Hi there, Native Houstonian here. Growing up in Houston, I can tell you that I was born and raised as being "color-blind" - it's not something that I even thought much of when I was young, but, every school I went to was extremely racially and culturally diverse. My best friend since 3rd grade is 1/2 Jamaican and 1/2 Jewish. When I look over all of my old photos from when I lived there and when I visit, I miss my friends I grew up with of every ethnicity, my friends from Vietnam, who introduced me to Pho and French coffee, and how tight their family culture is compared to American culture. My African American friends who shared so much insight with me through the years, including what it feels like to be a black person. My friends whose parents are 2nd generation Americans and who spoke spanish, but, chose to not teach their children Spanish, in fear that they might be viewed as "different" or end up working as hotel maids somewhere. I'm still best friends with The Flores family, amazing people. How dare you try to group Houstonians into your closed-minded little Liberal *Bubble. Guess where I'm living now? San Diego California. Want to see and feel what True oppression feels like? Come on out to California where we have NO housing, all of our real estate is foreign-owned, I have to pay 3500.00 a month in rent for my 2-bedroom townhome, just to get my child into the Only decent school district in the city! My electric bill and water bills average $200 each monthly - for a 1600 sq ft townhouse! The city is *SEGREGATED. When I go for Chinese food, we are the Only "white people" there and people look at us strangely and are slow to serve us. Come on up to the welfare state...see how you like living here for a bit if you don't like Texas. I've been here for 2 LONG years already and experienced such a low quality of life, miserable people, just trying to get by so they can pay their rents on one hand, on the other hand, we have the uber-wealthy and the atmosphere: closed, unkind, pretentious, narcissistic. Very difficult to make Real friends, or, any friends at all for that matter. You are so lucky to be living the good life in Houston. I bet you haven't lived many other places.
Elizabeth | Austin, TX | Report Abuse

Colleen, I am not living the good life here; I still feel unwelcome. But don't just take my word for it. - People on Reddit, City-Data, Whisper, etc. under the Houston routinely say racist things, seeing that they are anonymous. - I have seen older Asians call black people the N-word, at times even mocking Martin Luther King, Jr. as if he is unimportant. - If minorities experience harassment post-Trump election and you don't feel sympathy for them or have the drive to speak out against these people who carry such harassment, then you are what's wrong with society. I've seen people dismiss such crude behavior as "false flag" incidents. - Cost of living, political corruption, etc. is a challenge. But, as a minority, every time I see statewide politicians rile up the most racist segment of the population, I seriously feel like jumping off a bridge because it seems like many people, mostly whites, support such rhetoric/behavior. Maybe if San Diego or California elects a politician that literally says white people threaten your life, then maybe I will look at things differently. - Do you really understand what minorities went under? Maybe you listen to them, but understand them? Or do you get your perception of minorities based on what loud-mouthed Republicans say? Or maybe you're one of these people that say white people are oppressed? From experience, every time a minority speaks out against racism or whatever they went through, whites here frequently respond "STOP BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT!" or mockingly deride you as a liberal, like you, Colleen. - Again, discrimination is STILL a problem. Racism actually is much prevalent in the nightlife, especially when there has been reports of discrimination in nightclubs, as cited by Yelp and Google reviews. - The fact that an LGBT discrimination ordinance cannot pass is ridiculous. This is the 21st century, folks. - I can make friends with people of other races, but it is still frustrating to talk about discrimination/race with whites here in this part of the country. For example, every time a black person wants to talk about police brutality, white people quickly dismiss you as a thug, animal, or welfare moocher. This seriously happened on Facebook and real life, and I am still shocked that this is reality and not a cartoon/skit made by Hollywood. I seriously cannot trust a white person here after seeing incidents like this happen frequently. - Which brings me to voting rights. Often, politicians want to exonerate "voting fraud." Except very few cases happen before they implement such laws, and they only cause more problems in the voting booth when it comes to showing identification. Let's not forget gerrymandering. Not that the opposite Party, the Democrats, do not do this, but Republicans have gerrymandering down to an art. I mean, why is Montrose grouped in the same congressional district as Humble, Kingwood, Spring, etc? - I can anticipate the same welfare moocher argument from you, Colleen. And I ask you one more question. Although Asians are affluent and highly employed in the workforce, why do most of them vote Democratic instead of Republican? Why is it that mainly white people vote Republican? The Republicans did have a diverse set of people like a Latino and a woman, but they chose a narcissistic, angry xenophobe. Let's not forget, welfare doesn't take up a lion's share of the federal budget, but rather, the military. Not for healthcare, but for corporate contractors. Maybe you do not have to necessarily completely agree with me, but rather, understand why I feel baffled, no, distressed at the way things are. You can say that only liberals live in a bubble, but maybe quality of life doesn't always mean wider roads, more fast food chains, and the chance to drive your Chevrolet Suburban (with the air conditioning on full blast and 89.3 or 99.1 blaring through the speakers) on the way to the money-grubbing, reactionary mega church down the block. And then grumble about "Yankees" while honoring old Confederate soldiers as if they fought in World War II and waving the Confederate flag with pride. But really, if Houston is the greatest city in America, maybe America isn't what it's all cracked up to be.
Ken | Houston, TX | Report Abuse

Please correct your voting demographics, you have been misinformed. Houston, San Antonio, Austin and even Dallas, the major cities of Texas, went for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, according to the Houston Chronicle. Texas city residents are more educated than rural Texans. It is rural Texas that loves Trump and voted for him. Three were enough rural people who voted for Trump to make the state go for the Republicans. And out state govt. in Austin is Republican, but we hope to change that. As for racism, I am sorry you have experienced that. I see Houstonians as being very open to all races. When a crazy bombed a mosque, Christian church members went to help repair and protect the mosque. There are racists of all colors everywhere, but Houston is NOT known for being racist. We have always gotten along, except for back in about 1918 when the U.S. govt. sent some Buffalo Soldiers (black) here and stationed them in what is not Memorial Park. They went on a rampage and rioted one night and killed Houstonians asleep in their beds. But that was a freak incident. We all get along. We have a lot of crime because it is a big city and any criminal who wants to can move here. They know there is a lot of stuff to steal here and think it beats working. We have a fine chief of police we hired away from Austin, Texas, and he has other idea about criminals doing their evil deeds here. And local city govts. in Texas are mostly Democrats, not Republicans. So don't call us Republicans!!! The Republicans are mostly the rural people,
Jesse | Houston, TX | Report Abuse

Please correct your voting demographics, you have been misinformed. Houston, San Antonio, Austin and even Dallas, the major cities of Texas, went for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, according to the Houston Chronicle. Texas city residents are more educated than rural Texans. It is rural Texas that loves Trump and voted for him. Three were enough rural people who voted for Trump to make the state go for the Republicans. And out state govt. in Austin is Republican, but we hope to change that. As for racism, I am sorry you have experienced that. I see Houstonians as being very open to all races. When a crazy bombed a mosque, Christian church members went to help repair and protect the mosque. There are racists of all colors everywhere, but Houston is NOT known for being racist. We have always gotten along, except for back in about 1918 when the U.S. govt. sent some Buffalo Soldiers (black) here and stationed them in what is not Memorial Park. They went on a rampage and rioted one night and killed Houstonians asleep in their beds. But that was a freak incident. We all get along. We have a lot of crime because it is a big city and any criminal who wants to can move here. They know there is a lot of stuff to steal here and think it beats working. We have a fine chief of police we hired away from Austin, Texas, and he has other idea about criminals doing their evil deeds here. And local city govts. in Texas are mostly Democrats, not Republicans. So don't call us Republicans!!! The Republicans are mostly the rural people,
Jesse | Houston, TX | Report Abuse