Sunday, October 30, 2011

WaPost Draws National Conclusion from Local Data@Fail

I was intrigued by the headline on this story, "The New U.S. Neighborhood Defined by Diversity as All-White Enclaves Vanish".  It seemed to me that this might be a bit of a stretch--that while I was certain that such demographic trends were the occurring in and around our DC, I wondered as to the extent of such trends in that great mass of easily dismissed "fly-over" country.  Sure--mostly Latin-American immigrants have made their way into communities across the country, but from the small sample size I've derived in my travels, I'd come to see them settling much as African Americans had, in areas with other just like they. 

Reading the story, it appears that the Post's intrepid reporters forged as far afield as Loudon County, Virginia, some 30 miles as the crow flies from DC.  No Nebraska.  North Texas.  East Colorado.  UP Michigan, Idaho...you get the picture.

Because something is a trend in the hipster coastal, urban areas--it is the NEW US NEIGHBORHOOD.  Get it. Because that's cool. Because "diversity" is cool, and "diverse" neighborhoods are just cooler than segregated neighborhoods.  Why?  Well because.  It is just so.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll do the WashPost one better -- why don't they celebrate the diversity of occupants of single family housing structures and see how that affects the neighborhood demographics?
You know, in the old days when one family lived in a house? Now we have 3-4 families living in said house, not only skewing the neighborhood demographic, but pushing white folks out. They simply don't want to live in an environment where the driveway has 5-6 cars parked in it, 24-hour questionable comings and goings, children who do not go to school, and the general untidiness of these settings. But hey, they bring over tamales once in a while (perhaps with the hope that you won't call the Sheriff), so it's all good. I'll take Nebraska, Idaho, North Texas, et al.

Doc Milnamo said...

From John Nolte at Big Hollywood:

"Forgive me if you’ve already heard me tell this story, but one of my all-time favorite Hollywood moments occurred at a ”Wall*E” junket in Beverly Hills a few years ago. Because Ratzenberger is Pixar’s “good luck charm,” he’s in all their films and was there to meet with the media. Somehow the subject came up about the importance of films, and Ratzenberger said something to the effect of how we would all get by just fine if New York and California disappeared tomorrow. But if we lost the Midwest, who would make our bread?"

C. T. Eleete said...

You write as if there is civilization beyond the metropolis. Tell me more of this civilization. What evidence do you have for your, frankly, outlandish premise?

Anonymous said...

C.T. Eleete, and those of your ilk, I challenge you to travel into the heartland of our great country. I ralize the hardships you must endure, as it will require you to go outside the familiar confines of the Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue lines and The Beltway.

Join your I-95 corridor-bound DC-Philly-NY-Boston East Coast sports writers who recently found themselves consulting their Garmins and Atlas's to navigate their way westward to follow baseball's post-season play.
Thank God Wisconsin- and Michigan-based teams weren't in the World Series -- sportswriters from the the WashPost, NY Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Boston Globe haven't looked that far north and west since one of Tiger's girlfriends was rumored to be from Des Moines (Kornheiser, that's in Iowa). But I digress...

Travel west, Sir Eleete, and find out for yourself that politeness, etiquette, manners, common sense, good-naturedness, and reasonability rule supreme in the great open Plains.

Whereas the unofficial motto and subsequent behavior of you East Coast denizens is: "I am more important than the person in front of me," you will find that your average Midwesterner will not only cede his or her place in line to you, but will offer to hold the door, grant you the right of way, and not think twice about sealing a deal with a handshake (without the accompanying "bro hug") while looking you in the eye.

I will close with the following thought -
Mr. Eleete, I closely read your post and you asked about "this civilization." So you don't confuse your "civilization" with my region's "civil" and "civilized" ways of life, I ask that you juice-up the Prius, hop on I-80 westbound, link-up with Route 66 and discover a new time zone.

Don't worry about the Prius getting stuck in snow -- someone will help you get unstuck, for free, and no fear of a lawsuit.

Mudge said...

Anon - Appreciate your spirited defense of rural living. I must apologize to you for using a satirical nom de plume (aka City Elite) with a comment the likes of which many "highly educated enlightened hipsters" whose only experience with agriculture and rural America is having read "Grapes of Wrath" during their "Oppression of the American Migrant Studies" major might make. I did enjoy your response though.

Dan said...

Eric, I will pass on your comments.

Mudge said...

Dan - you are hardly what I would call a city elite. Did you take it that way? My aim was, first and foremost, at the highly educated (highly indoctrinated) liberal city dwellers who find the less formally educated rural farmers, watermen and other tradesmen as some form of lesser beings. Their mistake is that they continually mistake being educated with being smart. While there is certainly a relationship in certain cases, it is by no means exclusive. That's not you, even a little bit.

Dan said...

My post was all tongue in cheek, as I am a product of all things rural Wisconsin (minus Madison).

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