Do You Have Friends of Other Races?

Okay, so I got my Glamour magazine last week and in it is a very interesting article about friends. They polled a certain amount of people and 86% said they had friends of different races but only 15% said they had a close friend of a different race. I guess I would've fallen into that 15% percent as my closest friends are actually of all races. I have only 5 friends that I can depend on no matter what and we always try to catch up when we can. One is white, two are black, one is mexican and one is half white and half mexican. My best friend growing up was Laotion. I don't feel that i choose my friends based on color although the article made me think.

Several commentaries made on it said that it's just easier to choose a friend of the same race as they tend to have more in common with ourselves. This did come out in high school in my experience. I was with all my friends and I noticed that at lunch, all the hispanics hung out together, all the russians had their own table, all the black people stayed on the right side of the cafeteria and the white people on the left. I found it...odd. I was, at the time, amazed that as a nation we had come so far and yet here were, a school full of 14-18 year olds and yet we were so...separated. I think at that age it had alot to do with fitting in and naturally that's what we did, we searched for those who had more in common with us.

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race? 2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not? 3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

I know this is a touchy issue but it did intrigue me. To answer my own questions, 1) I do have close friends of different races. 2)It just happened naturally over time. My second best friend who is half white and half mexican I did choose intentionally at the age of 9 but at that age I would say I was just looking for someone who I had more in common with after moving to a new school. 3) I don't choose my friends intentionally all the time but when I worked at my first job, I did create closer bonds with the hispanics as we had more in common as far as ideas and culturals. I then left that job with my closest friend being a black girl as we had more in common as far as beliefs goes.

I don't like to make things about race but I don't believe that we live in a blind society. A blind society would not acknowledge different cultures which is typically generalized by what race we are. There are tons of exceptions but I'm just speaking in general. What are your thoughts on all this?

The first blog is going over the article for those who do not read Glamour and the second link is an actual copy of the article itself for those who would like to read it.

Glamour wants to know if you have friends of other races at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture

http://www.newdemographic.com/2008-10Glamour.PDF

I don't have a best friend but the friends I do have are white and Mexican. It's all unintentional, of course.

1)How many of you would say your closest friend is of a different race?

I have friends of different races but my really close friends who I rely on are the same race as me.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

It doesn't matter to me what race they are. My best friend in infant school was a different race to me but as we grew up we drifted apart like kids do and I made new friends. I also think the area I live in and the school I went to play a big part in this because although it isn't totally single race it isn't very varied either.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Unintentionally. I always make friends with people based on their personality. No other factors come into it.

I don´t have friends of other races simply because I grew up in the country, in a small village in Austria where there were zero people of other races. Plus, Austria in general (with the exception of our capital, Vienna, where I live now) isn´t home to a big variety of people.

As an example, my grandma is still fascinated everytime she sees a black person in real life, in the city closest to where she lives. I´d say she´s probably seen like 10 black people max in her life, and that wasn´t until she turned like 50 or so. Crazy, huh?

I wouldn´t mind having friends of other races at all actually, but I don´t think it´s gonna happen anytime soon, not while I still live here. Even though Vienna is pretty multicultural, I have seen maybe 50 people of Asian origin at my university, and zero black people or hispanics.

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

my bestest friend in the whole world is chinese, and i have other closeish friends that are asian and black.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

yes. it has made no difference whatsoever in our friendship, except that i can't speak cantonese so can't understand her family, who don't speak english.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

race has absolutely has nothing to do with whether i am friends with someone or not!!

i don't think we live in a blind society when it comes to making friends with people at all.

my closest friend is the same race as me but that's because we met here in school and my english wasnt fluent back then, but I'd love to have friends of any other race because race is not what really matters, what matters is the person inside and their values.

But hey look at how many friends I have here, from all parts of the world! I love it

I have friends of all races but my very close friends are the same as me. I just realized that I don't really have any girl friends that are of other races, not intentionally but that's just how it happened I guess. I do have a lot of guy friends that are of all different races. I don't pick my friends based on their race.

Most of my friends are of the same race as me, although my best friend isn't. But honestly, that thing about races doesn't really matter, not to me at least. That is not a criteria to choose my friends

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

My BFF of 12 years is white; my bff from age 5 to 15 was Samoan.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

Happens naturally by common interests

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Naw.

Othewise I would be arrested for running up to people obviously new to the country trying to be friends, lol!

Seriously.I don't try to make friends normally (I don't like having too many people in my orbit) but when I see another CULTURE (not necessarily race) I toatally want to know them, lol!

To start off I'm Hispanic (Cuban):

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

My best friend is American ("White") and I love her to death. She's my beautiful

golden girl and I wouldn't trade her for the world. =)

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

It happens naturally, a friendly smile is a great beginning to any friendship.

It doesn't matter if they are white, black, asian, hispanic, etc..



3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Hmm, I do like to people from different races and backgrounds because it makes

things more interesting at times.. But then again, when I don't know anyone in the

room, I tend to look for the Hispanic since we may have more things in common.

Looking back, when I was in Elementary school, I noticed I had more hispanic friends,

it may be due to the large population of hispanics in the area I lived in. Then throughout

Middle and High school is when I saw a big change in my friends. I no longer had only

Cuban friends but began to make friends with Hispanics from different countries, then

different races. I now have three best friends which I can rely on: one is white, one is black and the other hispanic. I love them. <3

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

Me!

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

Yep. It happened naturally. I befriend people that have personalities that mesh well with mine and people that enjoy similar things. Three of my closest friends are Hispanic (Mexican-American), Jewish, and biracial (Black/White).

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Unintentionally. It would be totally weird to befriend someone simply because of their race, imo.

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

My closest friend of 7 years (not anymore) was my bff cause we were neighbors and we hung out all the time, she happened to be half white/half mexican. My closest friends right now, one is mexican and one is white.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

Sure, I can't help who lives near me lol, or who talks to me and befriends me. But then also I don't have much diversity other than hispanic people or caucasian people where I live. I do talk/like to almost everyone at my work, and they are of all races.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Unintentional, my husband who is white always befriends other races more often than his own. He has more things in common with everyone else I guess.

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

One of my closer friends is half Chinese/half Native Canadian.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

Yes it happens naturally. I don't look at a person's color to decide if they will be a good friend. It's what's inside and if they have similar interests that count.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

Unintentionally. I choose friends due to similar interests etc not because of their skin tone or ethnicity.

1)How many of you would would say your closest friend is of a different race?

My closest friend is a different race, but I also have a few other close friends who aren't 100% the same race (I'm Puerto Rican, and they're Hispanic, but not Puerto Rican), or they're also mixed.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

Doesn't matter to me what race someone is. If they're a true friend, and won't do me wrong, then it shouldn't matter.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

I don't try to make friends at all based on race... So, I guess that makes it unintentional.

you know what? I'm editing my post, lol, I didn't make a word of sense.

In Oz, everyone considers themselves 'Australian' if they live here... so people don't talk much about their 'race'...

All my friends are from white european backgrounds but I didn't set out to search for white friends or anything, it just happened.

I do think it's about the values inside, like Sunshine said, not their outward appearance, but I think culture does shape people's values, so even though it's nothing to do with their 'race' but about their personal beliefs... they do inform each other. Does that make sense?

Um, majority of my friends are Hispanic. Not to say if I were new to a school and saw a bunch of Hispanics, I'd go to them first - it always usually started by common interest and if I had them in majority of my classes. But that being said, I live in a town where Mexicans dominated so my odds are high in having Hispanic friends. But I do see cliques forming based on ethnicity - it stems from familiarity. So it is a mixture of unintentional and intentional... I mean, people you get along with (no matter the race) you get along with who they get along with, if it happens to be the same race - so be it. I can say I do sometimes rather befriend a Hispanic person because it's easier to find common interest and relate easier but I am in no way going to deny friendship based on their ethnicity.

I befriend anyone so I have a lot of associates who are black, white, asian... I grew up in a family who everyone married outside the race. I have half Russian, English, Australian, Italian, African, etc family members.

My best friend Clarisse is half Philipino/Chinese and my other 2 close friends are Mexican. Our clique of friends are all Mexican besides one who is Puerto Rican/Salvadorean.

My friends are a mix of races, I honestly dont hang out with many hispanic people. idk

My friends are not intentionally different races. I mean i live in NYC so you get to meet tons of people from different backgrounds.

all my friends are.

i dont have any friends of my own race acutally.

1)How many of you would say your closest friend is of a different race?

All my closest friends are a different race than me... 95% white (I am Filipino) or some sort of Caucasian+mix. My best guy friend is half Native American/ half Samoan... he sort of looks like the Rock.

2)Does it just happen naturally whether they are of a different race or not?

It doesn't matter to me... I naturally love people. The fact that almost all my friends are white has to do more with where I live than any other factor.

3)Do you try to make friends of different races intentionally or unintentionally?

I intentionally try to make friends, yes... of a different race, unintentionally.

I don't have close friends of other races, simply because there isn't any at my work and school. My bf is half brazilian though if that counts?