School shootings get plenty of coverage no matter what the race of the shooter. Except for that Korean guy at Virginia Tech I think just about all of the shooters have been white.
The average white American only has one black friend iStock A depressing new study found that most white Americans have almost no friends of color. "I have black friends" is no longer an excuse — the average white American has just one black friend, singular, research from the Public Religion Research Institute found. Robert P. Jones, the researcher behind the data, wrote in The Atlantic that the average white American's social network is 91 percent white. If the average white American had 100 friends, just one would be black, one Hispanic, one Asian, one of "mixed" background and three of ambiguous descent. Jones suggests the reason is "self-segregation," and that white people reserve close relationships and "important matters" for white friends. Meanwhile, Jones' research found that the average black American has eight white friends, as well as two Latino and three "mixed" friends. --Meghan DeMaria
A couple of months ago I heard a black caller to a radio sports talk show say "Nobody hates a black man like another black man."
I think it is more a matter of circumstance. I mean, I live in a town that is 50% black and I have quite a number of black acquaintances. But I live in a largely white part of town and work at LSU which is about 90% white. The people I see the most are colleagues and neighbors and my closest friends are among those and the folks I grew up with. I am not "self-segregating". I work where I work and I bought a house close to where I work. I didn't pick either to get away from black people. I lived for 19 years north of LSU in Old South which is about 90% black, when I rented. I knew more black folks then. I worked nights in a liquor store in a black neighborhood in college and I knew a lot more black people then. I still see a friend from those days on his rare visits back to town. I also wonder how they define "friend". What he wrote was "the average white American's social network is 91 percent white". I have never met MASTERMIND or asignupe, but I have been talking with them for years on the only social network that I visit every day. Are they not black friends? Does the fact that we are anonymous to each other constitute "social segregation"? Is it just a snapshot in time? What about all of the black folks I was teammates and band mates with in high school or in the Scouts? Do they count old friends that you never really see any more. Are they still on my "social network'?
Casual friends of both colors come and go in your life. Do you still call someone your friend if you haven't seen or spoken to them in 5 or 10 years? There have been people who I did business with over the phone and internet for several years who I have never met in person. Some of them I call friends. I too live in a mostly white part of town. The only black people I encounter on a daily basis are people who work in businesses that I stop at frequently. A lot of them I am friendly with but I don't think that is the definition of a friend. I don't go out of my way to avoid black people. That's just the way it is. I have had jobs where I got to be friends with some of my black co workers and would go out to eat or drink with them but it seems like as soon as they quit or I changed jobs we never saw each other again. If you define social networking friends as friends a lot of white people have hundreds of friends of all races. I only have a Facebook account because once an old girlfriend sent me a friend request. I hardly ever look at it and I only have about a dozen friends and there are only three of them that I actually know. All the others are black people I never heard of until they sent me a friend request and I just clicked OK for the hell of it.
If only I had one friend. Okay, seriously. Most of my "friends" hunt, fish, like sports, alcohol and pussy, and coach- or have coached. Just a matter of people hanging out with others of common interests. I've gone out with friends who were black. By "gone out" I mean in same vehicle to game, bar, etc. It's always interesting to see people try to figure out wtf is going on, exactly. I could see their wheels turning- is it business, are they gay, or just maybe really one white and one black guy who might really be running together.
Oh my goodness. I live in Melting Pot, USA. I have friends/acquaintances who are black, hispanic, asian, middle eastern, gay, redneck, you name it. I do not participate in social media other than two college football forums. I get out and about so to speak. I certainly am interested to learn about other experiences and points of view but my daily interactions are not focused on race/gender/age type differences. Can researchers stop already with constantly pointing the shit out?
I'm sure it does. But who pays these stupid ass researchers? Yep, that would be the gub'ment. Strangely enough, the organization where this study came from purports to be a "religious" research group but appears to be some sort of anti-Mormon lib group.
