Most Diverse Cities To Live In

Diversity matters.

With all due respect to other wonderful places, I do love California and L.A. for it’s incredible diversity of people. Below is a ranking of the most diverse cities in the U.S. and not surprisingly, California has 6 of the top 10 most diverse cities. In fact, that diversity is why my wife and I moved to California. We wanted to ensure our mixed (Black and Hispanic) kids grew up around a lot of diversity and around a lot of other mixed people so they were not in an environment where being mixed was abnormal. The West indeed still ranks as having the largest number of mixed people and couples.

So here is the top 10 list of cities that are the most diverse according to a Men’s Health study:

1. San Jose, CA
2. Jersey City, NJ
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Honolulu, HI
5. New York, NY
6. Los Angeles, CA
7. Anaheim, CA
8. Oakland, CA
9. Providence, RI
10. Sacramento, CA

To see the full list of top 50 most diverse click here.

The Case For Diversity Programs In Universities

The case for diversity at colleges and universities is right here.

Yesterday I posted on a racist video done by two University of Minnesota – Duluth students, noting that I found it particularly disheartening because college students are supposed to be intelligent and our future past all the racial stupidity and division. Well those two girls weren’t alone and The University Of Minnesota isn’t the only university to see ignorant racism rear its head in the last weeks.

A Penn State sorority has become the focus of an investigation after a racist Mexican-themed party picture was posted to the Web, according to the independent Penn State blog, Onward State.

The picture, said to be taken around Halloween, shows the women dressed in sombreros and mustaches. Some of the women held signs that read “Will mow lawn for weed + beer” and “I don’t cut grass I smoke it.”

The photo was posted on Tumblr and Facebook, where Onward State was able to identify the women tagged in the photo as members of the Chi Omega sorority on campus.

And then in good ole liberal California, there was this:

UCLA police are investigating racist, sexist slurs attacking Asian women that were found on campus this week.

On Tuesday, a student found a sign that read “asian women R Honkie white-boy worshipping Whores” attached to a Vietnamese Student Union sign.

On Wednesday, another student found the handwritten phrase “Asian Women are White-Boy Worshipping Sluts” in the women’s bathroom of the library basement.

The student who found the second message was Antonette Sadile, the community outreach programmer for the Asian Pacific Coalition. “I thought [Tuesday’s incident] was a more personal attack,” Sadile told campus paper The Daily Bruin. “But this is a bigger impact. It is really scary. I didn’t feel safe.

Looks like we have a lot of work still in trying to get people beyond ethnic divisions. Read more on the two incidents here and here.

Mixed People Monday – Sydney Tamiia Poitier

Great acting heritage.

The daughter of famous Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier, Sydney Tamiia is also an accomplished actress. Her father is African-American/Bahamian and her mother, Joanna Shimkus, is of Lithuanian heritage.

Mixed Couples – Alfre Woodard & Roderick Spencer

The long-time married couple, here with their daughter.

The Academy Award nominated actress is married to Roderick Spencer, a writer and producer. They have two children.

White Supremacists Have The Right To Be Wrong

Kevin MacDonald, the man at the center of the controversy.

OK, I must admit this is a tough one. The video below is of a professor here in the L.A. area who is another of those who advocates that whites are losing their rights and need their own advocacy group. Some have called for his removal from his position at Cal State – Long Beach because they consider him a white supremacist.

But I have to say unless there is more to what he is saying, I am not sure that is a just course of action. I do believe he has a right to say what he thinks as long as he does not step into the area of putting others down or advocating violence of any sort. And I must admit though, I have not read anything else about this man so maybe he does have some pretty ugly things out there. But watch the video and see what you think:

My greatest issue with the professor isn’t that he feels the need to form such a group, but that his argument is simply wrong. The problem with his group and the basis of his philosophy is rooted on a broad definition of what it means to be white. That somehow, having white skin connects all whites. Simply not true historically or currently. But again as long as the professor’s ideas or not being pushed on students or in his classroom, he is every right to be wrong in his belief.

Here is a link to a written article on the professor.

Mixed People Monday – Christy Turlington

One of the biggest in the game.

The supermodel has a Salvadoran mother and a Italian-American father.

Mixed People Monday – Benjamin Bratt

Talented TV and film actor.

The actor’s mother is a Peruvian Indigenous activist of the Quechua ethnic group and his father was an American of German and English descent.

Facebook Holding Onto Outdated Concepts of “Race”

Come on Facebook, don’t be so backwards thinking.

This is a great piece by Glenn Robinson of the blog, Mixed American Life:

I had been telling people that identity sites like Facebook and Google+ don’t have a field for race – because race does not define us.

Well, maybe I was wrong – again.

Facebook went there – at least on this ‘Brief survey’ that popped up at the top of my page.

Click here to read more on what Facebook did when it comes to taking us all back to a place we had hoped to have gotten past.

Mixed People Monday – Stacey Dash

Most famous for role in “Clueless.”

The actress is African-American, Bajan, Mexican and Aztec Indian.

Obama Symbolizes What’s Great About America

He embodies the promise.

Reposted from The Huffington Post

Finally it’s over. No more debates, commercials, endless campaign speeches and subsequent news reports. No more talking heads and spinning. No more polls. The only poll that counts was the one from Tuesday night. And thank goodness the best man won. Now that it is over, after a week or so of post election analysis and celebration (at least for the Democratic side) and whining on the losing side, we can go back to being one, clearly divided nation.

Read more here.