Melody sounds like an ex-pat....in her own country!
I am in Mexico as I write this, where I have a business. My social life revolves around all the Mexicans I know from running my business. I would say that the vast majority of the ex-pats from the US and Canada hang out with other ex pats in their "safe spaces" if you will. (I hate that …
Melody sounds like an ex-pat....in her own country!
I am in Mexico as I write this, where I have a business. My social life revolves around all the Mexicans I know from running my business. I would say that the vast majority of the ex-pats from the US and Canada hang out with other ex pats in their "safe spaces" if you will. (I hate that phrase because it falsely implies that everyone else is somehow "dangerous"--it's really slanderous.) Many of these people have a language barrier that I don't have. There may be cultural barriers too, but I have a hard time understanding what they are.
There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve. What I find interesting is how much easier it is for African Black immigrants (especially educated ones) to assimilate into mainstream white American culture than many African Americans, particularly at the lower end of the economic scale where de facto segregation is highest.
My daughter works with high school kids in these areas in Newark and Irvington NJ, and the level of alienation her kids feel from mainstream white America is just off the charts. I would also wager that many white Americans would feel out of place in West Newark and Irvington, New Jersey.
So, I guess what I am saying is that Melody has a point, depending on her background. But social separation just serves to reinforce this. It would have been interesting to ask her if there were white dominated environments in which she really did feel comfortable.
"There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve."
Yeah, you make an important point, but you're missing an important distinction. If the title of this post had been, "It's Nice To Chill Alone Or With Folks Who *THINK* Like Me," or "Who Share My Cultural Reference Points," it would have been a very different conversation.
In fact, I'd have been in complete agreement. I often find it exhausting to be around people who don't (by my evaluation of these words) think logically and clearly. And even in Japan, it's nice to interact with people with whom I can speak easily or who watched the same TV shows as me growing up. The point is, I know I can't tell who does and doesn't based on how they look.
Lots of black Americans aren't a part of the "African American subculture" you're talking about. Especially as that culture also varies from state to state and even, in some cases, fro city to city. And some white people, who have grown up in the relevant neighbourhoods, are as steeped in those subcultures and understand their rules just as well as any black person.
I've said here and elsewhere, the fact that some black people in America feel a degree of alienation is understandable. But the *extent* of that alienation, the belief that the entire system is against them, is a learned behaviour and a lie, propagated, sadly, most often by "progressives." Young black people are being indoctrinated, to their detriment, to believe society is always and forever against them. That they need to be kept "safe" from it. And this stops them from participating in it fully. It's racism 2.0.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.
Also IMHO: You should write several articles on Racism 2.0, Steve. I dunno if You coined the phrase, but it's so appropriate it should be patented. TY, as always, either Way...
I lived in Norfolk, VA for high school. I had a lot of black friends. People who would invite me to their homes.
I remember once I went to Richmond, which is not all that far away. The black people there seemed completely different, much more hostile. I remember one young man standing on a street corner with all the hate in the universe in his eyes.
"What I find interesting is how much easier it is for African Black immigrants (especially educated ones) to assimilate into mainstream white American culture than many African Americans, particularly at the lower end of the economic scale where de facto segregation is highest."
Glenn Loury & John McWhorter have hit this point several times. How African and West Indian immigrants come here and get jobs and live middle-class lives and don't seem to encounter all the challenges certain African-Americans do. Shelby Steele beat this drum 30 years ago with "The Content Of Our Character" in which he made the point that it's up to AAs to develop *themselves*, to educate themselves more, push themselves more, push themselves more, aspire to more and work toward it. Loved that message as it also applies to women, too. That's why my Substack welcome tagline is "Big girls don't blame the patriarchy." Grown-ass AAs know the difference between genuine discimination and obstacles (which are real for both) and when the obstacle is in the mirror.
Too many people (everyone) need to get out of their own way, including myself.
"Melody sounds like an ex-pat....in her own country!"
I can't get over how astute that line is. Yeah, I think there are a lotta black people who feel like, if their ancient ancestors hadn't been forcibly brought over to the U.S. of A., they would-a been better off.
Nicole Hannah-Jones comes immediately to mind.
So, okay then. Reparations? Give any black person who wants a free ticket for them and their family, to any available airport in the world. Only cost is citizenship. Make same offer to whites, reds, yellows, and purples.
You think You're bad off? UNBEARABLY bad off here in America? Because America is, at it's core, despicable? Or for ANY reason? ESPECIALLY all You Progressives: Find someplace better and be happy!
NHJ & others might well be slaves *today* if their ancestors hadn't come here first, forcibly or not. Parts of Africa are still very big on buying, selling, trading, and owning human beings.
Thank You, Nicole. I've heard that slavery still exists today, but I've never seen any specifics. Well, I know girls and women can be forced into sex slavery, but not much about it.
It's hard for me to conceive of it.. That it still hasn't been eliminated in this (supposedly advanced) day and age. TY again.
The minimum wage increased to $1.65/hour in 1968. I got paid $1.65 in the summer of that year.
It increased slower than inflation and it has been frozen at $7.25 since 2009. had it tracked inflation and productivity it would be about $24/hour now, more than thrice what it is.
If this isn't slavery, it will substitute just fine until the real thing comes along, as it will if Republicans maintain power.
I was just "talking" with a woman in Australia Saturday. They break minimum wage down by industry and AGE. I dunno about doing it by industry. The bureaucracy involved may not be worth it.
But here's the thing about minimum wage going up: It prices kids outta the market. Who's gonna pay an inexperienced kid $24/ hour? They are, unfortunately, not WORTH that kind-a mondy. So they'll only accept experienced workers at that rate, and then the kids can't GET experience. Vicious circle time.
So I believe there should be carve outs, by age. That's just me.
Well, you can substitute any group you don't want to pay a living wage for "kids" and have the same justification. Facct is that full time at $24/hour is $48K per year, half of which would go to rent in a basement apartment in a lot of cities. It is not much money.
However. Conservatives are constantly making the same forecast and it is not borne out in practice. Even fast food places that pay twice or more than MW don't go out of business; as others do the same, employees have more buying power and lift all boats.
In the Wizzard of Oz they followed the yellow brick (gold bars) road to find the Wizzard of Oz (the Federal Reserve) that gave the straw man a piece of paper (diploma) in lieu of a brain (gold). Think the creature from Jekyll Island. Roosevelt in 33 and Nixon in 71 detached us from the gold standard and crushed us with inflation.
The digital dollar is coming. We will be slaves in the truest sense since the government will no longer need to send men with guns to render you without and currency except barter for private transactions. I told you in the past how the government shut off my wife's access to her bank account without explanation over a form. And of course, there is the tyrant in Canada and what he did to protesting truckers.
I recommend lead (ammunition) as the barter currency for the new digital dollar world. Tyrants are frantic to disarm the citizenry who will increasingly want to overthrow the system. Serfs, subjects and slaves have historically been disarmed by tyrants. We are headed for universal financial slavery.
My recommendation for ammunition as barter currency when we are subjected to the E-Dollar was not a political statement. You won't be able to spend any gold you have for small things. Gold coins and ingots are not easily divisible. Junk silver coins work somewhat for that, but ammunition will be truly valuable and easily divisible.
Individual rounds thru boxes of .22LR, .308WIN, .223, etc. will have very high value when all of your transactions are controlled and monitored. People will be more prone to trade some food or medical supplies for ammunition that precious metals in the gravest extreme.
A Mormon friend once remarked, "Do you think that when the SHTF people will be able to take their guns out into the desert and hunt?" It was a sobering moment for him when I said, some of them plan to come take your large family year supply of food that Mormons are known to maintain. Can you defend it?
I've known too many people who fled to America from collapsed communist countries to think it couldn't happen here. As one used to say, we are three days from barbarism. The majority of people are absolutely dependent upon food and products trucked in on a daily basis.
I don't know why you chant NRA, Hitler, etc. Democrats vs Republicans is just posing as good cop, bad cop. They are owned by their donors and the donors are all business. Interest groups are no different, they are marketing marketing for the businesses.
Business are apolitical but they do deal in illusion to keep us in the matrix. Send money to keep me in office to fight for you. Corporatism. Politicians create winners and losers with their laws and regulations and invest accordingly (the ultimate inside traders).
The left wing/right wing crap is just about keeping us at each other's throats and believing one of them actually give a crap about us. The true believer politicians are the useful idiots of the people who are really running the show.
Nobody is saying the Democrats are angelic, corruption-free, or effectual, they are amply distinguishable from the Republicans. Republicans aren't merely beholden to donors, they are actively and deliberately cruel, and cruelty has become their core value. That breaks the symmetry.
No, I wouldn't substitute any group, just because I didn't wanna pay a living wage.
I'm just stating the fact that kids with no experience aren't gonna be able to get any experience if the wage rate goes up too high. Not to mention that kids aren't normally supporting a family (nor sometimes themselves), so it's not as great a burden as it sounds like if they don't get the wages of an adult.
I would not argue your point about kids living with their parents. For them it's spending money. But for people who need to pay rent and buy food, I'd stick to it, or at least something like $15-20.
I don't know of it happening in the US and to the best of my knowledge is most common to people from so called 3rd world nations.
One related exception was told to me by a Marine embassy guard from Kuwait. Woman shows up with no ID. Met Abdulla in the US. He was a wonderful guy, married him and went to Kuwait. Discovered she was not the only wife; he was a very different man in his own country. She wants the hell out, but he has her passport and all of her ID. This was not a single occurrence.
When I lived in Saudi Arabia my employer had my whole family's passports locked up. A had an iqama a work permit that had my wife and daughters' pictures in the back. If a Mutawa (religious policeman) challenged them being with me, I could show them that. My employer had to authorize us getting an exit/reentry or exit only visa to leave the country. I was a contractor to an American country so it was not as likely to be a problem as it could have been had I worked directly for a Saudi company.
If you don't have control of your passport, you are potentially a slave.
When my wife first came to America, she looked for people who looked like her. If black people in America feel like raisins in the oatmeal, try being Southeast Asian here. After a while she got to the point of, "We wouldn't be friends in Thailand, no reason for it here just because we look the same." When we adopted our niece, she went thru the same thing. Her after school study buddies were Asian.
My daughters had a different path. The half that wasn't seemed to be more important to lots of people than the half that was. Both in America and Thailand. The exception was in martial art circles. My daughter's were exceptionally talented and a big hit with Asian martial artists.
That being said, my wife has more Asian friends than non-Aaian. She still feels the being seen as a "foreigner" thing and her Asian friends are immigrants, rather than "where are you from?" Americans.
Not safe space but something akin to expats hanging together. As an expat I spent more time out of the expat community than most, but perhaps I am at times foolishly brave. I'll leave those stories untold.
Melody sounds like an ex-pat....in her own country!
I am in Mexico as I write this, where I have a business. My social life revolves around all the Mexicans I know from running my business. I would say that the vast majority of the ex-pats from the US and Canada hang out with other ex pats in their "safe spaces" if you will. (I hate that phrase because it falsely implies that everyone else is somehow "dangerous"--it's really slanderous.) Many of these people have a language barrier that I don't have. There may be cultural barriers too, but I have a hard time understanding what they are.
There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve. What I find interesting is how much easier it is for African Black immigrants (especially educated ones) to assimilate into mainstream white American culture than many African Americans, particularly at the lower end of the economic scale where de facto segregation is highest.
My daughter works with high school kids in these areas in Newark and Irvington NJ, and the level of alienation her kids feel from mainstream white America is just off the charts. I would also wager that many white Americans would feel out of place in West Newark and Irvington, New Jersey.
So, I guess what I am saying is that Melody has a point, depending on her background. But social separation just serves to reinforce this. It would have been interesting to ask her if there were white dominated environments in which she really did feel comfortable.
"There is an African-American "subculture" in the US. That's behind the very real concept of "code switching." Maybe that's what Melody's talking about. So, there is much more than "skin color" at play Steve."
Yeah, you make an important point, but you're missing an important distinction. If the title of this post had been, "It's Nice To Chill Alone Or With Folks Who *THINK* Like Me," or "Who Share My Cultural Reference Points," it would have been a very different conversation.
In fact, I'd have been in complete agreement. I often find it exhausting to be around people who don't (by my evaluation of these words) think logically and clearly. And even in Japan, it's nice to interact with people with whom I can speak easily or who watched the same TV shows as me growing up. The point is, I know I can't tell who does and doesn't based on how they look.
Lots of black Americans aren't a part of the "African American subculture" you're talking about. Especially as that culture also varies from state to state and even, in some cases, fro city to city. And some white people, who have grown up in the relevant neighbourhoods, are as steeped in those subcultures and understand their rules just as well as any black person.
I've said here and elsewhere, the fact that some black people in America feel a degree of alienation is understandable. But the *extent* of that alienation, the belief that the entire system is against them, is a learned behaviour and a lie, propagated, sadly, most often by "progressives." Young black people are being indoctrinated, to their detriment, to believe society is always and forever against them. That they need to be kept "safe" from it. And this stops them from participating in it fully. It's racism 2.0.
Yes I understand. Melody probably meant to say “people who think like me” or “people who share my cultural reference points.”
There is no inherent relationship to skin color at an individual level. There is an enormous diversity of culture within what is called “Black” and “white” with plenty of overlap. That is your point I think.
So Melody perhaps inaccurately used skin color as a proxy, which is somewhat understandable given the rough overlap between African American subcultures and African American looking people themselves. But it is VERY rough as you point out.
So I think we agree.
The alienation I was referring to among my daughter’s Irvington students had little or nothing to do with DEI or progressive anti racist ideas. This stuff has very little if any presence in the really poor African American
areas where my daughter worked. She was referring instead to a broad feeling among her students that they had no place or future in the broader culture. A lot of these kids just think they are worth shit. As a teacher this lack of self confidence was by far her biggest hurdle.
When she changed to a more affluent integrated school in DC, the DEI crap hit her like a shitstorm. She is now in disciplinary proceedings for a “name based micro aggression” brought by the parents of a hyper entitled African American kid. She forgot that she was in a new environment. This would NEVER happen in her previous Newark and Irvington schools.
So yes the alienation derived from anti racist dogma is rampant and destructive. But it is not the real cause of the other type of alienation experienced in the poorest and most segregated African American neighborhoods in her experience.
Also IMHO: You should write several articles on Racism 2.0, Steve. I dunno if You coined the phrase, but it's so appropriate it should be patented. TY, as always, either Way...
I lived in Norfolk, VA for high school. I had a lot of black friends. People who would invite me to their homes.
I remember once I went to Richmond, which is not all that far away. The black people there seemed completely different, much more hostile. I remember one young man standing on a street corner with all the hate in the universe in his eyes.
You're knockin them outta the park here, Steve.
In roundabout Way, I "said" similar.
Whites are putrid, but not in the way Melody and a lotta black people think/feel. IMHO. (Yeah. Believe it or not, Humble Opinion. ;-)
"What I find interesting is how much easier it is for African Black immigrants (especially educated ones) to assimilate into mainstream white American culture than many African Americans, particularly at the lower end of the economic scale where de facto segregation is highest."
Glenn Loury & John McWhorter have hit this point several times. How African and West Indian immigrants come here and get jobs and live middle-class lives and don't seem to encounter all the challenges certain African-Americans do. Shelby Steele beat this drum 30 years ago with "The Content Of Our Character" in which he made the point that it's up to AAs to develop *themselves*, to educate themselves more, push themselves more, push themselves more, aspire to more and work toward it. Loved that message as it also applies to women, too. That's why my Substack welcome tagline is "Big girls don't blame the patriarchy." Grown-ass AAs know the difference between genuine discimination and obstacles (which are real for both) and when the obstacle is in the mirror.
Too many people (everyone) need to get out of their own way, including myself.
"Melody sounds like an ex-pat....in her own country!"
I can't get over how astute that line is. Yeah, I think there are a lotta black people who feel like, if their ancient ancestors hadn't been forcibly brought over to the U.S. of A., they would-a been better off.
Nicole Hannah-Jones comes immediately to mind.
So, okay then. Reparations? Give any black person who wants a free ticket for them and their family, to any available airport in the world. Only cost is citizenship. Make same offer to whites, reds, yellows, and purples.
You think You're bad off? UNBEARABLY bad off here in America? Because America is, at it's core, despicable? Or for ANY reason? ESPECIALLY all You Progressives: Find someplace better and be happy!
No sarcasm intended.
NHJ & others might well be slaves *today* if their ancestors hadn't come here first, forcibly or not. Parts of Africa are still very big on buying, selling, trading, and owning human beings.
Thank You, Nicole. I've heard that slavery still exists today, but I've never seen any specifics. Well, I know girls and women can be forced into sex slavery, but not much about it.
It's hard for me to conceive of it.. That it still hasn't been eliminated in this (supposedly advanced) day and age. TY again.
The minimum wage increased to $1.65/hour in 1968. I got paid $1.65 in the summer of that year.
It increased slower than inflation and it has been frozen at $7.25 since 2009. had it tracked inflation and productivity it would be about $24/hour now, more than thrice what it is.
If this isn't slavery, it will substitute just fine until the real thing comes along, as it will if Republicans maintain power.
TY, Sir Chris. You make good points.
I was just "talking" with a woman in Australia Saturday. They break minimum wage down by industry and AGE. I dunno about doing it by industry. The bureaucracy involved may not be worth it.
But here's the thing about minimum wage going up: It prices kids outta the market. Who's gonna pay an inexperienced kid $24/ hour? They are, unfortunately, not WORTH that kind-a mondy. So they'll only accept experienced workers at that rate, and then the kids can't GET experience. Vicious circle time.
So I believe there should be carve outs, by age. That's just me.
Well, you can substitute any group you don't want to pay a living wage for "kids" and have the same justification. Facct is that full time at $24/hour is $48K per year, half of which would go to rent in a basement apartment in a lot of cities. It is not much money.
However. Conservatives are constantly making the same forecast and it is not borne out in practice. Even fast food places that pay twice or more than MW don't go out of business; as others do the same, employees have more buying power and lift all boats.
More later I need to do my treadmill.
In the Wizzard of Oz they followed the yellow brick (gold bars) road to find the Wizzard of Oz (the Federal Reserve) that gave the straw man a piece of paper (diploma) in lieu of a brain (gold). Think the creature from Jekyll Island. Roosevelt in 33 and Nixon in 71 detached us from the gold standard and crushed us with inflation.
The digital dollar is coming. We will be slaves in the truest sense since the government will no longer need to send men with guns to render you without and currency except barter for private transactions. I told you in the past how the government shut off my wife's access to her bank account without explanation over a form. And of course, there is the tyrant in Canada and what he did to protesting truckers.
I recommend lead (ammunition) as the barter currency for the new digital dollar world. Tyrants are frantic to disarm the citizenry who will increasingly want to overthrow the system. Serfs, subjects and slaves have historically been disarmed by tyrants. We are headed for universal financial slavery.
Yeah, that's why Hitler disarmed the Germans.
Oh, wait, no, he didn't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_gun_control_argument
I hope you don't think that NRA types are going to unite against right-wing / financial tyranny .... au ccontraire, that's exactly what they want.
My recommendation for ammunition as barter currency when we are subjected to the E-Dollar was not a political statement. You won't be able to spend any gold you have for small things. Gold coins and ingots are not easily divisible. Junk silver coins work somewhat for that, but ammunition will be truly valuable and easily divisible.
Individual rounds thru boxes of .22LR, .308WIN, .223, etc. will have very high value when all of your transactions are controlled and monitored. People will be more prone to trade some food or medical supplies for ammunition that precious metals in the gravest extreme.
A Mormon friend once remarked, "Do you think that when the SHTF people will be able to take their guns out into the desert and hunt?" It was a sobering moment for him when I said, some of them plan to come take your large family year supply of food that Mormons are known to maintain. Can you defend it?
I've known too many people who fled to America from collapsed communist countries to think it couldn't happen here. As one used to say, we are three days from barbarism. The majority of people are absolutely dependent upon food and products trucked in on a daily basis.
I don't know why you chant NRA, Hitler, etc. Democrats vs Republicans is just posing as good cop, bad cop. They are owned by their donors and the donors are all business. Interest groups are no different, they are marketing marketing for the businesses.
Business are apolitical but they do deal in illusion to keep us in the matrix. Send money to keep me in office to fight for you. Corporatism. Politicians create winners and losers with their laws and regulations and invest accordingly (the ultimate inside traders).
The left wing/right wing crap is just about keeping us at each other's throats and believing one of them actually give a crap about us. The true believer politicians are the useful idiots of the people who are really running the show.
This is sloppy thinking, and beneath you.
Nobody is saying the Democrats are angelic, corruption-free, or effectual, they are amply distinguishable from the Republicans. Republicans aren't merely beholden to donors, they are actively and deliberately cruel, and cruelty has become their core value. That breaks the symmetry.
Well they sure as hell weren't there to defend the Capitol against a violent insurrection. They WERE the violent insurrection.
No, I wouldn't substitute any group, just because I didn't wanna pay a living wage.
I'm just stating the fact that kids with no experience aren't gonna be able to get any experience if the wage rate goes up too high. Not to mention that kids aren't normally supporting a family (nor sometimes themselves), so it's not as great a burden as it sounds like if they don't get the wages of an adult.
Can we agree that $7.25 is way too low?
TY. To make a short story long: From what You posted earlier, I don't think we can possibly disagree. TY again, Sir.
I would not argue your point about kids living with their parents. For them it's spending money. But for people who need to pay rent and buy food, I'd stick to it, or at least something like $15-20.
When people working full time jobs can’t house themselves, eat properly and have medical care all at the same time, slavery is alive and well.
TY. In a way, true that.
https://www.amren.com/news/2019/07/africa-is-again-the-worlds-epicenter-of-modern-day-slavery/
Thank You. Funny that I haven't heard BLM rioting about this.
One modern method is the promise of a good expat job that becomes slavery when your passport is confiscated by your new e̶m̶p̶l̶o̶y̶e̶r̶ owner.
TY Sir Dave,
Vicious.
Does this happens in the U.S. too? Well, thinkin on it: I'm not sure that some illegals aren't in similar situation.
I don't know of it happening in the US and to the best of my knowledge is most common to people from so called 3rd world nations.
One related exception was told to me by a Marine embassy guard from Kuwait. Woman shows up with no ID. Met Abdulla in the US. He was a wonderful guy, married him and went to Kuwait. Discovered she was not the only wife; he was a very different man in his own country. She wants the hell out, but he has her passport and all of her ID. This was not a single occurrence.
When I lived in Saudi Arabia my employer had my whole family's passports locked up. A had an iqama a work permit that had my wife and daughters' pictures in the back. If a Mutawa (religious policeman) challenged them being with me, I could show them that. My employer had to authorize us getting an exit/reentry or exit only visa to leave the country. I was a contractor to an American country so it was not as likely to be a problem as it could have been had I worked directly for a Saudi company.
If you don't have control of your passport, you are potentially a slave.
TY. But man-oh, man-oh! (Makes me glad I don't HAVE a passport. ;-)
When my wife first came to America, she looked for people who looked like her. If black people in America feel like raisins in the oatmeal, try being Southeast Asian here. After a while she got to the point of, "We wouldn't be friends in Thailand, no reason for it here just because we look the same." When we adopted our niece, she went thru the same thing. Her after school study buddies were Asian.
My daughters had a different path. The half that wasn't seemed to be more important to lots of people than the half that was. Both in America and Thailand. The exception was in martial art circles. My daughter's were exceptionally talented and a big hit with Asian martial artists.
That being said, my wife has more Asian friends than non-Aaian. She still feels the being seen as a "foreigner" thing and her Asian friends are immigrants, rather than "where are you from?" Americans.
Not safe space but something akin to expats hanging together. As an expat I spent more time out of the expat community than most, but perhaps I am at times foolishly brave. I'll leave those stories untold.