Diversity in Seattle. (Pacific: eat, metro, areas)

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by NearFantastica

When people say that Seattle "isn't diverse" they don't mean racially, but culturally. The city is very White culturally and it has a pervasive White liberal mindset. Seattle tends to absorb it's POC into a White monocultural blob so actual diversity gets destroyed in the end.

So you're saying that everyone becomes "whitewashed" once they moved to the area? Yeah, I don't find that to be the case. Like at all.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by rantiquity

Seattle politics is the driving factor with the woke culture and diverse which are driving normal people to the suburbs and beyond.

Everyone I know in Seattle: UW staff and faculty, art gallery owners, teachers, techies, doctors, nurses, all kinds of "normal people", have lived there for over 30 years, and are happy there. They've given no thought to relocating. Some are happy spending their retirement there; no need to move elsewhere for retirement. Start a separate thread if you want to complain about politics. That's not what this thread is about.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Everyone I know in Seattle: UW staff and faculty, art gallery owners, teachers, techies, doctors, nurses, all kinds of "normal people", have lived there for over 30 years, and are happy there. They've given no thought to relocating. Some are happy spending their retirement there; no need to move elsewhere for retirement. Start a separate thread if you want to complain about politics. That's not what this thread is about.

Oddly, everyone I know in Seattle came from another state or country. The employees that I manage in Seattle are from California (4) Alaska (1) Brazil (1) Atlanta (1) and Chicago (1). My daughter living in Seattle is from California, like me, her husband from Pacific County. In another department we just hired a new guy from Czechoslovakia. My boss is from California and her boss is from Yakima. It sounds like you know a lot more people there, though, my sample is a lot smaller, but some of them while relative newcomers are quite happy there in Ballard and West Seattle.

[uniquetraveler]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

It’s often said that the Seattle area isn’t a very diverse place but I disagree. Maybe it’s that some of my favorite eateries are little hole in the wall ethnic places. I see (and interact with) large and thriving communities of people descended from Ethiopia, India, Korea, Phillippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Eritrea, China, Somalia, Japan, to name a few. Case in point, check out this big Ethiopian festival that happened here last weekend. “Thousands gathered on Sunday to mark the two-day Ethiopian Orthodox holiday after two years of the pandemic and the Tigray war”. https://crosscut.com/culture/2023/01...eturns-seattle

As a South Asian American who have stayed across other big cities like Chicago, NYC, and D.C. before moving to Seattle, following is my observation.

Seattle does have people from all over the world, be it Indians, Japanese, Scandinavian, Chinese, etc. But it seems that people stick to their own community to a large extent. Even the teens, who grew up here. When I walk into the Met market in Sammamish, I frequently see group of Indian kids and a separate group of European kids hanging out. But when I was in NYC, our friend group had all kinds of people-- be it east asian, Indian, or European of origin.

For example, last December I was at a Christmas cocktail party at my colleague's place, he had about 40-50 guests (a few from work but mostly his friends). My wife and I were the only non-European americans. Similarly, when I go to any south asian house parties, 99% are from the same region.. During my conversation, it came out that some of people have been in Seattle for 20-30 years but don't have a single friend outside their community! My wife who grew up in Toronto finds it even more strange. Her friends were a mix of born Canadian born/native, Italian, middle eastern and many other types of people.

[homesinseattle]

Originally Posted by uniquetraveler

As a South Asian American who have stayed across other big cities like Chicago, NYC, and D.C. before moving to Seattle, following is my observation.

Seattle does have people from all over the world, be it Indians, Japanese, Scandinavian, Chinese, etc. But it seems that people stick to their own community to a large extent. Even the teens, who grew up here. When I walk into the Met market in Sammamish, I frequently see group of Indian kids and a separate group of European kids hanging out. But when I was in NYC, our friend group had all kinds of people-- be it east asian, Indian, or European of origin.

For example, last December I was at a Christmas cocktail party at my colleague's place, he had about 40-50 guests (a few from work but mostly his friends). My wife and I were the only non-European americans. Similarly, when I go to any south asian house parties, 99% are from the same region.. During my conversation, it came out that some of people have been in Seattle for 20-30 years but don't have a single friend outside their community and work colleagues! My wife who grew up in Toronto finds it even more strange. Her friends were a mix of born Canadian, Italian, middle eastern and many other types of people.

I agree with this but wonder if is a case of urban versus suburban living and also the histories of the cities themselves. Many of these places you’ve mentioned have vibrant inner urban cores and have had them for a long time. Ethnic groups were all conglomerated in those areas and I think the cross cultural mixing was a fait accomplis. Suburban enclaves allow people to isolate and associate with the ethnic group of their choosing. Seattle evolved in a different way and was pretty Euro centric (with some Japanese and Chinese Americans) until maybe the 1950s.

[primaltech]

I'll just share my perspective of someone who lived in Atlanta and its suburbs (which is a city/metro often hailed for its diversity) for 36.5 years, and now living in Seattle (which is often knocked for its lack of diversity) for the last 3 years.

In some ways, I actually think it's more diverse up here in Seattle, and of course diversity can mean a lot of different things, and different types of people.

Yes, there are a lot of black people in the South, and definitely not quite as much representation of that particular community up here, but, much of the diversity down there is on paper. In practice, there's a lot of segregation (and racial resentment) by area and neighborhood, and by the places people go and etc. Like, certain groups have "their mall", and the other groups have their area, and it's kind of sometimes not that progressive at all, in supposedly diverse communities. Like, sure, you can point to a city like Atlanta's diversity in the city limits on paper, but the mostly white, conservative, wealthy people of Buckhead for example, are not exactly happy about the growing presence and domination of "others" in their areas that used to be traditionally more dominated by a larger share of white folks. To the point that they recently very nearly de-annexed to form their own city. And the Republican, white base of power at the state level, has often and deeply clashed with the black and southern Democratic base of leadership in the larger cities. That's not to say that that is always racism, but it's often a clash and conflict.

People also actually use, (and, crucially, actually fund and expand) the mass transit offerings out here, even out to the suburbs. And transit and transportation needs here aren't always directly determined (hindered) by 20th century racial politics and mindsets and irrational fears and etc.

Then if you look at the northeast big city type places like NYC, it's becoming kind of the same story. Yeah, there's plenty of diversity on the subway and all, but it's not like most of them live in the same neighborhoods. Manhattan is becoming an exclusive playground for the ultra rich, regardless of your skin color.

So there's maybe less diversity on paper in the northwest, and definitely that is something to note and all, but there are still definitely all kinds of people around here, and they actually seem to mix up and mingle a lot more, or that I have perceived, and everyone's a little easier about all that. I know I see tons of white people catching the bus here, and that's a huge difference and contrast, in a good way, versus the supposedly more diverse and less racist metro I moved here from.

Now, maybe you can point to the less racial diversity historically here, as a reason why the white folks here never really developed that mindset as much as those in the southeast. But, still, it's a much better situation, with not everything always being infused with racial politics, and really no one gives a crap about anyone's color or race or creed or any of that. (The way it should be.)

Ultimately the reason the South is diverse particularly in terms of black and white people, is, you know, slavery. And obviously that doesn't inform everything or everyone's mindset now. That's the minority of people's mindsets. And African-American culture of course makes the South much better and stronger, and most of us white southerners have always deeply appreciated that. But the deeply rooted diversity in the southern cities at the end of the day goes both ways, there are positive and negative aspects of their relationship, and at the worst, you could point to some of it as exploitational, unfortunately.

Anyway, just my rambling thoughts on it... happy weekend, everyone!

[uniquetraveler]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

I agree with this but wonder if is a case of urban versus suburban living and also the histories of the cities themselves. Many of these places you’ve mentioned have vibrant inner urban cores and have had them for a long time. Ethnic groups were all conglomerated in those areas and I think the cross cultural mixing was a fait accomplis. Suburban enclaves allow people to isolate and associate with the ethnic group of their choosing. Seattle evolved in a different way and was pretty Euro centric (with some Japanese and Chinese Americans) until maybe the 1950s.

Makes sense.. In short, I would call Seattle diverse (as there are people from many places), but less cosmopolitan than NYC, Vancouver, Toronto etc. as the communities don't come together for a shared culture.

[primaltech]

Also the strong Asian-American community makes Seattle awesome, honestly. If it wasn't for the huge Asian influence, this would be a boring city with not nearly as good food.

Some of my favorite areas of the Atlanta metro were always those that were the most diverse in terms of all races and hailing from all areas of the globe, not just the usual white or black people.

[uniquetraveler]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Also the strong Asian-American community makes Seattle awesome, honestly. If it wasn't for the huge Asian influence, this would be a boring city with not nearly as good food.

Some of my favorite areas of the Atlanta metro were always those that were the most diverse in terms of all races and hailing from all areas of the globe, not just the usual white or black people.

I lived in Atlanta for 5 years as well, I would rank the city way down the list in terms of being "cosmopolitan" even though "diversity" is high due to large percentage of European and African American population. I was primarily comparing Seattle to NYC, Toronto, Chicago and Vancouver..

Atlanta crowd is even more inner looking, there is hardly any mixed friend group. African Americans hanging out with themselves and the Buckhead rich white/ european folks on their own.. Seattle is definitely in a better spot than any southern city except maybe Miami.

[CrazyDonkey]

I like to think of "diversity" as the spread and variety of cultures available in an area, regardless of the total percentage of minorities.