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Comment by AskewEgret | Hacker News Reader

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AskewEgret

I think that you are falling into a West-Coast trap that says Asian = Diverse.

San Francisco is 42% White, 33% Asian, 15% Latino, 6% Black.

Chicago is 30% White, 30% Black, 30% Latino, 7% Asian.

This is a great article: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/normal-america-is-not-a...

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But those "33% Asian" consist largely of 1st or 2nd generation Americans. People who largely still hold strong cultural ties from the dozens of countries they came from (along with their languages).

It's a wildly diverse "33% Asian".

The Bay Area's diversity is more than just "lots of Asians." Also, "Asian" is a pretty broad category. The numbers you quote just don't create an accurate picture. It's far more accurate to say that diversity in the Midwest practically starts and stops with "both black and white folks live here."

Integration/segregation is also significantly different.

Yeah if you don't count the massive number of Middle Easterners in Detroit or Asians in Madison or the Somalians in Minneapolis or the Croatians in Kansas City or Greeks in Chicago and Detroit or the large Hispanic population in almost every city in the Midwest.

Ignoring the actual, real world diversity, yep, "both black and whites" is accurate.

Racism is well and alive here on HN, it seems.

Not racism- geographical chauvinism, or elitism. It's distressing such beliefs emanating from HN even as we get bombarded with stories of SV's bubble culture. And I say that as a Bay Area native.

I think it's racist to think that there are only "blacks and whites" in the Midwest, and even if that were true, that it would count against the diversity. Especially considering some of those "blacks" are actually Somalian, people from Africa with different beliefs and values who were fleeing their country's brutal civil war. Lumping them in with African Americans does a massive disservice to both Somalians and African Americans, especially coming from someone who said "Asian is too broad of a category".

It's incredibly ignorant to say Midwest cities don't have people of other ethnic backgrounds, it belittles everything those Midwesterners have worked for in this country.

I'm agreeing with both of your posts on this subject.

You're comparing discrete regional diversity over a huge region spanning mutliple states to a single small area of northern California. Thanks for helping make my point.

You're the racist who thinks "Asian" is too broad but "black" is all one kind of people.

If I never had the chance to talk to you again, it would be too soon. You disgust me.

It's cute that you're trying to accuse me of racism. It isn't me who thinks what you imply: it's the Midwest. Their idea of diversity is "we have black folks living here." I'm making fun of that. And I agree: their idea of diversity generally is disgusting.

You're talking to a Midwesterner here, so I don't know who you're trying to fool.

If you want to blatantly ignore the diversity that exists in the Midwest to make yourself feel better, that's fine. Just save your lies for someone else, because they're not working here.

Every place in your post where you said the word "they", replace it with "freehunter" and you'll see why you're not helping your cause but just pissing me off even more. Now you're attacking me, and I don't care for it.

"It isn't me who thinks what you imply: it's freehunter. Freehunter's idea of diversity is "we have black folks living here." I'm making fun of that. And I agree: freehunter's idea of diversity generally is disgusting."

I'm a Midwesterner, is that how you actually see me?

You're taking this personally. Generalizations break down far above that level.

I'm from the Midwest, too. I'm certainly not talking about myself when I refer to how bigoted Midwesterners are.

White is a broad category, yet I don't see the outcry there.

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