Why do teens self-segregate along racial lines ?

[Anonymous]

Spent a week this Summer at a teens’ coed summer camp and noticed this happening. The African-American kids in particular seemed to really self-segregate and only sit with AA kids during mealtimes.

Our troop is about 40% white, equal amount Asian/Indian, with a few Latinx and AA kids. But at summer camp 2025, they all just seemed to separate this way.

Why are kids still doing this in 2025? Any suggestions to stop it?

[Anonymous]

Doesnt this happen in most places, for people of most ages, ethinicites, races, etc.?

[Anonymous]

They don't.

[Anonymous]

Why stop it? It's not a problem. Don't act like this is a moral failing.

[Anonymous]

My kids don’t

[Anonymous]

Some do. People are tribal in their nature and teens specifically are deep into trying to figure out who they are and where they belong. Race is often (not always) a clear "tribe" for them and they want to explore that. For some it's really SES that's the commonality but not all understand this yet. People want to have people around them who understand them.

[Anonymous]

Beverly Daniel Tatum wrote a book about this.

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465060684#

[Anonymous]

Probably via the parents and who the parents are friends with and encourage relationships with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids don’t

[Anonymous]

You should see the colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably via the parents and who the parents are friends with and encourage relationships with.

no. It's just what feels comfortable to the kids.

Shared background, subculture, etc..

[Anonymous]

Nope. That may be part of it but you'll see the same thing at most colleges. Mom and Dad aren't telling you whom to be friends with there.

[Anonymous]

My kids attend a school that's 50% hispanic (very few AA) and it's completely divided in racial lines. I have invited the entire class for my kid's birthday parties since K and not one Hispanic kid comes.

I don't think it's parents doing it. I have a pretty diverse group of friends.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in area of the U.S. that was not diverse, but my high school demographics fell into a Goldilocks zone. There were 50 kids in my graduating class, and about 10% of the class was Asian, including me, 15% were Black, 15% were Jewish, 10% were Hispanic, and the remaining 50% were White. My memory may be faulty, but all the friendship groups had a mix of kids because there weren’t enough kids in any non-White group to form an exclusive group. I left the Deep South and went to very diverse college on the east coast and was naively surprised to see kids self segregate on day one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spent a week this Summer at a teens’ coed summer camp and noticed this happening. The African-American kids in particular seemed to really self-segregate and only sit with AA kids during mealtimes.

Our troop is about 40% white, equal amount Asian/Indian, with a few Latinx and AA kids. But at summer camp 2025, they all just seemed to separate this way.

Why are kids still doing this in 2025? Any suggestions to stop it?

Because of 100,000+ years of human evolution.

Think about it, if this hadn't always been happening over the last 100,000 years, then everyone would look the same "ethnicity".