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How common is REAL racial integration?

Do you have friends of other races

  • I tend to only befriend people the same race as I, on a subconcious level

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I tend to befriend people of my on race on an unsubconcious level

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I have friends of all races that I regulary hang out with

    Votes: 8 88.9%

  • I have no desire to have friendships with other races

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I don't set out not to have friends of other races, but the cards tend to fall that way

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • Total voters
    9
H

herenow1

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I'm talking about a voluntary integration if you will. What I mean by that is; do you voluntarily hang around people who have a different skin complexion than you?

It seems everytime a story hits surrounding scandal, murder, theft, etc, and there are 2 or more races involved it ALWAYS turns into a race issue, and the real issue up for debate gets forgotten. I grew up on military bases around the world. I had hispanic friends, white firends, black friends, korean friends and the list goes on. If I ever felt uncomfortable around anyone it was due to their PERSONALITY not their race. I attend a multicultural church and my husband and I are different races. What I want to know is how common voluntary integration is? Maybe I just grew up fortunate.
 
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Yeah, it's always about personality or interests for me. I make friends with whoever is available and shares common interest and has an agreeable personality.

But the thing about racial integration is that America is still largely segregated, so you might not be able to make friends with folks of other races depending on what kinda neighborhood you live in.
 
I have zero issues with associating myself with any ethnicity group, it just so happens I don't have many friends who are minorities. It's just circumstantially related to where I live, work, and spend my free time.
 
Hare said:
I have zero issues with associating myself with any ethnicity group, it just so happens I don't have many friends who are minorities. It's just circumstantially related to where I live, work, and spend my free time.
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This I can understand, if you live in a predominantly white or black neighborhood, it's obvious most of your friends would consist of that.
 
no vote
so what else is new
I have no friends, well maybe one or two....hard to say, define "friend".
When I was working, I would not allow a man's skin color to be a determinate.
People like me cannot be pickers and choosers(personality disorder,etc)
 
Hare said:
I have zero issues with associating myself with any ethnicity group, it just so happens I don't have many friends who are minorities. It's just circumstantially related to where I live, work, and spend my free time.
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Agree
But whats wrong with Tim Tebow ?
 
I used to have a very diverse group of "friends" (people I hung out with) - white, black, Asian, Latino, men, women, heterosexuals, homosexuals, rich, poor, etc. Now, I'm a family man who works a lot. So, my closest friends are really my wife and kids. And, the most diverse trait of my "friends" are their ages - they range from about 25-80.

Now, my "friends" (people I hang out with) - are mostly white guys from work, church, or the gym (the gym is the location of a fairly diverse group of friends as I regularly play sports with the same group of guys - married, single, different races, different ages). And, my family's closest friends are other other families. Admittedly, I live in a smaller town with a pretty big average economic disparity between the races.

Don't get me wrong, I still have many diverse acquaintances who I respect very much, I just have the most in common with families. And, most of them are white.
 
herenow1 said:
I'm talking about a voluntary integration if you will. What I mean by that is; do you voluntarily hang around people who have a different skin complexion than you?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't *avoid* people with different skin complexion than me...but it does seem that most of my friends are white or Asian (I'm white), simply due to the circles I travel in and the activities I'm interested in.

It seems everytime a story hits surrounding scandal, murder, theft, etc, and there are 2 or more races involved it ALWAYS turns into a race issue, and the real issue up for debate gets forgotten. I grew up on military bases around the world. I had hispanic friends, white firends, black friends, korean friends and the list goes on. If I ever felt uncomfortable around anyone it was due to their PERSONALITY not their race. I attend a multicultural church and my husband and I are different races. What I want to know is how common voluntary integration is? Maybe I just grew up fortunate.
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Here in the DC area, it seems to not be very common. Virtually all the white people in the District live in the northwest quadrant, and most of the black/Hispanic people live in the other three quadrants. This applies to schools too...white parents are much more likely to send their kids to school in Maryland or Virginia, or to private schools in the District, whereas the DC Public Schools mostly serve black and Hispanic students. The segregation isn't codified any more, but there is definitely a de facto segregation of the races...and I suspect that this isn't unique to DC, but is applicable to many/most big cities.
 
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I think that it is actually more a matter of class than it is a matter of race. It seems to me that very wealthy whites are likely to live their lives mostly around other very wealthy whites--since there are way fewer wealthy minorities, they will simply have less contact with minorities in general--I'm thinking primarily of private school culture (and while there is some integration in those environments, generally they are overwhelmingly homogenous). In urban areas, Poverty is often very racially divided, and the same with rural areas (its just that the people in these environments tend to be different races, separated by other factors.)

What's interesting is that in semi-rural/sub-suburban areas, integration is becoming a very common thing. I grew up in an area that is a smallish mountain city in Northern VA, and it is surprisingly integrated (even if it is a bit quirky) in the lower middle class. The wealthy folks there are still overwhelmingly white, and tend to stick to their own circles. But things are getting interesting for us commoners.
 
I hate and refuse to associate with stupid people, which pretty much makes me a mysanthrope. Ergo, it is impossible for me to either "integrate" or be racist.
 
i have friends from holland,ukrania ,georgia ,spain ,germany and also i have lots of virtual friends from DP and i like them and glad to be their friend.
 
I'm whiter than snow, but most of my friends are Latinos.
 
That's not true. This thread isn't even an argument in the first place. It isn't trying to prove or justify anything on the basis of friends at all. It is a question...
 
Of course it's true. The OP asks if we hang out voluntarily with people whose skin color is different from our own. It asks us to make the Friend Argument.
 
Not at all. Arguments have to have premises and at leat one conclusion. Responding to this thread requires one premise, but no conclusion.

A friend argument would be something like this: I have black friends, therefore I know some special thing about black people. Or more commonly: I have black friends, Therefore I cannot be a racist. The conclusions are underlined.

Responding to this thread doesn't require you to conclude anything. I have friends of all sorts. That is how I casted my vote, but I didn't say that me having friends of all sorts meant anything or proved anything. It's that second step that would make it an argument.
 
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herenow1 said:
I'm talking about a voluntary integration if you will. What I mean by that is; do you voluntarily hang around people who have a different skin complexion than you?

It seems everytime a story hits surrounding scandal, murder, theft, etc, and there are 2 or more races involved it ALWAYS turns into a race issue, and the real issue up for debate gets forgotten. I grew up on military bases around the world. I had hispanic friends, white firends, black friends, korean friends and the list goes on. If I ever felt uncomfortable around anyone it was due to their PERSONALITY not their race. I attend a multicultural church and my husband and I are different races. What I want to know is how common voluntary integration is? Maybe I just grew up fortunate.
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In my family, integration is not an issue.

My step-father was from Holland, my oldest brother married a Japanese woman, my youngest brother is gay, my ex-wife married a Hispanic, my oldest son's girlfriend is black.

I am white...of German descent.

I am an Air Force brat and I had a career in the Army.
 
Well, I think the two of us have read the question differently. I didn't take the question of integration to be one about individuals. I took it to be one about society, hence the poll. In which case the answer to the question "how common is real racial integration?" is not meant to supply the conclusion. The results of the poll are meant to supply the conclusion.

What does it even mean for an individual to be integrated?
 
I don't see how you could've possible interpreted the question to be aimed at society, rather than the individual reading the question. The poll question starts off with the words "Do you."
 
TacticalEvilDan said:
This entire thread is a

Friend argument - RationalWiki
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It is commonly used to clear and absolve oneself from suspicion of racism, xenophobia or other kinds of prejudice. It is a particular form of the "Not prejudiced, but..." statement.
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Nice of you to be so synical, but since nobody was accusing me of being racist, the definition doesn't fit, nor was it the premise for starting this thread. If you must know, it was birthed from all the Zimmerman threads, however I did not want to include that story b/c I don't want this thread derailed. There are already 10 threads about that so let's try not to go there. Now, what were you accusing me of again?
 
I don't see how you don't see that ANY poll is directed at a society. It asks questions to individuals but its conclusion comes from the collective response. That is how EVERY POLL THAT HAS EVER EXISTED works.

So the fact that you don't know how it is possible that I could have interpreted that way leads me to believe that you didn't realize that this thread was a poll.
 
Res Cogitans said:
I don't see how you don't see that ANY poll is directed at a society. It asks questions to individuals but its conclusion comes from the collective response. That is how EVERY POLL THAT HAS EVER EXISTED works.

So the fact that you don't know how it is possible that I could have interpreted that way leads me to believe that you didn't realize that this thread was a poll.
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The poll asked readers about their individual behavior, and yet you chose to interpret it as being about society at large for reasons I can't fathom. Now you're trying to backpedal by arguing about the nature of polls in general.

Good luck with that.
 
herenow1 said:
Nice of you to be so synical, but since nobody was accusing me of being racist, the definition doesn't fit, nor was it the premise for starting this thread. If you must know, it was birthed from all the Zimmerman threads, however I did not want to include that story b/c I don't want this thread derailed. There are already 10 threads about that so let's try not to go there. Now, what were you accusing me of again?
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It fits perfectly. You ask us if we're integrated, the evidence of our integration being our friendships and other social bonds with people different from us. You're asking us if we have any (fill in the blank) friends. That's asking us if we can make the Friend Argument -- "I'm integrated because I have (fill in the blank) friends."
 
what you can't fathom is your own problem. Every poll seeks to provide a concluson about society. That is WHY they are polls. If you don't get it, that's your thing. I'm not backpedaling at all. And this entire thread is NOT a friend argument. Period.

Not to mention the fact that if you interpret your response to mean "I have friends of many different backgrounds, therefore I'm integrated." You are just stating a definition. You are saying, the way I define "Being integrated" is having many friends of different backrounds. Depending on who you ask, that would either be an argument by definition or simply a tautology. But neither of those would qualify as the friend argument.
 
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