Canada-The Know it all Neighbour

[The Kernel]

Btw, I think everyone's been missing Mike's point, which is that in the U.S., no one really has a problem with interracial dating, but most still don't actually do it themselves. It may not be uncommon or unusual to see an interracial couple, but for every interracial couple you see, there are at least 10 or more that are not.

No, his point is that although people are free to interracial date, the act is frowned upon.

*Ahem* I said "where people say it's OK, but they tend not to do it anyway." Do you understand what that sentence means?

Which means basically the same thing. If people tend not to do it anyways, that suggests social pressure that it causing them not to.

[Andrew J.]

No, his point is that although people are free to interracial date, the act is frowned upon.

*Ahem* I said "where people say it's OK, but they tend not to do it anyway." Do you understand what that sentence means?

Which means basically the same thing. If people tend not to do it anyways, that suggests social pressure that it causing them not to.

No, it means they decide not to do it independently.

[The Kernel]

No, it means they decide not to do it independently.

Yeah right, because people's decisions on who they date have nothing to do with social pressures.

[RedImperator]

I'm off for a few days dealing with real life and I miss all this. Typical.

On interracial dating: I've been to Canada, specifically Toronto, and the number of interracial couples I saw there actually had me boggled the first day or so. And it's not like I'm from Deliverance land--I've spent my whole life smack in the middle of the Boston-to-Washington megalopolis, the most liberal part of the country outside of the Bay Area. Most Americans have no objection to interracial dating in principle, but a hell of a lot more Canadians--or at least Torontonians--pracitce it.

So why is this? My guess is because Americans (of all races) have mastered the art of self-segregation. I would have no problems dating a black or Hispanic or Asian girl, but every one of my girlfriends has been white. Why? Because all my friends are white. All the bars I go to are primarily white. My neighborhood is white. My college was white (over 85%, and it would have been higher if Villanova didn't recruit so hard in Puerto Rico and Central America). Most of my co-workers are white. American society has arranged itself in such a way that most people spend most of their lives around their own race. It's only natural then that most people will date within their race.

To be fair, too, the US is still ~80% white, so even assuming perfect racial harmony, there would still be lots of white couples (and I saw plenty in Canada, too), but even in areas with high concentrations of minorities (like, say, southwest New Jersey), most dating is still intraracial.

[Robert Treder]

I've never been to Toronto, so I can easily accept Mike and Red's assessment of the situation there, but to defend my specific area, I'd have to hazard a guess that the Bay Area has at least as much interracial dating and marriage. I'm sure TPJ and The Kernel can back me up on that one.

Although, I don't know whether or not it's because we're "color blind". I know that many people, liberal and accepting though they may be, still consistently think of things in terms of race. People, places, and activities are labeled by race or culture first and foremost (privately if not publicly), which gets into that old Eleas debate problem of something being racist, but not necessarily in a harmful way.

I would imagine the reason we have so much interracial coupling is a simple matter of demographics. In the midwest, where there are decidedly more whites than non-whites, it'll be statistically harder to have a sizeable population of interracial couples. On the east coast, where urbanization has existed for hundreds of years, pre-existing social segregation prevents people of different races from romantically mingling, even though they might not have a problem with interracial coupling.
But here in the Bay Area, where most of our urbanization has happened in the last fifty years, let alone a hundred, and our economic prosperity has brought immigrants from all corners of the world, we are well-mixed demographically, and that in turn leads to interracial coupling.
For an example of our particular demography, I can honestly say that I only had one white female friend growing up (and really knew only about ten-fifteen beyond that who were my age), and three or four white male friends. The balance were all Vietnamese, Chinese (Cantonese or Han), Japanese, Latino, Philippino, Persian, or Pashtun.

Working in a video store, I see lots and lots of couples come in to rent date movies, and a sizeable portion of them are interracial (or at least intercultural, when it comes to our large eastern european population).

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I suppose I also should mention my wife's highschool friend who is white but only dates black men. No one gives her shit for it.

What part of "they say it's OK but they tend not do it" are you fucking people incapable of understanding?" How is that refuted by "people who do it don't get persecuted"?

Because people DO tend to do it. Lots of them.
The only shit I've ever seen given is to Asian girls who refuse to date Asian guys, and it was mostly a whining "don't take our chicks away" complaint from a few dumbasses who published their own campus paper.

Interracial dating happens all the time here. I couldn't even begin to count the interracial couples I've seen, and in fact only notice as "interracial" since attending a fucked-up university where multiculturalism is used to justify segregation and hate-speech. It's so common it's beneath notice for most (local) people.

I've dated girls of every race and religion, and not one of them ever batted an eye at dating someone who isn't her race. My family members, neighbors and classmates all date outside their ethnicity quite regularly.

We don't persecute it. We say it's OK. And we do it.

Many times, if we're lucky.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Mike, you've BEEN to a few cities; you haven't LIVED here. I live in California, and interracial dating hasn't been a blip on the "who gives a fuck" radar in more than two decades.

Not surprising; California is known by those who call themselves "real" Americans as the Left Coast for more reasons than one. But you also, oddly enough, have a fundie problem out there, judging by the number of creationist publishing houses which call it home. A very strange juxtaposition, given places like San Francisco.

California is a BIG state. No matter how liberal most of it is, there will always be little hickholes like Bakersfield, Modesto, Fresno, etc. But most of the cities and well-developped suburbs fit his statement very well.

When I (and I assume when Lord Poe) mentioned California, I was speaking about the majority of decent places to live in the state and not the statiscally insignificant shitholes that exist between the cracks.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

No, it means they decide not to do it independently.

Yeah right, because people's decisions on who they date have nothing to do with social pressures.

Mine didn't. They had everything to do with who I thought would either have a relationship with me or have intercourse with me. Everything.

[MKSheppard]

Hmm,,,the Canadian Snowbirds are going to be flying at the Andrews Open House this weekend.....next to the Thunderbirds.....

[Andrew J.]

No, it means they decide not to do it independently.

Yeah right, because people's decisions on who they date have nothing to do with social pressures.

Maybe not. But that's still what Mike said, which is what I said in the first place.

[Aaron]

Hmm,,,the Canadian Snowbirds are going to be flying at the Andrews Open House this weekend.....next to the Thunderbirds.....

Right on, they both put on a great show.

[Jalinth]

Hmm,,,the Canadian Snowbirds are going to be flying at the Andrews Open House this weekend.....next to the Thunderbirds.....

Make sure you go - they are amazing (if the full team is present, you get 9 planes in very tight formation). Pull off some incredible maneuvers - they use (very) old Tudor planes (essentially jet trainers) rather than the F-18s (I think) the Thunderbirds use. I try to see them anytime they are in Vancouver.

[Aaron]

Make sure you go - they are amazing (if the full team is present, you get 9 planes in very tight formation). Pull off some incredible maneuvers - they use (very) old Tudor planes (essentially jet trainers) rather than the F-18s (I think) the Thunderbirds use. I try to see them anytime they are in Vancouver.

The Thunderbirds use F-16's, the Navy's Blue Angels use F-18's.

[Jalinth]

The Thunderbirds use F-16's, the Navy's Blue Angels use F-18's.

Thanks - couldn't remember which the Air Force used. Enjoy the show

[Lord Poe]

When I (and I assume when Lord Poe) mentioned California, I was speaking about the majority of decent places to live in the state and not the statiscally insignificant shitholes that exist between the cracks.

True. I mean, interracial couples are just as prevalent, maybe even more so, than same race couples around here.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Actually, it is somewhat based on cultural background. When people arrive to America, especially from some country where "traditional" values are in place, they experience a great deal of culture shock. Most of them shut themselves out of mainstream American life and live in little closed communites. Many of them don't even bother learning English because the only language they get to speak is their own. They have a strong "us vs. them" mentaility, and if someone doesn't have their "traditional" values, he is seen as the enemy. Thus, they frown on their children dating someone outside of their community. They don't necessarily believe that other races are inherently bad (although some do), so it's not quite racism, but its just as bad.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Their children were definitely raised here, and in some cases the parents too. And knowing those girls, I can tell you their quite American.

Anyway, I just see it as another example of what Mike called the "it isn't race, its culture" cop-out.

[Darth Wong]

When I (and I assume when Lord Poe) mentioned California, I was speaking about the majority of decent places to live in the state and not the statiscally insignificant shitholes that exist between the cracks.

And then, oddly enough, you mention in another thread that unofficial racial segregation in California is so bad that they have race-based graduation ceremonies at your university, with blacks-only graduation, Asian-only graduation, Indian-only graduation, etc. So which is it? Is it bad, or is it just peachy?

[Lagmonster]

That's because you live in a city whose entire economy is the federal government. Political correctness is a way of life in Ottawa.

That's more true than you could guess; Here they actually tell new graduates in employment seminars, "If you're not here to work with or for the federal government, go to Toronto. This is not a private sector town."

It constantly amazes me how many companies try and fail to start small business enterprises that don't either a) contract with or b) serve the government or its branches.

[Lord Poe]

And then, oddly enough, you mention in another thread that unofficial racial segregation in California is so bad that they have race-based graduation ceremonies at your university, with blacks-only graduation, Asian-only graduation, Indian-only graduation, etc. So which is it? Is it bad, or is it just peachy?

Did he mean California, or Berkley?

[RedImperator]

When I (and I assume when Lord Poe) mentioned California, I was speaking about the majority of decent places to live in the state and not the statiscally insignificant shitholes that exist between the cracks.

And then, oddly enough, you mention in another thread that unofficial racial segregation in California is so bad that they have race-based graduation ceremonies at your university, with blacks-only graduation, Asian-only graduation, Indian-only graduation, etc. So which is it? Is it bad, or is it just peachy?

I don't think nitwit college students should be counted. I've heard of those ceremonies, and they're always demanded by leftist twiddlefucks who take multiculturalism very seriously and militant race-mongers. I doubt--I HOPE--the majority of students don't desire such ceremonies and don't participate in them.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

When I (and I assume when Lord Poe) mentioned California, I was speaking about the majority of decent places to live in the state and not the statiscally insignificant shitholes that exist between the cracks.

And then, oddly enough, you mention in another thread that unofficial racial segregation in California is so bad that they have race-based graduation ceremonies at your university, with blacks-only graduation, Asian-only graduation, Indian-only graduation, etc. So which is it? Is it bad, or is it just peachy?

Only in Berkeley.
And I would consider the University of California to be a shithole.
Although I must admit that i am thoroughly hoisted by my own petard.

I still think you're off on interracial dating in (much of) California, though I have just lost my credibility to debate it.

The segregation thing surprised me up there as I had not experienced anything like it before. It pissed me off.

I'll just shut up now.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

And then, oddly enough, you mention in another thread that unofficial racial segregation in California is so bad that they have race-based graduation ceremonies at your university, with blacks-only graduation, Asian-only graduation, Indian-only graduation, etc. So which is it? Is it bad, or is it just peachy?

I don't think nitwit college students should be counted. I've heard of those ceremonies, and they're always demanded by leftist twiddlefucks who take multiculturalism very seriously and militant race-mongers. I doubt--I HOPE--the majority of students don't desire such ceremonies and don't participate in them.

No, the majority does not appreciate them. I heard about it because of the outcry, not because they were popular.
But nobody came right out and disbanded or cancelled the events either, so I guess that's a "tolerance for intolerance," or some shit.