Why do people self-segregate by race?

[memphis]

Well?

[freepcrusher]

that's not always the case. There are plenty of very diverse locales such as Queens or Fort Bend County, Texas.

[memphis]

that's not always the case. There are plenty of very diverse locales such as Queens or Fort Bend County, Texas.

Ok, we have one vote for denial. Anybody else?

[politicus]

Well?

The short answer is, that it makes you feel comfortable and save to be among your own kind. Basic human psychology.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm going with feeling of safety, too, but I'm not really comfortable with language like 'one's own kind' in this context.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

There are also some cultural aspects which partially deal with race. For instance, despite being Cuban, I rather dislike the fake ghetto people, who are primarily Puerto Rican (though many are just white trash--few are black). On the other hand, the stuck-up white populars at the top of the high school caste system are irritating for other reasons (most act relatively nicely to me, but they're just so damn shallow).

[JohnnyLongtorso]

It's not generally self-segregation if you're not white.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's not generally self-segregation if you're not white.

Or at least not entirely. Choice is not an absolute. Some of us have more of it than others...

[dpmapper]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Putnam#Diversity_and_trust_within_communities

People want to live among people with similar values.  Race (among many other markers) can be a proxy for that. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That reminds me. I need to take out some loans at the Bank of Social Capital.

[ilikeverin]

This is one where you can find an example of such a phenomenon existing no matter your philosophical stripe.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

It's not generally self-segregation if you're not white.

It's not out of the ordinary for self-segregated upper-middle class/wealthy communities to form by choice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladera_Heights,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downey,_California

I tend to agree with your claim though.

[phk]

Never had this luxury.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

This is one where you can find an example of such a phenomenon existing no matter your philosophical stripe.

This basically.

Now why race has become such a marker of "groupness" is another issue entirely and I don't think can be understood in any way except with reference to European and American history.

[Torie]

Putting aside discrimination and hostility issues, to the extent they still exist out there, folks tend to enjoy living in some concentration with those with whom they have more in common that living with a random sample. However, I just say in the LA area, the level of segregation/self segregation has dramatically decreased over my lifetime. And I see interracial couples - everywhere - in all combinations. The Jews have spread out all over the place too, from their former neighborhoods.

You can see it in the precinct demographics. Almost every precinct has some of each of the four "races," although blacks in general are so thin on the ground outside a few counties that sometimes their numbers get down to single digits.

[krazen1211]

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Almost certainly he isn't being so.

[Insula Dei]

An important question now becomes: has krazen ever posted a picture of himself?

[Joe Republic]

We already know he's a soulless conservative hack in the Karl Rove/Richard Nixon mold, but I don't think he's thus far given an indication that he's that far off the religious deep end as well.  Not even jmfcst is quite as bad as that post!

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

jmfcst's nowhere near that bad.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Wait... so God is pro-segregation, you're basically saying?  Wow.  I think we finally know who CaDan is.

[Insula Dei]

You people are missing the best bit: 'yellow, malay, and red.'

[krazen1211]

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And, but for the interference with his arrangement, there would be no cause for such marriage. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Wait... so God is pro-segregation, you're basically saying?  Wow.  I think we finally know who CaDan is.

Hmm? God is not pro de-jure segregation, no. As far as de-facto segregation, as the above judge observed, well, as this thread observes the people are in favor of that.

[Boris]

People don't self-segregate by race. Interracial marriages in my family outnumber intra-racial marriages by a 4-1 margin (among my generation)! Yeah, I know, my family isn't as big as Bradford, England or Detroit, Michigan, but what the hell am I supposed to do about it?