Like, i can’t genuinely understand why I see so many post and memes about things like: “White people things that black people enjoy” “Black people things that white people should try” “Thing that Asian people should make others do”
It feels like people in the U.S. the moment they see someone skin color they immediately make sweeping generalisations about them (which sounds super racist to me but OK), which also makes integration more difficult, because instead of an interesting mixture of cultures it makes for immovable blocks of stereotypes
Am I just seeing a small bubble of content or missing something or what? Please explain it to me
Most Americans do not live in or near a big city. We tend to live in small towns that have a majority of only one or two ethnic groups. My town has whites and latinos but very few black people. I personally know only two black people and neither one lives near me. The only Chinese people I know are the ones who operate the Chinese restaurant in town. My experience is not unique.
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80% of Americans live in urban areas
This is based on the census bureau definition, which is much more inclusive than just large cities. 84/510 urban areas have a population greater than 500k. 198/510 have sub 100k population.
What the census means by “Urban area” generally boils down to is “the majority of the labor in this area working in a place with more than 50k population”. That is a better metric than “what’s the population of this city/ town/ community” since you can have small towns inside urban areas that are going to feel dramatically different than a small town with no direct connection to a nearby population center, but the small town in podunk Nebraska would have far more in common with a small town in podunk Arkansas than a nearby suburb.
Similar small town experience here.
I grew up learning that racism is bad, and that everyone’s the same and I truly believed in that idea. I thought I was very not racist, but when I had a job that moved me to a few big cities for a few years, I realized that I had a different kind of racism.
It’s easy for all these small town white people to “never do anything racist” because they rarely encounter different people. When they do, they feel like they can pat themselves on the back, because they didn’t shout slurs at those people. But, I guarantee that when any one of them travels to the city and sees a group of black people standing outside of a gas station, they’ll keep driving until they find a “less shady neighborhood”.
These people don’t “feel” racist, and they don’t want to be racist, but they consistently reinforce racist laws because they have no understanding of how different cultures are affected by them.