I just moved into a new house, I feel I traded up (as does my wife) - though we went down in sq footage- I believe is a nicer house, yard, shop and more condusive to my children age-wise. My old niegbhorhood was, well, old and gentrified, and almost lily white, just a few affluent natives in the niegbhorhood.

My new nieghborhood is also old for Alaska (BTW- both houses were built in 1963, a wierd coincidence) - but primarily Somoan and Black middle class, with quite a large number of non-white ethnic groups, such as Indian and Pakistani, hispanic etc. . I only have one white nieghbor, across the street. I understand that at one time, back in the late 60s, when "steerage" was legal, this is the area that was settled by minorities here, though there is a pretty diverse blend 30 some years later.

On reading the race threads, and the buying in or arguing against different stereotypes, this area is definately anti-stereotypical, with this area being almost completely upwardly mobile middle class folks, regardless of ethnicity. No poverty at all is what I am saying, at least not what you would recognize as such, anyone can have financial problems and claim bankruptcy (donald trump ring a bell?) But these are rather high priced single family low density housing.

What is your nieghborhood like? Does it fit a negative (or positive I suppose) stereotype, or, like mine, is it a stereotype buster?

My neighbood consists of medium priced homes. There is a wide range of occupations that people work in and the kids run freely in the streets and make shortcuts in between houses. I'd say that it's a stereotype buster in that people think small towns are gossipy and consist of neighbors who are out to identify who is "different."

My neighborhood is very stereotypical. I live in a small town south of Birmingham, and in a small neighborhood.
Of the 25 houses, I believe all residents are white and upper middle class. The men all fit what I term the southern white male stereotype: Slightly overweight, works for power company or construction firm, hunts and fishes, 2.5 children, 1 pick-up and 1 SUV or 2 SUV's, all make prodigious use of their BBQ's, keep their lawn well maintained. Probably at least half of the women work (I'm guessing, I don't know all of my neighbors).

But it's a safe neighborhood, everybody seems to get along, no crime in my area at all (in fact Alabaster has one of the lowest crime rates in the southeast). But there is zero diversity of skin color. It doesn't bother me one way or another. I want to live in a nice quiet neighborhood with trees, low taxes, low crime and not terribly far from work. As long as I find that I don't particularly care what the racial make up is. I realize that some may find my current neighborhood a negative stereotype, but I may counter that those people don't care so much about good people as good perceptions.

Since I am color blind I had to check out the Texas Education Association website for ethnic distribution of the neighborhood elementary school.

African American 47 6.8% Hispanic 172 25.0% White 439 63.7% Asian/Pac.Islander 31 4.5%

Basically a typical working middle class suburban neighborhood at the edge of the Houston city limits. Typical home values slightly lower than the Houston median. Most of the women in the neighborhood are atypically ugly for some reason, could be the water. I believe the atypically ugly women was the primary reason my wife wanted to move into this neighborhood.

Since I have a beautiful wife- I am guessing I am ugly blind to my own neighborhood- I will have to look around and see how ugly the men and the women are- since I am no beauty- I wonder if the fact that I am both ugly and white has my neighbors saying "well, there goes the neighborhood"

My next door neighbors are Samoan, and though at 6'3" and 250 lbs I am usually described as a large man, it is nice to feel rather petite sometimes as well LOL

I live in a housing estate at the moment (in a dwelling owned by my housemate). Most of the houses are owner-occupied, so it's all pretty middle class. As with the rest of central Florida, though, it's fairly diverse. From what I've seen, it's probably about 40% white, 25% hispanic, 20% subcontinental, and 15% black. The surrounding area has a large Muslim population, mostly Pakistani and some Arabic, hence their slightly disproportionate representation in the make-up of the estate. The neighbors on one side of our place are Pakistani and, on the other, Czech immigrants. The rest of the street is predominantly white and hispanic. The street perpendicular is primarily black and Hispanic. I think the distribution, though, is pretty random.

At my former addresses in Orlando (this is my fourth), it was about 40% white, 25% hispanic, 25% black, and 10% asian (slightly higher when I lived near "Little Saigon"). When I lived in Intercession City (about fifteen minutes south of Kissimmee) for eight grim months, it was about 95% white - trash. Seriously, it was the stereotype: a jacked-up truck in every drive, a rusting washer on every porch, and every second house had a hog or chickens in the yard. One of my housemates was about 1/4 Puerto Rican. He was the diversity.

If it were up to me, I would not live in a "neighborhood" at all. I like isolation. Right now my nearest neigbor is two-tenths of a mile from me, and that is way too close.

But enough dodging the issue. The area in which I live is lily-white. Even finding a Catholic would be a good trick around here, let along a person of color. I have some numbers in front of me for Marion County, Tennessee, which state that the population is 94.67% White, 3.94% Black, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.24% Other, and 0.65% Mixed Race. In this survey, "Hispanic" is considered to be a group which can belong to any of these. The county is 99.36% Non-Hispanic and 0.64% Hispanic (mostly White or Other.) I'm one of the 0.64%, so I guess I am the one adding diversity to the area.

Why do I live here? Because I want to live in a rural area close enough to Chattanooga to work. The plain fact is that the rural parts of southeastern Tennessee are nearly pure WASP.

My neighborhood is the stereotypical small town neighborhood and I love it! Everyone seems to know everyone and everyone is there if anyone needs any help. In the city where I live, there is a distinction between those that live "in town" and those that live in the surrounding suburban counties. All attend the same schools. The in town residents are generally in a lower income bracket as compared to the high salaries of those in the suburbs. So, there is economic diversity. Also, there is an enormous amount of political diversity. I live right in town, in one of our historic districts. And a drive through my neighborhood, during the election period last year would have revealed equal numbers of signs for both Kerry and Bush. We have "No War" signs and American Flags and yellow ribbons, sprinkled everywhere. As far as racial and ethnic diversity, there is not much. And I don't really understand what all the hooplah is about this sort of diversity is anyway. People are all people and I don't care what anyone's ethnic or racial background is in any case. I just like living in a wonderful community where the residents are great and we all take pride in our homes and community.

I have gotten quite spoiled living in a small town. It takes me two minutes to get anywhere I need to go and I can't imagine going back to the days where I had to battle traffic every time I had to run up to the store to get a gallon of milk. I also love that I live in a "town" and not the suburbs. We have sidewalks and a downtown area-- that is 1 block from my house. We have a few great restaurants, coffee shops, and gift/antique shops in town. We have parades for every holiday where everyone lines the street and the kids adore it. Every one in my neighborhood happens to be around the same age with kids all the same age. So we all hang out during the summer and at least a few times a week have impromptu barbecues.

The political diversity is also very pronounced. My next door neighbor -- who also happens to be one of my best friends -- is a hard core liberal. She is an artist and has done a few painted posters that are anti-war that she puts out on her front porch. She also home schools her kids and through her experience I have learned that it is a false stereotype to think that homeschooling is the province of fundamentalist types.

So, I guess over all, my neighborhood is both a stereotype and a stereotype buster. It has all the attributes of small town living -- but none of the negative notions of "conformity" that we sometimes think attaches to this type of community.

Wow- how about that for a change in stereotypes from your area to mine- the stereotypical homeschooler here is the off-the-grid hippy that doesnt' want a coporate brainwashing for thier child LOL- no joke- though, in all fairness, due to the rural nature of my state, we have one of the best homeschool and charter school systems in the nation- by neccessity, not by ideology.

Some villages have two choices: Home school- or the child flow a thousand miles south to mt edgecumbe boarding school. So a few years back, Village Charter on-line home schooling hybird was started, and it has had enormous success, bolstered by urban home schoolers to a large degree.

Anchorage is about as diverse as you can get in a small american city of 300K +

And it sure makes for some great resteraunts!

The more I talk about race with people both white and non-white, the more I recognize the importance of racial diversity in neighborhoods, schools and churchs.

That's because although some people recognize that skin color does not dictate, or even strongly indicate a probability of behavior.

Many, perhaps most, do not.

It amazing to see just how many whites for instance thinks blacks act so differently and how this is taken as the cause for a whole range of social ills.

Or how many young blacks have no white friends and speak ill of whites and hispanics.

Equally amazing is the fact that both whites and blacks tend to congregate in different churches (and not always based on "style of worship" as is the usual excuse). The same thing can be said for Hispanics (although there is sometimes a language barrier to contend with).

Exposure is critical, especially in one's formative years, to becoming a well-adjusted person able to handle contact with people of other races without becoming irrational.

I've lived in neighborhoods on greatly varying mixes over my short life. Right now in my corner Pleasant Grove it's nearly an all-white neighborhood which has been the cause of some tension.

In the Affirmative Action thread I mentioned someone has run through our yard with a car (on a rainy day...glee) and I've become suspicious of the bits of litter that end up in the yard .

That said all the nearest neighbors are very nice and amiable.

A black family moved in last year and promptly moved out, though I've seen some black kids walking around lately not sure where they live.

There is a nearly all black community with slightly fancier homes eight minutes up the road, got some family there...

No people of other races/ethnicities to speak of.

Middle class all around I figure. Very few second-stories but everybody has a basement/garage.I see plenty of "Bush/Cheney" stickers about.

It's a pretty stereotypical neighborhood in that the diversity level is 'nil.

Mike and I bought our first (and still current) home a little over two years ago. When we were looking, we immediately wrote-off the 'cookie cutter neighborhoods' a/k/a suburbia. I have a lot of nasty things to say about suburbia but I'll spare you guys this time.

We scored a gorgeous old house (read: 'fixer-upper') in a middle-class neighborhood two miles outside of Savannah's official Historic District. Savannah, itself, is a pretty even split between black and white folks, and little else in the way of race. My perception was that our neighborhood reflected this mix.

I somehow managed to stumble upon a US Census Bureau demographics report for all wards/districts in Savannah. It indicates my perceptions of my neighborhood were relatively accurate.

Here's the breakdown:



So how about that? I'm a minority in my neighborhood. Makes sense. Come to think of it, there are only two houses owned by white folks other than ours on our block. We have a few renters, usually white, that come and go due to the local college, but I don't think they are counted because they never make an effort to become part of our neighborhood.

I love my neighborhood and I adore my neighbors. They are all good people and none of us make much of our color. It will be a good place to raise children if we ever get to that stage. I certainly do not want my children to grow up in an all white suburbia, like so many of the whites that have left Savannah in the pursuit of 'better schools' (a prettier way of saying white-flight, perhaps?).

I had the fortune of growing up in a neighborhood much like the one I live in now. Unfortunately, in junior high, my parents got the 'better schools' bug and moved us out to the lily-white far south suburbs of Chicago. I will never do that to my kids. I learned many more positive ideas about race in my early years than my teenage ones, based solely on location. Turnea said it better than me, "The more I talk about race with people both white and non-white, the more I recognize the importance of racial diversity in neighborhoods, schools and churchs." Spot on!



If you are interested in the link I found, please PM me. I am otherwise keeping it private for Mike's and my protection.

I guess if I tend to be a little wierd on this subject- it goes to the place where I am a bit of a snob for foreign nationals to a degree- but mostly because I like my children exposed to as many languages as possible. I buy my homes really based on economics and economy, not color of skin or anything- but I do hang out with alot of other families that speak English as a second language. Yesterday at my fourth of july barbeque, I had, Gambian, Russian, Mexican, Samoan, Philipino, Lithunian and Azerbijani here- lot's of different languages spoke to the children by parents! LOL- and at the end of a play day like that- the kid always picks up a few more words.