the crows all hang together. Animals is what we essentially are, I know lots of you will laugh the animal reference off but it's very true. In a sense it's just natural that people stick with their own. And there isn't ANYTHING wrong with preferring or just hanging with your own. That's why diversity is really just a big waste. If anything diversity pits us against eachother, and breaks down a community. Seriously I know a bunch of people will disagree but it's very true. Diversity will only work is communisms "utopia". People cannot deal with differences. People cannot get along with people with diffrent oppinions usually, let alone people that have very diffrent backgrounds. This is generally speaking BY THE WAY, of course there will be anomalies but my argument is generally speaking.
People don't necessarily prefer people who look or talk like them, but who share common interests and preferences. And often those are driven along racial/ethnic/national lines.
1. British/Germanic European influence. These cultures, early on, promoted segregation on the basis of income, race, religion, and other concepts. Especially English culture. I don't know about Canada, but pretty much every other non-European/non Middle Eastern nation that's been populated by Germanic whites ended up having racial problems/segregation (i.e. South Africa, Australia, etc.).
2. Outside of the major urban centers of the East Coast, much of the US is sprawled out. This almost by default makes people more distant, wary about different people, and more likely to stick to their own. You have less encounters with strangers, so when a bad encounter happens with someone of another race it stays in that person's mind longer. Even if it only happened once. Los Angeles is supposedly a diverse and cosmopolitan city yet it's segregated and there is no shortage of internet complaints testifying that they've experienced racism out there.
But like others have said, sometimes segregation doesn't indicate racial tension. It is indeed common for immigrants to come to a new country and stick to their own. Although I'm sure it's undeniable that the US is more segregated than a place like Brazil, where a good chunk of the population is mixed race.
I don't think it is people necessarily being racist. Race and Americans' Social Networks
The third table in this story shows us that most people tend to have friends that are of the same race as them. For me Asians seem to have the least because their a small minority and made up of many ethnicity. Me personally I am like Asians, their are only 100,000 to 200,000 Nigerian Americans estimated. So in the U.S.A I can;t talk to many Nigerians and racially only about 25%-30% of my closest friends are Black. In fact if I had a 100 closest friends list, probably 40 of them would be black with 20 of them being Nigerians, 25 of them would be Asian (Pakistani, Filipino, Indian, Chinese), 20 of them being Hispanic that don't identify as white or black (Most are actually not Mexican most are from various South American nations or mixed) and the remaining 15 being white. MY lack of white friends even though I live in a 65%-75% white community is mostly due to the fact I go to a charter school and most whites live in neighborhoods were their is no need to put their kids in a Charter school. My huge amount of Nigerian friends is due to the fact that Nigerians don't like public school because of how bad they are in Nigeria so my Charter school is like 10%+ or more Nigerian. Also my interests such as Nollywood, Soccer, Church and African politics are similar to what most Nigerians are interested in.
Speaking Spanish/ Spanish Culture , Basketball/Football/Rap/Jazz these are things that a majority of hispanics the former and African Americans the latter are disproportionally interested in. Thus even if your just looking for friends your more likely to look at people in the same interests as you and if most Hispanics or African Americans or White Americans are interested in those things it happens. Just like gun culture doesn't say minorities aren't included, it is just that mostly white people have an interest in owning guns etc. so these events are dominated by whites.
Whenever I hear ethnic minorities talk about their ethnicities and races in the US, something that always wierds me out is how they find it acceptable to prefer to mingle around their own ethnic group (a.k.a minority racism).
Usually it's considered bad to prefer one's own ethnicity. And I still find it bizzare that you could get into a situation where most of your friends are of the same ethnicity or race.
Save for some problems with certain races, the most common sight would be to see an ethnic minority with mostly (85% +) friends of a different race.
This isn't relative to the united states - it's a human thing.
The US has a very long history of immigration and different immigrant groups originally lived in their communities for the support -- economic, spiritual, and psychological -- that as newcomers they couldn't find in the wider society. After a few generations, those communities tend to disperse and more members will assimilate, intermarry, and climb the economic ladder. That's been the case with Italians, Mexicans, Jews, Germans, Irish, Greeks, Chinese, and so on. The longer the immigrant group has been in the country the more often that tends to happen, with people retaining a cultural affinity from their ancestral country of origin, but little else.
The big exception, ethnically, are black people--the involuntary immigrants. At first by law, then later by custom, then later by class, and today, by stereotype, bigotry, and racism, that assimilation process has proven far more difficult. Obviously it's not impossible to bridge and it happens. (Even though you might be surprised how many Americans know of no middle-class, educated black people except for President Obama, a handful of celebrities, and the the characters they see on TV sit-coms.) But because the black experience here is absolutely unique and unlike any other ethnic group's, the same dynamic of assimilation just doesn't apply. The US is still coming to terms with its "original sin" of slavery.
So read some history before you spout off on "problems with certain races." The problems and the race could be your own.
Last edited by citylove101; 03-14-2016 at 01:46 PM..
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