Thread: Questions about the USA, Russia, other countries

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Romik, I'm not certain your meaning of the above sentence. appalling = : inspiring horror, dismay, or disgust. Does this mean you are saying it is disgusting the changes that have taken place in such a short amount of time and that the "old" way of thinking about diversity is better?

Thanks a lot for the correction rockzmom, I think that would be dismaying when your ethnic group being prevalent becomes a minority in a few decades ... I'm not quite sure what you mean upon the "old" way of thinking, of course they say that all peoples are equal but in reality it's easy to live with some side by side and with some can be tensions.

Actually, the United States Census, (where the 72.4% number came from) requests that you list your race and break out Whites and Hispanics. Almost all demographic forms now have one question asking if you are white and a second question asking if you are of Latino or Hispanic descent. They also separate Asians, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians.

Take a look at the 2010 Census information scroll down about half way and there is an interact map with data by the entire US and by state and within the states by county.

That Census data seems somewhat subjective ...
Do you know that for the Census the people from the Middle East, Arabs, Persians, Pakistanis, Hindu are Caucasians and whites but not Asians?

Originally Posted by Romik

Thanks a lot for the correction rockzmom, I think that would be dismaying when your ethnic group being prevalent becomes a minority in a few decades ... I'm not quite sure what you mean upon the "old" way of thinking, of course they say that all peoples are equal but in reality it's easy to live with some side by side and with some can be tensions.

You are correct about it being dismaying or even upsetting at times. When my hubby and I bought our house 19 years ago, my hubby and the family across from us were the only "Hispanics." Now, I am known as the "white woman" in our neighborhood as I am the only white person on our block. There is one Black female who has been there for about 15 years and one house which I believe they are from India and the rest are Hispanics.

So, when I go to the local fast food places/restaurants, the employees are predominantly Hispanics and a number of them don't speak English very well (try asking for something special, like no lettuce and no sauce... the little Spanish I know comes in handy then). The same goes for the local drug store or supermarket. That is when I get frustrated, when I can't communicate with people I need to. When my grandparents came to the US they HAD to learn English. There weren't forms in their native languages, you couldn't take your driver's test in anything but English. Now everything is bilingual, a separate form, or press 2 for English and 3 for Spanish. The former immigrants assimilated, the newer immigrants don't.


Now, it is rather interesting as where I live as you can drive about 20 minutes and it will turn into an all white area (no Hispanics or Blacks) or all black area. There are certain apartment buildings that are just melting pots of immigrants. My grandmother's old building is that way. She moved in there when it was first built (in the mid 1960s I believe) and it was only whites. Then towards the early to mid 1990's... as the former tenants died or moved to nursing homes, the new tenants that moved in were not White but Jamaican, Hindi, Blacks, Hispanics... you name it.

What was sad though was that these new tenants didn't care about the place. There was a sofa in the lobby where people sat as they waited for the mail or whatever, and they burned it. When I used to go visit as a child, I would have to be mindful of the people who lived below my grandmother. No running in her apartment or stomping feet, no screaming or very loud voices etc. That was no longer the case when she lived there in the 1990s early 2000s. You could hear kids everywhere running up and down the hallways and in their apartments and even the adults cranked up their music or tvs so loud you could hear them in her apartment.

Now I must say here that this behavior change in young kids is not just with immigrants... it is all around. People are just not teaching their children how to be respectful of others and if a parent has a difficult child, well... as a mom told me yesterday her daughter threatened her to go to a judge and say her mom "verbally abused her" because the mom lectured her (a tongue lashing) on a car ride about something and she "had to listen to it all the way home." I remember when my kids were in elementary school and a white child spilled their drink. The child didn't even attempt to clean it up. When the one of the ladies in charge went over to give the child some extra paper towels and said to her to clean it up... the child responded, "that's what you're paid to do." I heard this and just about had a heart attack. I told the little girl in no uncertain terms she needed to clean up her mess.

My daughter said I should post this photo. Our family makes videos for their school and this one I love to use and we refer to as the "diversity photo" as it shows how very different the people are who attend her school. This was a casual photo taken during lunchtime and was her group of friends in real life. It wasn't staged in any way like saying, "okay, I need: one black, asian, hispanic, white and mixed kid over here for a photo."

Originally Posted by Romik

Do you know that for the Census the people from the Middle East, Arabs, Persians, Pakistanis, Hindu are Caucasians and whites but not Asians?

I know this. My daughter's father was Moroccan. Some people don't know, but Morocco is an Arab country in North West Africa. They are descended from the Spanish Moors actually. And the Moors were descended from the Middle Eastern Arabs. When Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon annexed Granada in 1492 for Spain and began the Spanish Inqusition, most of the Muslim Moors, even the Jews, fled to Africa and settled upon its Northern Coast. They are considered white (except for the Black Arabs, because there are Black Arabs). I always wondered how it is politically correct to call a Black person "African American," when their family has been American for several generations, but not my white daughter? Whose father was directly from the continent of Africa? The whole Ethnicity/Race stuff confuses me! But, honestly it doesn't bother me all that much. My daughter is half African and proud!