A study released some months ago concluded about 40% of white people have zero non-white friends.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...97704320130808
About 25% of non-whites were shown not to have friends outside of their race as well. For the most segregated minority of black people, it is somewhat understandable seeing as blacks have been pressured to live in certain neighborhoods, areas and even entire cities amongst nothing but blacks for eons. The study concluded that Asians and Latinos have the most friends outside of their own race as these cultures have been more open to integration in friendships. Also, Asians are the least segregated racial group in America. It was also concluded that western states like California showed the most integration in terms of friendships and relationships.
A lot of this is mostly an issue of demographics seeing as the United States, as a whole, is over 70% white. I can imagine it would be very, very hard for a white person in Maine or North Dakota to make non-white friends as there are very few non-whites in swaths of the country.
But this nationwide trend also reflects the rampant segregation we have in America. The vast majority of Americans live in suburban and urban areas. In most metro areas, there is a healthy representation of ethnic minorities.
However, segregation remains a huge problem in this country. Even some of America's most diverse big cities, like New York, are profoundly segregated. Segregation is very, very pronounced in metro areas like Detroit where nearly 100% of the black population resides in the city and nearly 100% of the white population resides in the suburbs. I live in the DC Area, which is so segregated, that you can literally cut the metro area in half along roughly 13-16th st./Georgia Ave in Washington, DC, proper to separate the greater white DC metro area in the west in NW DC and bordering Montgomery County and Northern Virginia from the greater black DC metro area to the east in NE/SE DC and bordering PG County. It is even more troubling to know that segregation is so complete in much of the DC Area that most blacks in predominantly white Montgomery County, Maryland are not native-born blacks, but they are recent African immigrants or the children of these immigrants.
Whites, statistically, show the least desire to cultivate interracial friendships. Why is this? Obviously, whites and many blacks in this country do not get along because of the long rocky history between the two groups. Many, many blacks are very resentful at whites, in general, because of the past history of slavery, Jim Crow, inner city ghettoization, police/legal mistreatment and systematic oppression from a white society that black people across this land are subjected to everyday of their lives.
Many Latinos and even many Asians also resent whites for similar reasons as blacks. However, the white-black relations are the most strained in most parts of this country although there are obvious exceptions everywhere. Upper income and educated whites get along with whitewashed Asians of similar social standing in many areas of the country. But ghetto Asians in California cities rarely associate with whites. Fresh off the border Latino immigrants tend to be ethnocentric, poorer urban dwelling Latino groups like Puerto Ricans NYC and Mexicans in urban California tend to dislike whites.
But do whites choose to befriend their own kind because they don't want to be constantly reminded that they should harbor white guilt? Minorities such as Asians are often forced to integrate and come into contact with other races seeing as Asians only represent 4% of the U.S. population. Whites in America living in racially diverse metro areas have the biggest option to completely cop out of integration by self-segregating themselves from other races. I live in a diverse town that is a little less than 50% white and I see it all the time among all races.
When whites are amongst themselves, like any other racial group, they feel they can say whatever they want no matter how racist and insensitive it comes off. I know this being mixed race and being able to pass for white and being surrounded by upper middle class suburban white people when they thought there were no minorities present. I heard some ugly ignorant racist things being said about every race except for white people. If they had known I wasn't white, they would have been walking on egg shells. This is because it is not socially acceptable for whites, especially liberal whites living in liberal areas, to be vocally and openly racist. I will admit that black people who are racist cannot be described as closet racists and are more open, honest and vocal in their bigotry from my own life experiences. Thoughts?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
