RE: What does Indy has to offer?

kimikokopuffs

November 01, 2007 by kimikokopuffs in response to What does Indy has ...

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I definitely know what you're talking about. Certainly there is a lot to do in Indy, and like anywhere new it takes some time to find a niche, to find the places and things that you like and don't like.

But my biggest adjustment when I moved here three years ago was definitely due to the diversity and race relations. I've NEVER in my life felt more aware of my ethnicity than I have since being here. I am keenly aware that I'm the only Asian (albeit only half-Asian) chick on my block . . . and possibly the only Asian in an entire establishment (especially when I hit the Southside) when I'm out and about. My multi-ethnic son -- who is 1/4 Japanese, 1/2 Puerto Rican and 1/4 Caucasian (with a smidge of Native American thrown in there too) -- seems to be a rarity in these parts. In Southern California, at least 30 percent of his school was mixed. Here he's in a definite minority. It just seems like the multiculturalism is at least a generation, if not two, behind the coasts.

And don't even get me started on the weird undercurrent of race relations in this city. I was FLOORED when I found out that kids from our old neighborhood in South Broad Ripple were being bussed down to Franklin for school . . . remnants of the old de-segregation days. STILL.

However, I must say that despite all of this, I'm glad that my son is in a 98 percent black school and learning valuable life lessons about being a minority, fitting in and seeing the world through a different lens than the middle class white suburban upbringing that I had.

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