voluntary segregation....

As I drive to work I pass through several different neighborhoods. Some are predominantly black, some white, Asian, ect. I've noticed through the years that even in towns that are predominantly one race, the minorities for that area seem to naturally worship at a different church instead of going to the big local church even though they share religions.

For example, I'll drive past a Baptist church in a white area and see a large amount of white people getting out of a church. A few miles down the road in the same area there will be a separate Baptist church with black people, or Hispanic people getting out.
If I drive by a largely Hispanic community I'll see a separate church with whites or blacks. These are churches with the same religion, too.

I know there are different religions, and language barriers. So that would explain some separation. I know there are some churches that have a fairly mixed population.

Still, it seems sad that people naturally separate themselves from one another to go to a place that preaches one love, togetherness, and tolerance. Even when they share the same religion!

To sum it up, I see forced integration by law in the work place, in schools, in public shopping areas, and residential areas. However when people are given the choice of how they choose to worship, and learn how to love thy neighbor they'd rather do it with a bunch of people they don't feel different from.

Am I being too cynical, or has anyone else noticed it?

My campus is ridiculously self-segregated. The groups are whites & asians and hispanics & blacks. I rarely see intermingling in the cafeteria. ;[

Each race has their own way of preaching their religion.

It might be family/friend related. if everyone in a congregation knows one another, a newcomer might feel overwhelmed by being the only one who isn't friends with everyone.

Or it might have to do with styles of worship

Weeell, the main reason why my parents and most of my family members go to an all Korean church is because they can only speak Korean. Half my family members have only been in the US for 2 years. So yeah, the language barrier is a pretty big deal. The service is in Korean, the praise songs are in Korean, the lunch served afterward is Korean food.

The Black church is a pretty huge institution within the Black community. There's a long history behind it, and people turned to the Church to find solidarity in a time when segregation was mandatory and intolerance for mingling was all over the place. Why fyi, wasn't that long ago.

There's tons of reasons for self-segregation that are legitimate, even if it's not really the best of circumstances. Lots of research out there on the impact of the Church in various ethnic communities, if you wanna look it up.

It's ok though, with each successive generation, the inter-mingling is gonna get better. I think people forget sometimes how recent some of our history is. The civil rights movement wasn't that long ago. It wasn't that long ago that interracial marriage was a felony. Just give it some time. It'll get better.

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It's ok though, with each successive generation, the inter-mingling is gonna get better. I think people forget sometimes how recent some of our history is. The civil rights movement wasn't that long ago. It wasn't that long ago that interracial marriage was a felony. Just give it some time. It'll get better.

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I follow you, and feel the same way. As an outside observer, (read as not at ALL religious) I just would have guessed the church to be the first place to see acceptance, and forgiveness. Upon reflection, I really don't know why. I'm going to step on a few toes here, but history will back me up when I say that most religious institutions are the last place you find acceptance of strangers, and love of different peoples. It's also the place that preaches it the most. It's like no one really understands what they're trying to preach to others. Hypocrisy.

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My campus is ridiculously self-segregated. The groups are whites & asians and hispanics & blacks. I rarely see intermingling in the cafeteria. ;

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Lame. I'm sorry to hear that.

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a newcomer might feel overwhelmed by being the only one who isn't friends with everyone.

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Then I feel that church leaders should be meeting with each other to have multiple church activities. Maybe not every single Sunday, but every month or so have a gathering of different churches to learn about each other. Break down the walls! Am I expecting too much?

Having gone to church in Spanish all my life, I just don't feel comfortable hearing anything religious in English. :/

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Originally Posted by Miriel

I think people forget sometimes how recent some of our history is. The civil rights movement wasn't that long ago. It wasn't that long ago that interracial marriage was a felony. Just give it some time. It'll get better.

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I'm not sure if I forget it as much as I've never really recognized it. I grew up basically in the 80s (I was born with like one month to go in the year 1979), and I'm not even 30 years old yet. The mentality I take for granted is that people, cultures, and religions are all largely products of environment and so to judge people based on their environment is pretty ignorant. At least, that's one of the many ways I can logically state my view (the actual view of why I'm so non-judgemental is that it's always felt wrong to do so, and nobody has taught me why it's right to be judgemental, so I never do it).

I can't even state that my generation (the Y generation, I think) will be the generation that raises kids to not be stupid. I don't even think it will be my kid brother's generation, or the current generation of 9th graders. I think it will be some time before (and also if) my silly view becomes popular.

When I used to go to church (i.e. got forced to go by my family) most of the people in there were black, yet the preacher was white. Then again, I just think it was because it was located in an area that was predominately black. I'm sure if other races went to that church, they'd be welcomed. However, I doubt anyone who doesn't live there, or knew someone who lived there would ever want to go to that horrible, crime infested area.

Everybody in my city is white. :eep: So, it is "voluntarily segregated" in the sense that the upper-class lives on the east side of town and the middle-class seems to be on the west side of town.

This is something I only saw a small amount of in New Zealand, mostly because Auckland was a massively multi-cultural city and at my high school, with a small exception of those who didn't speak English, everyone kind of got to know everyone. While there I would attend youth groups or have high school friends including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tongan, Samoan, Maori, German, Polish, American, Canadian, South African, Cambodian, Arabian (can't remember the exact middle-eastern country)... the list was pretty long. Our church was similar, although I don't recall many people from Asia in it - I think if anything that was mostly due to not many Asian people being Christian in New Zealand, though, at a guess. Most of them had come over only recently (past 10-20 years, at an estimate) and I can't recall any of them being religious off the top of my head.

Now, though, in Scotland I notice it a lot more. At work it happens pretty commonly, there is a large Indian population that tends to keep to their own at my office and they all go on lunch together etc. I always found it odd because they all speak English fine, and I can't imagine the entire department is of one race as that would be pretty bad for the company. Maybe they just all knew each other beforehand. *shrug*