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There's been a few threads about which cities are the most integrated, but most of them have to do with where people reside. What I'd like to know is where are people actually socially integrated. By that I mean places where people socialize with people outside of their race/ethnicity to a greater extent than elsewhere.
I lived in one of the most integrated cities in NA, Houston, for about twenty years, and have been to maybe ten weddings, of different backgrounds, but all of these were like 85% of x and 15% of yz. In general I don't really see people hanging out with those not of their background outside of the context of work, school or neighborhood events. Go to any restaurant where large groups go during a workday and compare the crowd you see with weekend ones and you'll see the level of diversity within groups are very different.
I want to say I have seen places that seem more socially integrated, but I can't be certain because I haven't lived there. In the Bay Area for example both East and South Asians seem to socialize with everyone, and in SF I've seen the Chinese in every neighborhood hanging with any groups. In the cool parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan I've also seen fairly balanced friend groups, but I understand that's not the norm in the other boroughs.
There's probably no study that reflects what I'm talking about so it would mostly be anecdotal. I'd like to get other people's read on this.
There's been a few threads about which cities are the most integrated, but most of them have to do with where people reside. What I'd like to know is where are people actually socially integrated. By that I mean places where people socialize with people outside of their race/ethnicity to a greater extent than elsewhere.
I lived in one of the most integrated cities in NA, Houston, for about twenty years, and have been to maybe ten weddings, of different backgrounds, but all of these were like 85% of x and 15% of yz. In general I don't really see people hanging out with those not of their background outside of the context of work, school or neighborhood events. Go to any restaurant where large groups go during a workday and compare the crowd you see with weekend ones and you'll see the level of diversity within groups are very different.
I want to say I have seen places that seem more socially integrated, but I can't be certain because I haven't lived there. In the Bay Area for example both East and South Asians seem to socialize with everyone, and in SF I've seen the Chinese in every neighborhood hanging with any groups. In the cool parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan I've also seen fairly balanced friend groups, but I understand that's not the norm in the other boroughs.
There's probably no study that reflects what I'm talking about so it would mostly be anecdotal. I'd like to get other people's read on this.
You’re experience in Houston was completely different than mine. People of different groups socialize a lot with each other here. In my observation anyway.
Af for the Bay Area, I agree with you on the Chinese but not Indians. They seem to keep much more to themselves there.
You’re experience in Houston was completely different than mine. People of different groups socialize a lot with each other here. In my observation anyway.
Af for the Bay Area, I agree with you on the Chinese but not Indians. They seem to keep much more to themselves there.
I'm not saying individuals aren't socializing outside their culture, just that the majority don't seem to be doing it. People who are student aged tend to socialize broadly, so my comment is mostly about late twenties or thirties friend groups.
In my experience anyway they tend to be either monoracial or something like 6 of x and 2 of y. Anyway I'm closer to boomer than millennial so those tend to be the demographic on my radar. I also didn't have the bandwidth to go out every weekend so my sample size is limited. The areas I was more familiar with are EaDo, Heights and CityCentre. Washington and midtown are too young and hard to drive so I didn't visit much.
I'm not saying individuals aren't socializing outside their culture, just that the majority don't seem to be doing it. People who are student aged tend to socialize broadly, so my comment is mostly about late twenties or thirties friend groups.
In my experience anyway they tend to be either monoracial or something like 6 of x and 2 of y. Anyway I'm closer to boomer than millennial so those tend to be the demographic on my radar. I also didn't have the bandwidth to go out every weekend so my sample size is limited. The areas I was more familiar with are EaDo, Heights and CityCentre. Washington and midtown are too young and hard to drive so I didn't visit much.
I agree. And this is pretty much the only website you see people throw Houston as some integrated wonderland. You may hear diversity chants but outside of here, I never really hear integration change. If you look at a zip code map, you may see ethnicities live fairly close to eachother but there’s a lot more to the story than just that and there’s boundaries beyond just zip code borders. It’s not like Chicago where the black population is extremely skewed south and the white north and such. Or Detroit and so forth. But I mean considering how segregated those two are, that’s not saying much.
Plenty of segregation especially socially. Even in the places you mention, the social groups tend to stick to each other. Midtown, in northern Bagby street, you see a hotspot of black bars/clubs. To the south, it’s mostly white + Hispanic. Washington Ave as you point out is very white. There’s pockets of integration in some suburbs and such but as a whole I don’t see it.
As I and others have mentioned, LA and Cali as a whole the best answer I can think of. Maybe Las Vegas? and that one is for the soul reason of being a tourist gathering center, so I’d say LA’s is much more impressive.
I agree. And this is pretty much the only website you see people throw Houston as some integrated wonderland. You may hear diversity chants but outside of here, I never really hear integration change. If you look at a zip code map, you may see ethnicities live fairly close to eachother but there’s a lot more to the story than just that and there’s boundaries beyond just zip code borders. It’s not like Chicago where the black population is extremely skewed south and the white north and such. Or Detroit and so forth. But I mean considering how segregated those two are, that’s not saying much.
Plenty of segregation especially socially. Even in the places you mention, the social groups tend to stick to each other. Midtown, in northern Bagby street, you see a hotspot of black bars/clubs. To the south, it’s mostly white + Hispanic. Washington Ave as you point out is very white. There’s pockets of integration in some suburbs and such but as a whole I don’t see it.
As I and others have mentioned, LA and Cali as a whole the best answer I can think of. Maybe Las Vegas? and that one is for the soul reason of being a tourist gathering center, so I’d say LA’s is much more impressive.
Vegas doesn't really seem like its super socially integrated actually. Despite being residentially integrated. ive been there enough to see there a white-dominated political world and a distinct white sort of moderate conservative type vibe. tourist areas are very integrated though. For sure.
I agree. And this is pretty much the only website you see people throw Houston as some integrated wonderland. You may hear diversity chants but outside of here, I never really hear integration change. If you look at a zip code map, you may see ethnicities live fairly close to eachother but there’s a lot more to the story than just that and there’s boundaries beyond just zip code borders. It’s not like Chicago where the black population is extremely skewed south and the white north and such. Or Detroit and so forth. But I mean considering how segregated those two are, that’s not saying much.
Plenty of segregation especially socially. Even in the places you mention, the social groups tend to stick to each other. Midtown, in northern Bagby street, you see a hotspot of black bars/clubs. To the south, it’s mostly white + Hispanic. Washington Ave as you point out is very white. There’s pockets of integration in some suburbs and such but as a whole I don’t see it.
As I and others have mentioned, LA and Cali as a whole the best answer I can think of. Maybe Las Vegas? and that one is for the soul reason of being a tourist gathering center, so I’d say LA’s is much more impressive.
See this is where we run into the problem: there is literally no way to measure this. Its all based on observation and people live different lives.
It seems like literally everywhere I go in Houston, there are tons of people of different ethnicities or races hanging with each other. I live in Southwest Houston so that might color things, but I see the same thing in areas like Midtown or Post Oak. But like every other cities, it probably depends where.
In LA for example, the area around Long Beach is SUPER socially integrated. Long Beach is probably the most socially integrated city in the US. The areas north of the 105 are not at all. West LA is anything but socially integrated.
I think Vegas has a good chance to become that kind of city, because it has a fairly diverse middle class population. And the attitudes of PURE racism erode more and more every generation. Other major cities, like NYC, almost literally have no middle class.
Anecdotally amongst the middle aged people I tend to know, they could have made things more racially integrated and did so when younger, but once they had kids and got enough money ... bam, they were out of the city and gone to the wealthy suburbs.
Whites, asians, and to a lesser degree hispanics, tend to flee to to a wealthy suburbs to give their kids the best chance and because of real estate values.
Black people I know OTOH, they're not going to just bolt to the wealthy suburbs like that.
As for myself, I don't have money or kids, so ... I don't really care where I live.
The other reason it could never be NYC, is NYC has this kind of inbred Andrew Dice Clay, it's cool to be non-PC thing.
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