Multicultural friends

[Deleted]

I don't really talk to any black or asian people, but that's because they aren't really around where I live. I don't care enough about them to initiate a conversation with the ones who are.

[Themius]

Back where I used to live (not here, this place sucks), all my friends were either Hispanic or Asian.

I like having a diverse set of friends and desperately crave a nerdy black guy for a friend.

I want a black friend. I have never had one. I've had friends of all type, except black. I had one half black friend though.

[Tziva]

When I was young and in school, my social circle was incredibly diverse- in culture, in race, in national heritage, in religion. We could have been a poster for some kind of overly-PC marketing campaign.

As I've gotten older and friends have drifted away and new friends are extremely rare to make, my social circle is a lot less diverse. Most of my friends are some variety of white or hispanic now. This isn't any kind of conscious choice, this is simply the result of who I ended up staying in touch with and who I didn't.

I mean, I like diversity and sometimes I miss the unique perspectives and experience some of my friends gave me, but it's not like I am going to go out and recruit friends based on their cultural background.

[Jackmoves]

It's strange though. In San Jose, even though it was a highly multi-cultural city, and people generally had lots of friends with a wide variety of ethnicities, people also had secondary groups that were pretty much people of their own ethnicities. That didn't really bother me most of the time, but it was interesting. All the different ethnicities generally got along together very well. I'm glad I grew up in a place that was so diverse though. It's nice to have lots of perspectives and to be comfortable around a wide variety of different people.

I think it's the same for any sociaty, expat communities are a normal thing in any major city. People like to hang out with their own people, as long as it doesn't stop them from being a part of the sociaty on a larger scale I don't think it's out of order, americans like to hang with americans, brits like brits, french like french, nordic people like nordic people etc etc. Any city with a decent sized population from X country/region will have some sort of network.


Anyways I just read a piece in Friatider(highly conservative, nationalistic news source/paper), holy shit they are flipping out over a new 10 week course our armed forces have, it's basically an introduction course to what life is like in the military, 500 immigrants of different orgin got accepted for this. This is not basics/boot camp, it's basically a taste of what it is like to be in the military, nothing more. Reading through the comment section I burst out laughing, the racist shit people post there is good comedy. I'm not sure why they feel threatened considering our demographics.

This is our biggest groups of foreigners(14.3% of our population) as of 2011:
Finland: (166,723)
Former Yugoslavia (155,166)
Iraq (125,499)
Iran (63,828)
Poland (49,518)
Germany (48,442)
Denmark (44,951)
Turkey (43,909)
Norway (43,058)
Somalia (40,165)

Now muslims is what these (crazy)people got the most problems with, which makes it even more laughable considering the fact that out of our 125k Iraqis around 110k of them are Christian Assyrians, they are in fact the majority of people from Iraq in Sweden. Same goes for Iran, it's not muslims, it's christians for the most part. They fled the middle east partly beause they were prosecuted for their beliefs or discriminated against by muslims. The ignorance blows my mind at times.

Add a sizeable jewish community, a lot of the danish and other european jews that fled to sweden during WW2 remained, and a decent amount of political refugees from countries such as Hungary, former Czechoslovakia, the Baltic nations and other countries in the former east bloc. But in perticular Hungary and Czechoslovakia as their countries were invaded by the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s.

[BreathTaker]

I don't even seem to understand and accept the way people think on this forum.
For me foreigners are a mistery which i'm not even curious at looking into.
Generally i only get close with those people whom life brings to be near constantly. I guess people from other regions still have chances to get on with me, however they would have to make a much longer way towards it then those from my place

[Maxilian]

I don't really care...., but most of the people i know are Dominicans so... they all act like one... even if they are white, black or asian (Look like one).

[Deleted]

I generally hang out with people of the same culture as mine, it happens automatically kind of.. xD I prefer it tbh, no offense.

[Deleted]

Ironically the majority of my good mates are either muslims or Indians. It's ironic because Swedish patriots, like me, are usually known for being racist. I don't know why I get along with other cultures better, they just happen to get me that most other ethnic Swedes don't manage to.

EDIT: Not to mention that my favorite artists are all brown/black people (Kool & the Gang, Roy Ayers, Edwin Birdsong). Black people are awesome, I wish I had a black friend.

It's hard not to sound racist when talking about this stuff, heh.

[Jackmoves]

Ironically the majority of my good mates are either muslims or Indians. It's ironic because Swedish patriots, like me, are usually known for being racist. I don't know why I get along with other cultures better, they just happen to get me that most other ethnic Swedes don't manage to.

EDIT: Not to mention that my favorite artists are all brown/black people (Kool & the Gang, Roy Ayers, Edwin Birdsong). Black people are awesome, I wish I had a black friend.

It's hard not to sound racist when talking about this stuff, heh.

There is a difference in being patriotic and nationalistic though. Nationalistic people are generally against any kind of foreign influence, patriotic people just love their country and their people. lol

Being patriotic is not a bad thing, sure blind patriotism is bad, you need to be able to have a realistic view on things and critize your own country at times, but being able to appriciate the country you were born/live in is not bad.

[Gamdwelf]

I'm actually attracted to people from other cultures more than from my own, I like learning new things.

Also, as someone else pointed out, Black music ftw.

black music, there is no such thing.

[Deleted]

There is a difference in being patriotic and nationalistic though. Nationalistic people are generally against any kind of foreign influence, patriotic people just love their country and their people. lol

Being patriotic is not a bad thing, sure blind patriotism is bad, you need to be able to have a realistic view on things and critize your own country at times, but being able to appriciate the country you were born/live in is not bad.

Seems like the average Swede thinks that patriotism = nationalism.

For example, my dad thinks I'm a racist because I like wearing my Sweden cap (yes, it looks pretty much exactly like the one on my avatar), when I really wear it because I think the Swedish flag is kickass. Did I mention my dad lives in a place that's almost completely white and that he doesn't have any muslim friends himself?

black music, there is no such thing.

Afro-American then.

[Gamdwelf]

Seems like the average Swede thinks that patriotism = nationalism.

For example, my dad thinks I'm a racist because I like wearing my Sweden cap (yes, it looks pretty much exactly like the one on my avatar), when I really wear it because I think the Swedish flag is kickass. Did I mention my dad lives in a place that's almost completely white and that he doesn't have any muslim friends himself?

Afro-American then.

Jazz, cus people of all races play jazz music, its not limited by race.

[Kerath]

Seems like the average Swede thinks that patriotism = nationalism.

For example, my dad thinks I'm a racist because I like wearing my Sweden cap (yes, it looks pretty much exactly like the one on my avatar), when I really wear it because I think the Swedish flag is kickass. Did I mention my dad lives in a place that's almost completely white and that he doesn't have any muslim friends himself?

Argh, that kind of thing irritates the shit out of me. There was a time in England when sporting the St George's Cross (the English flag) meant you were a racist. We seem to have 'reclaimed' it a bit now and English people of all stripes have the St George's cross hung out when it's the Euro/World cup etc.
Nothing wrong with taking a bit of pride in your country, imo.

[skrump]

I am kind of a loaner but I don't care about the culture of my friends outside of cuisine.

I mean honestly you could come from a culture that see's nothing wrong with incest/polygamy/sexism/slavery/genocide, as long as you don't try to force your beliefs on me nor wish to enslave/kill me I am willing to look past our cultural differences assuming you can speak my language.

In short as long as someone does not have a negative impact on the well-being of myself my loved ones I am more than glad to befriend them

[Deleted]

Jazz, cus people of all races play jazz music, its not limited by race.

Who said anything about jazz? I'm talking about the funk.

[Noxia]

People from my own cultural background? Well err, I grew up under constant influence of the dreaded internet culture. Don't feel like I belong anywhere except ofcourse the internets. There are no races here, even though there clearly is some hierarchy, but that hierarchy isn't defined by which hole you emerged from on your first birthday. The internet has given me extreme liberties when it comes to choosing the company I spend my time with and because "real life" doesn't support such cherry picking, I prefer to keep my social contacts on the internet.

Sadly, most people are just plain boring/uninteresting and not worth spending time with. The ones who do share my ideas and beliefs tend to be hermits themselves too. What I mean is you don't go to church to find people to drink whiskey and play poker with.

Majority of the problems I have in my life are caused by fuckers who have the same general color of skin as I do, but I don't avoid them either. If things have to be put in to an equation, well let's just say slipknot put it the best ()

[Gamdwelf]

Who said anything about jazz? I'm talking about the funk.

how is that black music?

That's like saying white music to refer to rock and roll.

[Deleted]

how is that black music?

Because it's mostly known for being a very Afro-American genre?

[Reeve]

There is a difference in being patriotic and nationalistic though. Nationalistic people are generally against any kind of foreign influence, patriotic people just love their country and their people. lol

I'd call that xenophobic, really.

[Gamdwelf]

Because it's mostly known for being a very Afro-American genre?

So is rap, jazz, jungle, and other stuff is that all "black music" too even though all those genres are vastly different?