How do you feel when there are no other ethnicities around beside your own?

I don’t notice. Well, one time I did. We were in Dodge City, Kansas. Its major industry is a meat packing plant. It’s a filthy, dangerous, gross job and most white people won’t do it, not for the wages they offer. As a result, probably 90% of the town’s population is Mexican. There was only one time when I was surrounded entirely by only white people…and that was at a Mexican restaurant! After 3 days of hardly seeing any white people, it felt odd!

It’s bizarre. I live in such a diverse area in California, that it is like the palette of nature in the woods or on a hillside.

I am half Scot/half Mexican, so I am pretty white but tan easily. A few years back a friend and I were headed to Lake Tahoe and stopped at the In-and-Out burger in Auburn CA. While waiting for our order, I turned to him and said “notice anything unusual here? I am the darkest person in here.” It was a truly odd experience.

I’m in a mostly white area with a history of being anti-black. It’s normal here to be all white, but downtown, in the college areas, we have a very diverse crowd and it’s a lot of fun.

We have had a few issues with minorites breaking the law, but obviously whites do as well.

If you go to rural areas, drinking or whatever, there aren’t many racial jokes because minorities don’t go to the ‘real’ country areas, they’re like ‘aw hell no, I’m not going out there’. I’ve invited a few but it’s always the same answer.

I’m home.

I notice and it is a little uncomfortable for me. I also notice when everyone else around me is a different ethnicity, if they are all the same, and that can be a little uncomfortable too. I feel most comfortable being in a very diverse group.

I’m more likely to notice being the only person of my race than the other way around.

I don’t notice. But I live in Alaska, where there are mostly white people and Natives (Eskimos, or Native Alaskans. We just call then native)

I hardly notice. My greater area is hugely diverse, but the town I live in is very white, very conservative. There are more churches than shops with bicycle distance of my house.

I’m more likely to notice how a person is dressed.

It’s kind of funny to think about, now that I’m doing it. My normal crowd includes western Europeans, blacks, Mexicans, Cubans, Brazilians, Greek, Persians, Jews, a couple of Germans, a few Scandinavians, and one Arab and one Albanian. Heavy metal, the universal language. Haha.

It’s difficult answering this question. My father is a fourth generation Mexican/Spaniard and my mother is English/German/Dutch/Russian/Irish/Native American (going back to the Mayflower for some, others I am less certain). At the heart of who they are though, my parents are American.

I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic area (Mexican majority.) However, I didn’t speak Spanish. I never ate Mexican cuisine. I didn’t celebrate Mexico’s holidays. I was not immersed in that culture and felt like an outsider. I was treated like an outsider. In high school, I was treated like a blood traitor by some of my peers, others didn’t care at all. If I embraced any part of my mother’s heritage, it was viewed as treason (especially when I rooted for Germany during the World Cup ‘06.)

However, that’s not to say that I feel more comfortable around people closer to my mother’s ethnicity. In college, I worked alongside many students who simply did not understand the plight of minorities, seemed to think that racism was disappeared, and that they were “cultureless” because they were “white” and did not understand what the big deal about “obsessing” over culture was.

I do not identify as being Mexican, nor do I identify as being any of the facets of my mother’s heritage. I am American. I grew up American. However, I am still very sensitive to being a personal of mixed heritage. It’s hard to feel comfortable anywhere sometimes because not everyone grew up in that kind of situation.

I do notice when I am in an area that has few, if any, Hispanic persons. But it’s not that I feel uncomfortable because my people aren’t there. It’s a different discomfort. I’m not sure I can explain it fully.

Completely the same as when surrounded by ethnics of all kind, relaxed, comfortable, unaltered.

I find it odd, these days. I live in a very multi-cultural city and when I find myself in a place where there is no-one of another race it’s unusual enough for me to notice and wonder why.

Never happens, I live in L.A. When I’m am among only white people it freaks me out. I’m only half white and they look at me like they know I’m an imposter. Scary sometimes.

I grew up in a large, metropolitan city, and I now live there again. Some of the between years have been spent in two different environments: one a rural area, the other a smaller (though substantial) city with much less diversity. In both places, I was surrounded by mostly white faces, like my own. That made me feel a little uncomfortable, and it felt like breathing fresh air again to return home. For example, it feels very normal to me to hear six different languages on a typical bus ride; I missed that sort of thing a lot when I was away.

I don’t really notice either way to be honest. The town I live in is mostly white but it feels no different than if I am in the nearest city which is quite diverse. I’m not that observant!

I think race plays more of a role, in my life. Because I study race and racial constructions, I always note the racial make up of groups I am in. So, when it’s just white people, it all depends…are they privileged and obnoxious and racist? bleh, fuck that. When I’m in mixed race spaces, I note who hogs the spotlight and how can we break through some of that? Context really matters. When I’m the only white person as often happens, I think about what that means, a lot, especially in academic/activist spaces. The reason I say race matters more because, as a white person, I can ‘not have an ethnicity’ or not reveal it and it doesn’t take away from my power.

It was weird at first, and hard to get used to. I grew up in probably the most diverse area in the US, if not the world…just outside of Washington, DC. So a mix of cultures from all over the world was very normal for me. As an adult, I moved to a much more rural area that was largely white. The grand dragon of the KKK lived about 20 minutes away, so, yeah…racism was a much bigger issue there. As a white person, many people felt very free to be openly racist around me. Quite the culture shock! I lived there for about 20 years, and saw it grow and change so much in that time. It’s a lot more diverse now, and a lot better for it.

Since I haven’t accepted the dogma that I’m supposed to hate myself and that being non white makes a person more interesting, I don’t feel anything. I generally look at people as being “interesting” or “not interesting” (aka not worth talking to) based on their thoughts and ideas, not their race.

Who says you’re supposed to hate yourself @Nada86 and why?