Reply to If you're a POC, do you feel like you need mainly POC friends?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I went through this transition in my 20s too.

I’m 2nd Gen Indian American, my close friend group is almost entirely POC. I do have a few ethnically white friends, they are first Gen immigrants though. I have first and second Gen Indian friends, first or second Gen Latina and other Asian friends, Black American and a good number of Black Caribbean and Ethiopian friends.

I feel like my interactions with regular White people feels more forced and there is[b] too much judgement about my culture and heritage. Other groups get nuances and differences more. If I say or do something a certain way, it ends up like I’m representing all Indians or something. I don’t judge them for this, I know that their worldview has been shaped in this way because everything around them ‘Eurocentric’ which ‘others’ everyone else.[/b] I just don’t have the energy anymore for it.

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+1  Asian American immigrant here.  100% of my good friends are either POC or immigrants (white or otherwise).  I could never pinpoint why I felt more comfortable with these folks than white American women, but you nailed it.[/quote]

+1 When I was your age, OP, I had tons of white friends (still do). But as I got older, I realized that it is sometimes a little sometimes a lot exhausting having to represent my whole race. So all of my closest friends happen to be "other," to include: black, Asian, Jewish, Arabic and white immigrants...or any immigrants in general. I agree with a previous poster who is white but an immigrant. I think people like that are more tuned into the biases, privilege and peculiarities of American white culture that the rest of us are expected to fit into. [/quote]

+1.  Arab American here and same story.  I basically stopped having white friends in college though.  I always thought this was strange or maybe there was something off putting about me to white people but I guess not![/quote]

+1 
Very true.  I think that the younger generation - gen Z - actually are better in making friends across cultures and do not stereotype as much.  Maybe I am basing it on what I am seeing in a very educated and  diverse part of MoCo and it is not true of the rest of the country?

I have  diverse group of friends, and friends from my own culture - and they are important for different parts of my life.   I find that keeping to just my own race or culture is very stifling because I have to act and conform to the group think.   I do prefer my one-on-one relationships with people outside of my culture  because then our interests match even if it is for specific activities or interests only.   My children though have friends from all cultures (including White) and they are more accepting of everyone. I think of them as the new Americans!!

I am a gen-Xer btw.  [/quote]

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