Questions on diversity

[mom31257]

Do you think that integration of neighborhoods has lead to less unified communities? My dh and I were walking tonight and talking about how neighborhoods don't seem to be like they used to. People don't depend on and really know neighbors as much in the places we've lived as we remember growing up.

 

We are not for forced segregation in any form, but we do feel that having neighbors with the same values and culture do play a part in the sense of true community.

 

My dh is a public school teacher, and he believes the reason a lot of other countries are doing so well academically (Ex. Finland) is because the people are all basically the same, have the same values and goals, thus supporting the education systems in a unified manner.

 

Is our diversity going to be the factor that makes it harder for our country to stay successful in this global economy?

[twoforjoy]

Not at all.

 

I live in the most close-knit community I've ever lived in, and it's a very diverse (racially, economically, and age-wise) inner-city community.

 

I grew up in an extremely homogenous suburb (nearly everybody was white--Italian, Irish, or Polish--and Catholic), and it wasn't close at all. We didn't know most of the people living on our street, where my parents lived for over 20 years.

 

I think people becoming very transient due to job insecurity, the move to the suburbs (where people often don't seem to worry too much about getting to know neighbors), and the loss of common spaces (people today are far more likely to take their own cars than use public transportation, to watch a DVD at home than go to a movie theater, to play in the home or yard than at the park, to buy a book off the internet rather than go to the library, etc.) is probably responsible for whatever breakdown in community we're sensing, not diverse communities.

[abbeyej]

Not my neighborhood. It's mostly pretty homogenous, and we still don't talk to each other. ;) I think greater factors are things like relocation (few of us live in the neighborhoods where we grew up or in neighborhoods with extended family), cheap travel, multi-car families, the internet, cell-phones... I just don't *need* my neighbors in the same way past generations did. I'm friendly with a couple of neighbors, but most of them I don't even know their names...

[LaxMom]

There's also the commuting, car-centric lifestyle. It seems fewer people are outside or even home. The whole family leaves in the morning, returns in the evening, and stays in the house.

 

Well, except the drunk, yard brawling neighbors but we don't socialize with them. :glare:

[ondreeuh]

I definitely think that different cultures, values, and experiences can cause challenges in working towards a common goal, because it's going to be that much harder to agree on expectations and a way to achieve them. I would be hesitant to put down diversity, however, because it also offers many opportunities. Plus, there are plenty of homogenous towns that have their own problems with infighting - young vs. old, progressive vs. traditional, liberal vs. conservative, etc.

 

My neighborhood is diverse (from poor to middle class, some upper class in the surrounding areas, and all races represented by recent immigrants). I admit that I did fireworks with a neighbor who has the same demographics that I do, and we made fun of the people having a party across the street (I think I used the term "trailer trash jamboree"). I wouldn't have mocked them if they were acting responsible and respectful, but they were shooting roman candles near each other, openly declaring that they were drunk, and some of them were making out on the sidewalk. I wouldn't walk over there to borrow a cup of sugar. Clearly, we have different values and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not drawn to people that share mine and would prefer having a neighborhood of like-minded people (whatever their race or income level).

[bettyandbob]

No, I grew up in Reston, VA and I still live here. At the time it was developed it was marketed to families of color, as well as white families. Unheard of in 1960s Virginia. Additionally, from the beginning it including subsidized housing units. So, the community has subsidized apartments, condos, town homes, single family homes (500K-1M for single family). The original developer had an idea of a unified diverse community. And that is what we have here. It is apparent by the participation in community events numerous active community organizations. At the neighborhood level, we have impromptu bbqs (one during a big dig from a snow storm), we look out for each other and know who eachother's kids are and if an elderly neighbor needs a hand. My neighborhood of townhomes is represented by more than one race and multiple religions, but we are definitely a community.

 

ETA: I'm only one of a few people raised in Reston in my neighborhood. You don't have to grow up here to join in.

[OrganicAnn]

Read "Bowling Alone" if you want to know why communities aren't as close as they used to be.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046

[amy g.]

I lived in a regular neighborhood for 10 years, and really, those neighbors are like family.

 

I drove my 3 middle children back there to do swim team, and I knew everyone, I remembered when the coaches swam in the 6 and under age group. There are so many kids who have made life-long friends.

 

Miss Good made a friend there when she was 3 years old, and the friend is now married, expecting her second child, and living in California, but she is coming to stay with me next week because we are "family".

 

We all eat together at the club on Wednesday nights, and really support each other in times of crisis.

 

One neighbor's son was in a bike crash today. Dh went by to see if they needed anything on his way home from work. Then he made me call and ask if the ER visit was going to be a financial burden, because if it was, Dh would drive back tonight, and bring them some money.

 

I made friends there that I really believe would throw themselves in front of a bus to save me. I think humans really need friends like that particularly if your family of origin wasn't so hot.

 

It was hard on the kids when we first moved here and didn't know anyone yet, but we have made more great friends.

 

Maybe it is different in other parts of the country, but I have never lived anywhere where people weren't nice and neighborly.

[Chris in VA]

My particular culture is enriched by the more effusive, community/family oriented ones--so I like living in a diverse neighborhood.

 

You've asked several questions--I'd just say some of the problem in school here in the US (vs Finland, for example) is the diversity of home languages and lack of English. Not a bad thing, just a challenge.

[justamouse]

I think people becoming very transient due to job insecurity, the move to the suburbs (where people often don't seem to worry too much about getting to know neighbors), and the loss of common spaces (people today are far more likely to take their own cars than use public transportation, to watch a DVD at home than go to a movie theater, to play in the home or yard than at the park, to buy a book off the internet rather than go to the library, etc.) is probably responsible for whatever breakdown in community we're sensing, not diverse communities.

 

That i see myself. We're feeling the fallout of not having to share space. No one tolerates anyone taking up their space. It's why I love the city. People are forced to get along there, and so they do.

 

Going it alone in the country is in one sense rough, and in another incredibly simple. You don't have PITA neighbors that you're going to have to hammer out some sort of relationship with. You can so easily seperate yourself from the unwashed masses and tell them to suck it up, buttercup, because they're not your neighbor.

 

 

Read "Bowling Alone" if you want to know why communities aren't as close as they used to be.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Bowling-Alone-Collapse-American-Community/dp/0743203046

 

Must get. That looks amazing.

[twoforjoy]

No, I grew up in Reston, VA and I still live here. At the time it was developed it was marketed to families of color, as well as white families. Unheard of in 1960s Virginia. Additionally, from the beginning it including subsidized housing units. So, the community has subsidized apartments, condos, town homes, single family homes (500K-1M for single family). The original developer had an idea of a unified diverse community. And that is what we have here. It is apparent by the participation in community events numerous active community organizations. At the neighborhood level, we have impromptu bbqs (one during a big dig from a snow storm), we look out for each other and know who eachother's kids are and if an elderly neighbor needs a hand. My neighborhood of townhomes is represented by more than one race and multiple religions, but we are definitely a community.

 

ETA: I'm only one of a few people raised in Reston in my neighborhood. You don't have to grow up here to join in.

 

I think that real, active efforts to unify the community are important. Your neighborhood seems to have the right idea.

 

There are a lot of people in my neighborhood who are interested in building up the community. We have neighborhood-wide events several times a year: pancake breakfasts, street fairs, holiday parties. We have a newsletter and an e-mail list. And people just generally make a conscious effort to get to know their neighbors.

[KrissiK]

In answer to your initial question, I think it's "no!" We live in a fairly homogeneous neighborhood economically speaking. Racially - Caucasian, Hispanic, Thai, Japanese, Indian. And we are not a tight knit community at all, even though over half of us have lived here for 7 years, which is when our houses were built. Everyone is busy, but I'm not sure that's the whole of it. I think people are just generally hesitant to get into each other's lives. I am. I don't know why that is. I wish I weren't like this.

[LibraryLover]

I talk to my neighbors lots. We exchange seeds, plants and I give people eggs. I am not thinking it's that unusual? I have their phone numbers in case of emergencies, even. We 've lived here 5 years. We are very lucky in that we have had good experiences with neighbors in the past. My old neighbor taught my kids to play Farkle. :) I do worry when I think about moving away. We've been blessed.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Why in the world would a diverse community be less unified? My Chinese neighbors invite us over for dinner parties - often a mix of Chinese and Western foods. My black neighbor across the street loves the lemonade stand that my dd and her friend have. My white neighbor across the street waves and talks dogs with me. My other white neighbor tries to leach my energy dry with requests for help all the time! My mixed race neighbor's daughter next door practically lives at our house. I will say that our Russian neighbors on the other side are not unified with us but I suspect that they don't speak very much English. I did take them a Christmas card and they spent the whole visit smiling and saying "yes" to everything I said, whether it made sense or not:D

 

Some neighbors are closer friends than others but when there was a robbery a couple of weeks ago everyone made sure that the neighbors all knew and that we all will be watching out for suspicious activity.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Our neighborhood is relatively diverse for the area, and we do know each other. While we don't hang out a lot (in my case, my severe chemical sensitivities are the reason), we do know how to get in touch with each other, and we know that we can depend on each other. When the home across the street from us got struck by lightning (it was damaged but didn't burn), the neighbors who lived there were not home. My husband and another neighbor thought nothing of climbing on the roof and putting a tarp on it to prevent further damage inside. The neighbors whose house had been struck were out of town camping, and their cell phones weren't working. Dh knew where they were staying and was able to get in touch with them by calling the campground office.

[leeannpal]

Why in the world would a diverse community be less unified? My Chinese neighbors invite us over for dinner parties - often a mix of Chinese and Western foods. My black neighbor across the street loves the lemonade stand that my dd and her friend have. My white neighbor across the street waves and talks dogs with me. My other white neighbor tries to leach my energy dry with requests for help all the time! My mixed race neighbor's daughter next door practically lives at our house. I will say that our Russian neighbors on the other side are not unified with us but I suspect that they don't speak very much English. I did take them a Christmas card and they spent the whole visit smiling and saying "yes" to everything I said, whether it made sense or not:D

 

Some neighbors are closer friends than others but when there was a robbery a couple of weeks ago everyone made sure that the neighbors all knew and that we all will be watching out for suspicious activity.

 

:iagree: I've lived in other countries and had closer relationships with my neighbors in some places outside the U.S. Our society is very much still touting rugged individualism, to our detriment, I think.

[Slojo's Homeschool]

To answer the original question - I would say no, diversity is not the reason for decreasing sense of community. I do not think that it is a matter of values --though I do believe that different histories, resources and perspectives may play a role in how we go about seeking out community. But I do not think that one group values "community" over another or the fundamental components of community. So I would be hesitant to put words like "values" into the mix.

 

As one of the minority of African Americans in my neighborhood, I can attest that my values are pretty darn similar to my neighbors. Sometimes my personal stories around what community is and where I've found it highlight a different cast of characters than some of my neighbors, but we're all striving for community just the same -- AND running up against the same obstacles. But sharing those stories hasn't been a hindrance to building community. It has enriched the community we do have.

 

Every culture on the planet generally and every subcultural group in the US specifically seeks community of some kind. I think the individualistic, consumerist culture that we all combat is much more the culprit to any decline of community then diversity. I think sometimes diversity may "feel" like the culprit because increasing diversity in a variety of neighborhoods is coinciding with increased individual isolation of society as a whole. It's almost as if just as things were starting to get more "diverse," we also got more individually insular.

 

I bet you if we could have just skipped all that legal segregation nonsense and the weird laws about drinking fountains and such that were a part of our nation's history, we would not be tempted to frame the lack of community many of us currently see with "increasing diversity." Just my opinion.

[nono]

 

My dh is a public school teacher, and he believes the reason a lot of other countries are doing so well academically (Ex. Finland) is because the people are all basically the same, have the same values and goals, thus supporting the education systems in a unified manner.

 

:001_huh: Has anyone informed the Finns?

Edited July 6, 2011 by nono

[twoforjoy]

On a side note, are we actually getting more diverse? I know that I've read things indicating that many parts of the country are becoming increasingly segregated.

[JudyJudyJudy]

On a side note, are we actually getting more diverse? I know that I've read things indicating that many parts of the country are becoming increasingly segregated.

Neighborhoods in most of rural Georgia have definitely become more diverse.

[QueenCat]

No, I grew up in Reston, VA and I still live here. At the time it was developed it was marketed to families of color, as well as white families. Unheard of in 1960s Virginia. Additionally, from the beginning it including subsidized housing units. So, the community has subsidized apartments, condos, town homes, single family homes (500K-1M for single family). The original developer had an idea of a unified diverse community. And that is what we have here. It is apparent by the participation in community events numerous active community organizations. At the neighborhood level, we have impromptu bbqs (one during a big dig from a snow storm), we look out for each other and know who eachother's kids are and if an elderly neighbor needs a hand. My neighborhood of townhomes is represented by more than one race and multiple religions, but we are definitely a community.

 

ETA: I'm only one of a few people raised in Reston in my neighborhood. You don't have to grow up here to join in.

 

:iagree:I grew up in Columbia, MD. Another planned community, with some of the same developers as Reston. The concept worked well but I don't know if it's still that way, as I no longer live there.

[Laurie4b]

I think neighborhoods are less unified because our society has changed. When I was growing up, all the mothers in our neighborhood were home; no one worked outside the home. In our first neighborhood once I had kids, out of about 100 houses, 5 mothers were home. When I was growing up, the neighborhood was the center of kids' social lives and activities. There were no structured activities outside thehome before kids were of school age, and very few once they were of school age. Now kids' lives are strutured and their parents drive them from one activity to the next.

Edited July 6, 2011 by Laurie4b

[bbmom]

I think the only reason more diversity could possibly be causing communities to be less unified is if the community is made up solely of close-minded people with no interest in getting to know someone of a different race/nationality/culture/religion/socio-economic status. Now, I might have no desire to get to further know someone, but it has nothing to do with any of the above and depends totally on the person they are.

 

Communities are less unified because parents are scared to let their kids play outside together, more families are made up of 2 working parents, more families are made up of single parents who work, activities have moved from being neighborhood based to being wider-community based, etc.

 

Finland's educational system works because of the way they value education and teachers and they way they teach (and I know plenty of non-Finnish people in America who agree with their system.) South Korea's educational system is so high-achieving because of the value on education and the stress put on kids to get into one of the "Ivy League" Korean schools and the fact that parents pay astronomical amounts of money for after-school academies to give their kids an advantage. Japan separates the kids into technical and academic tracks and only tests the kids on the academic track, etc. (Let me add here that Canada is 3rd in reading and 5th in math and science and no one can claim they are homogeneous.) None of these things has to do with the societies being homogeneous in race/culture, it is the attitude towards children and education.

[veggiegal]

I think the lack of feeling of community has far more to do with changes in lifestyle over the years (from longer work hours to more mobile populations that just 'follow the job' to living in a media-hyped environment that has influenced our ability to trust one another) than the diversity of our communities. I live in Canada where our education system and economy are doing fairly well, yet I would argue our cities are at least as, and probably more, diverse than those in the US.

 

Similarly, I would say Finland's educational success has more to do with teaching methods and attitudes towards education (start school at age 7; teaching is a respected profession; young kids spend lots of their school day outdoors and doing physical activity--they spend less time in a classroom than any other developed country) than the comparative lack of diversity in their population. And what amazes me is that the push in North America is to do the exact opposite of this to "compete in the global economy"--earlier schooling, more hours in the classroom, full day kindergarten, standardized curriculum / materials / methods so teachers have little autonomy or respect, etc.)