The family that lives to my right is Mexican-American, and the family that lives across the street is mixed-race in the exact same way that Barack Obama’s family was mixed-race, meaning that there is a white parent but that the kids are clearly black. But, for the most part, I live in a pretty lily-white area. The most significant minority populations are East Asian, mainly Chinese, and from the Subcontinent, mainly Indian. Finn’s pre-school doesn’t have any black kids, unfortunately, but the roster is at least 25% Indian, possibly more. I’d say that the Indian kids might be a little tighter-knit than the others for the simple reason that their parents tend to know each other. But there’s really no sense of self-segregation. My boy is simply not growing up in a community where he expects being white to be the norm. And the Indian kids aren’t growing up in classrooms where they are oddities. Forty years ago, this area was almost completely white except for the folks they brought in to pick mushrooms.
In a way, the current Chester County is more like where I grew up in Mercer County, New Jersey. Because I lived in Princeton, I was exposed to all the people the university attracts. And, so, between international students with families and professors from all over the place, I went to school with Iranians and South Africans and Lebanese and Ecuadorians and Mexicans and Ethiopians and Somalis and Nigerians and Koreans and Filipinos and Vietnamese and Chinese and Koreans and Taiwanese and Swedes and the French, English and Scottish, and Australians and Danes and on and on. Princeton has a healthy black community, too, most descended from folks who were brought in to act as servants to the university students. My mother was a nursery school director and she made sure that two of my earliest playmates were black kids because she had worked at Head Start from its inception and she’s progressive like that. And, it worked. I never had a prejudiced bone in my body because I never had the idea that blacks kids were different from me.
So, I feel like I had my own head start in living in the modern America. The demographic changes that the country is experiencing aren’t any adjustment for me. It helps that I made Los Angeles my first home once a graduated from high school, and that I later lived in Philadelphia for several years. I’m more comfortable in a diverse setting. When I first moved to the Burbs, I was actually nervous in all-White settings because it wasn’t what I was used to.
I get bored if I’m forced to hang out with people with whom I have too much in common, unless the commonality is that we all expect diversity of background and thought.
I’m sorry that so many folks in this country feel like they’re losing the country they grew up in, but I’m excited that the country I grew up in is getting more like the town I grew up in.
That’s a change I can believe in.
In a way, the current Chester County is more like where I grew up in Mercer County, New Jersey.
Maybe you’re lucky to live in a blended pocket. Sadly, I don’t think you’re situation is typical here.
Here’s the growth between the 2000 and 2010 census for Chester County:
Asian: +127%
Some other race: +109%
Latinos: +102%
Two or more races: +96%
American Indian: +34%
Black: +15%
White: +10%
Interesting….Here’s my county.
Asian + 316
Black + 60
Latino +193
Some Other Race + 191
Two or more races + 139
American Indian + 21
White + 28
It’s no wonder there has been such a strong urge around here to “take our country back”. When the whites are only growing slightly faster than the Native American population, it’s not much of a surprise that they’re losing their shit when they look around at the state of things.
Although I sometimes feel I’m living in the middle of redneck central, I’ve noticed our grandchildrens’ school has become quite diverse, with kids from all over the world attending there. It may be due in large part to our near neighbor Cummins world headquarters to the east and Indiana University to the west. I was searching a department at IU the other night, looking for contact info for a friend who teaches there and I noticed nearly all the post grad students had Asian names. I love how the cultures spill over into the entire region.
Heck, even Cliven Bundy recognizes the traditional “American” values common among Latino immigrants. People coming to this country are far more likely to value opportunity, equality, and community than the entitled wealthy crying they “want their country back.”
“I never had a prejudiced bone in my body because I never had the idea that blacks kids were different from me.”
Do you think they never had the idea that white kids were different from them?
I think that they did feel that they were different. Possibly not at the age of three or four, but not long after. For me, I first encountered white race consciousness in 7th Grade when Larry Holmes fought Gerry Cooney, and I found it strikingly odd that someone white would challenge me for rooting for the black champion. It had never occurred to me to choose who to root for based on race. I think that black kids were rooting for Larry Holmes because they were quite conscious that he was black. And, obviously, some white kids were rooting for Clooney because he was white. It’s just that I found that shocking and offensive. That speaks in part to the way my parents raised me, but also to the community I grew up in, which was quite tolerant and diverse.
Oh yeah, I remember that fight very well. It was really divided along racial lines around here. Hell, Don King fanned the racial flames for a long time in the build-up to that fight. Going so far as to stick Cooney with “The Great White Hope” label, just to help amp up the whole racial tone.
yeah, that racial hype penetrated even my community, but I rooted for Holmes anyway and loved it when he knocked Cooney out. None of my close friends felt any differently.
Always liked Larry Holmes. He was a brutal puncher.
On a recent trip traveling through the small towns in the northeast corner of Mississippi, I saw Mexican and Chinese restaurants everywhere. It’s a start.
A few days ago, I saw part of an interview on either CNN or MSNBC with Atlanta’s Mayor, Kasim Reed who, in saying why the state could go purple very soon, noted that his metro area was the 2nd most diverse such region in the country. (I don’t know that he mentioned who was # 1.)
To support his statement, this past Sunday we drove to suburban Gwinnett County, Ga which was not very long ago a lily white very conservative suburb and reliably Republican area. While still Republican, it’s no longer lily white. That afternoon we attended our grandkids’ piano recital for the 28 private students of their Hungarian teacher, who still speaks with a quite heavy Eastern European accent.
Among the 28 students were India Indians, Latin Americans, a lighter skinned Iranian or Syrian, and the last and most accomplished student was a young African American teenager named DeVon. There was a Ronish, a Rohan, an Amrit, an Anika, a Caterine, a Roshan, a Mirdu and a Mara among the given names. Our two youngest grand kids, twins, were the only two truly fair skinned light haired and blue eyed students. Several other Caucasian Americans but with brunette hair and darker skin tones.
Even more interesting, the recital was in the upscale Alpharetta home of the Steinway Piano Galleries. An altogether revealing afternoon for these grandparents.
We just had International Night at my child’s school of about 250 students. One of the really cool features was having families with naturalized citizens from Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Ecuador. Then we have some interesting mixed couples like Mexican-American mom with Vietnamese-American dad.
It’s great. I think I saw somewhere that 15% of new marriages are mixed ethnicity now.
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Just read this piece by TNC.
Do yourselves a favor…read past the headline. It’s just…wow.
@TheAtlantic 3h
Now online: “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates http://theatln.tc/1k6yHiR pic.twitter.com/nskLXn1Ogm
Deserves a Pulitzer.
Coates’s writing blows me away.
Nice to read an encouraging post like this – I grew up in a very similar environment. Thanks Booman!
Hmm… I don’t like where this country is heading at all. That isn’t to say there aren’t some positive developments such as the diversity written about here… in general, though, we are passing through the dark ages toward an uncertain and unknown future. Our society is divided worse than before and our government is acting in ways I never imagined. The radical GOP is poised to take greater control of government later this year. It feels more like we are on the verge of a takeover by some dark movement.
But hey… I live in a deep red state so it always looks creepy from here no matter what’s going on in progressive parts of the country.
You missed the 60’s and 70’s then?
The notion that one’s own time is uniquely terrible is never true, and if you think about it, ultimately pretty solipsistic.
He obviously doesn’t think the 1855-65 period happened either ………..
I grew up in all white suburbs in SW Ohio. There were no people of color where I went to school or church. By the time I got to high school, there was one black student.
When I got married, my husband and I moved closer to downtown, which meant more diversity. My children went to school with children of other ethnic backgrounds and religions. We were very pleased with the expansion of our life experiences.
I remember watching a televison program about school integration with my middle son, who was about six years old. The program showed a video of the hostility of whites against the black students being escorted to an all-white school. The whites were so angry and ugly and my son asked why they were mad at those kids. I explained that some people thought black and white children should not be friends and that black children were not smart enough to go to their schools.
My son was indignant and angry. He said, “Mom, my friends are brown! They’re just the same as me! I have brown teachers, too! They’re smart!” So at least our exposure to people of color different from ours has been good. It all begins with seeing past the outside.
Please forgive my imprecision. I took it as CW that partisan polarization had reached a local maximum.