Posted on 08/26/2014 2:50:08 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
'Some of my best friends are black!' You're probably lying.
Do you have friends of another race? Statistically speaking, probably not.
With so much racial unrest going on in America these days, it can be hard for people to understand the "other" side. Maybe it's because white Americans never walked a mile in a black friend's shoes -- or maybe because they have no black friends to begin with.
Public Religion Research Institute found that whites' social networks are 91 percent white. Even more alarming, 75 percent of whites have a totally white social network.
For a nation that prides itself as a melting pot (or perhaps salad bowl), it's shocking that so many people could have so little racial diversity in their friend group.
Imagine a white person with 300 friends, about the size of a healthy Facebook friends list. Of those, the institute's research shows about 273 friends will be white, three will be black, three Latino, three Asian, three multiracial and three of an "other" race (and nine with an unknown race).
It's not much better for black people. For a black person, that same Facebook friends list would be made up of about 249 black people, 24 whites, six Latinos, nine mixed race, no Asians, three "other" race and 12 unknown.
Public Religion Research Institute's Robert P. Jones decries our tendency to "self-segregate" in a piece for The Atlantic.
"Widespread social separation is the root of divergent reactions along racial lines to events such as the Watts riots, the O.J. Simpson verdict, and, more recently, the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown," Jones writes. "... If perplexed whites want help understanding the present unrest in Ferguson, nearly all will need to travel well beyond their current social circles."
Whites alone aren't guilty of a monochrome social network. While three-quarters of whites have an all-white network, 64 percent of blacks and 46 percent of Hispanics have social networks made entirely of their own race.
The unrest in Ferguson has poured salt in long-festering wounds in our country. It's often been difficult for the various groups involved to see eye-to-eye.
But we'll never make any lasting changes unless different racial, social and religious groups make a serious, sustained effort to leave their insular communities and forge real relationships. We can't call America the great melting pot if we're not even willing to get close to each other.
Wow! Not one Costanza “Exterminator” crack?
Celebrated #Ferguson Capt. Ron Johnson Pulls Gun on Unarmed White Kids on Bikes
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 8:51 AM
You do realize that people who ask that aren't really asking because they don't know, right? They are simply displaying their own smug, self satisfaction.
That is your own internal race self-consciousness, we don't play that game in the South, and it is why we mix so well and have genuine friendships.
And neighbors in quiet suburbs with a white picket fence between them..
Social networks are one thing, “Friends” are another.
I’ve had a Vietnamese friend since the war (1968). Saw him the other day for a press conference. He doesn’t live in my neighborhood but when we get together, that bond of time is still there.
Same for any of my friends from the war. Distance and time don’t mean a thing because we are “friends” and the internet makes it easier to stay in touch by words and pictures, even if the miles are long and our health is pisspoor.
There are religion friends, neighborhood friends, work friends, etc. It is how you relate to them when you are together that is important, and if you think of them when you are separated.
Friendship is a bond in your mind, a handshake, a hug, respect. Race has nothing to do with it.
I remember my first black friends back in middle school, they stole my lunch money every day.
GOsh,I miss them.
Do I get extra credit for having a tri-racial immigrant wife?
Only if she looks like Rosario Dawson.
I'll tell you why these nitwits are alarmed: They're leftists. When has a leftist not been alarmed?
There was a time when my bestest friend ever was a black dude. I can thank the Army for that. It brought us together, and in the end it sent us on our separate ways. I rue the day I ever let that separation be the end of our friendship.
I've been friendly with some blacks since those days, but never what I would describe as good friends with them. It has nothing to do with racism. To make friends with someone requires a common experience, frequent interaction, common interests, and personalities that just click somehow. Unfortunately, for me, that just hasn't happened since I last saw my buddy. Are you out there, Newk?
Five people in this world would help me bury a body. I'm married to one of them. I'd say six, but that'd include my pastor and they apparently have rules about stuff like that. Except that two of the remaining ones would do it just because they'd think it was cool. And one would only help bury certain bodies...Really, if you have one friend other than your spouse, that's a lucky thing.
I remember reading James Webb who recalled his father saying “in the South no one cared how close black folks got so long as they didn’t get too rich and powerful, in the North they didn’t care how rich and powerful black folks got as long as they didn’t get too close”.
I thought that was interesting, for what it’s worth.
“My son’s classroom includes 8 Asian children though. And their mothers seem very nice.”
It’s funny how nice Asian women are, funny how supposedly “racist” white men never seem to have a problem with them.
Brilliantly put.
I was very fortunate in my life; I grew up well-to-do, I got a great education, a loving happy family, I went through life with a good number of people I would call friends.
I helped a lot of them out, often in some quite big ways (not always, indeed quite rarely, financial help), they were grateful for the help but to be honest it was no big deal to me as it didn’t, relatively speaking, cost me a lot of effort, just a bit of time and consideration, of which I had plenty to spare.
About 10 years ago that all changed, big time, my complacent life was shaken to the core. Suddenly I was on the back foot and whilst I didn’t “need” friends having a few around to offer sympathy would have been nice. I suddenly discovered where all my friends where and they were damn few and far between. Two very close people, for whom I had always been there, simply walked away. Even family members were a disgrace.
I was left with my wife, one or two siblings, and quite amazingly a few people who I would have regarded as little more than acquaintances (one my next door neighbour) who stuck by me, often in little ways but nonetheless appreciated.
Life’s back on a sound footing now, but those people can kiss my ass as far as I’m concerned, one or two have tried to get in contact again, I have no time for them. I know now what a real friend is.
i’am sick of libtards criticizing who wants to be friends with who.
like what makes them comfortable and relaxed is a problem.
usually the ones that work are higher on the intelligent/well socialized scale than others. that’s why.
90% of blacks, and about 65% of hispanics and at least 40% of whites. no way to be friends with them. they smile as they vote for govt to pick your pockets for them.
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