There is tremendous long-term harm when Americans accept ethnic and class balkanization as a de facto fixture of American life. I think that impoverishes our understanding of each other. Richard Benjamin More Quotes by Richard Benjamin More Quotes From Richard Benjamin I always say that you should remake flops, not hits. Richard Benjamin remakes should It's the texture of New York that people miss by filming elsewhere. There are layers and layers of character - even in the pavement - that you can't get anywhere else. And the speed that the people move. It's so different from other places. Richard Benjamin new-york missing-you moving The interesting thing about Georgia is, Atlanta is teeming with middle-class black people and black people with money - and yet there is still segregation. Richard Benjamin atlanta class people I had been hearing on-the-ground buzz that white folks were moving to places like Bend, Oregon, and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and St. George, Utah. That led me to discover through census data that these towns were already extremely white and they were becoming, in most cases, even whiter. Statistics could only tell me so much; in order to get to the spirit and essence of it, I had to immerse myself. Richard Benjamin oregon white moving Louisville, Colorado, which was just voted by CNN and Money magazine as the best place to live, is a veritable Whitopia that is unaffected by the housing crisis and even the severe recession. You look at the best places to live, according to Money's 2009 list, and 9 of the 10 are Whitopias. Richard Benjamin louisville colorado cnn By 2042, whites will no longer be the American majority. Richard Benjamin majority Problem with segregation isn't that people can't live in peaceful harmony singing "Kumbaya" - although that wouldn't be bad. The problem is that many of these Whitopian communities are taking state, local, and federal resources with them. Richard Benjamin peaceful community people With growing and intermixed minority populations, our democracy can not work optimally unless all people are integrated as full and equal members, and I think our collective freedom requires that. Richard Benjamin democracy people thinking I concede that segregation can allay social tensions immediately, but it further debilitates us in the long run. Richard Benjamin segregation running long When well-qualified, upper middle-class blacks or Latinos or Asians move to predominantly white neighborhoods, there's what's called the tipping point. That tipping point is generally 15 percent; at 15 percent you begin to see white flight. Richard Benjamin white class moving If I were an immigrant Latino not born in the US, I could not have written Searching for Whitopia: An Improbably Journey to the Heart of America book. And that is because many of the Whitopians would not have been comfortable talking about their views on immigration, talking about their views on taxes. And they wouldn't have spilled to me the new script on race and poverty as they did. Richard Benjamin journey heart book Of course, there isn't really a black population in Idaho or Utah. Richard Benjamin idaho black utah In the pioneer West Whitopias, immigration tended to be the dominant social and racial issue. In Forsyth County, Georgia, immigration is still an issue, but because you have that complicated history of the Trail of Tears and slavery and Jim Crow, the Whitopia has a different flavor. Richard Benjamin crow issues tears The reason our country looks the way it does is through social engineering that distinctly benefits suburban communities, exurban communities, and often white residents. And we are socially engineered in such a way as to, often unconsciously and unintentionally, but sometimes intentionally, perpetuate this divisive inequality. Richard Benjamin engineering white country People would say, "You know, Rich, it's nature. Birds of a feather flock together." I have to point out to them that, no, that's not the case. Richard Benjamin together bird people I don't want to live in a monoculture of any kind. I don't want to live in a wealthy monoculture, a black monoculture. I don't want to live in an elitist, progressive monoculture. Richard Benjamin black kind want I was surprised by how forces in the community could mobilize against a community changing. There were many examples of this. In St. George, members of the Latino community proposed having a "Dixie Fiesta." The resistance to that surprised me. Richard Benjamin dixie community example I hope we have American-topias. Richard Benjamin All we need is a few more Zika hotspots and there will be a shortage of platelets across the country. Richard Benjamin company-news That risk is always going to be there. People who donate blood within two weeks of exposure always will be missed by testing. Richard Benjamin health-news
