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Originally Posted by Munchkin03
I didn't watch the show--I don't really watch that much TV so it's no surprise there.
Sometimes diversity leads to more segregation. In terms of numbers, I didn't grow up in a diverse town the way that NYC or SF are "diverse cities," but there was a lot less segregation since there wasn't a _____ community the way that some cities have. Because of the military, my hometown has substantial populations of Thai and Filipina women; but outside of that, there are only handfuls of other ethnic groups and they tend to associate with larger groups. For example, the Indo-Caribbean people will associate with the larger "Black community" in my hometown, while in NYC they are segregated by countries--there are delineated Trinidadian and Guyanese communities that don't mix all that often. Eastern Europeans and other white immigrants just get assimilated into specific "white" communities based on their socio-economic status. I guess it's more of a "melting pot," which has its benefits and drawbacks.
The accent thing that PM_Mama mentioned doesn't surprise me at all--I see it in some groups here. If they're living in insular communities, patronizing the same businesses, and going to schools in the same areas, then there are fewer opportunities to interact with larger communities and the accents stay, even among second-generation Americans.
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I grew up in one of those "diverse cities" and if I hadn't left and moved away to eventually live in Idaho I'd be less knowledgeable about the diversity of White people. It sounds strange to some people, but I had never been around so many White people (including Christian & Conservative) until my first day in Idaho and it was unsettling since I had never been around so many other White people before. Even though I'm White and Protestant (ELCA Lutheran, so on the far liberal end) that's where a lot of the commonality ends which has caused me existential angst I never knew existed. I knew that White people who hated the government, were literal word of God speaking in tongues Christians or Mormons, and had never eaten ethnic foods I did regularly nor met anyone of certain groups existed, I just never knew any personally.
The military does bring some unexpected diversity in some places, my experience being in Alaska and overseas. Now I want some lumpia, dammit.