Encountering like subraces

[jojocircus]

I was wondering how you respond when you encounter somebody of the same race/subrace. Are you friendlier/less friendly? Do you notice others of the same subrace or do you just not care? Personally, I sometimes notice others of the same or similar subraces looking at me. Usually I ignore them because I don't know what else to do.

[buddyrydell]

Oddly enough, I think this can and does occur sometimes (then again I guess it may not be so odd). Personally, I have friends of all types of backgrounds and I'll pretty much strike up a conversation with anyone under the right circumstances, but here and there I've noticed people who look as though they could be Italian, Greek, or other Mediterranean types glancing over at me, I guess it's only natural due to the fact that I have a Mediterranean background. I'll say hi or smile like I would to anyone else.

[Evan1211]

Since Im in high school I see many different subraces from Nordic to Mediterranean (its a rural school so there arent any non-Caucasoids.) My friends know about my "hobby" of races and they get me to classify them and others. Its funny to them that I can know what ethnicity they have just by looking. ;D

[buddyrydell]

shark087 said:

I base friendships on how a person acts, if they're respectful etc. however its only natural to be more connected with people of the same race more for cultural reasons. The school I go to the main ethnic groups are 1) German/Irish 2) East Indian 3) Serbo-Croatian 4) Romanian 5) Chinese 7) Portuguese/Ital 6) Hispanic/Black by my own estimate of course and these groups tend to group together.

Lemme guess, you're either from the East Coast or Chicago (going by the broad diversity). I'm from the suburbs of Pittsburgh. The high school I went to was so white. There was really very little diversity. I'd say the only minorities of any size at my school were East Asians/East Indians. They were approximately 10% of the student body at most, with a few Black/Hispanic students thrown in. As for the mostly white student majority, it was divided mostly among Germans, Irish (including some Protestant Scotch-Irish), Italians, Poles, and Jews. Of course many, if not most of the white students, were a mixture of any number of those European ethnicities.

[deuceswild]

Nope, can't say that it's the case for me. In high school I had friends of all types of backgrounds (Icelandic, Ukrainian, Asian, Indian, black, etc.).

[eufrenio]

buddyrydell said:

Oddly enough, I think this can and does occur sometimes (then again I guess it may not be so odd). Personally, I have friends of all types of backgrounds and I'll pretty much strike up a conversation with anyone under the right circumstances, but here and there I've noticed people who look as though they could be Italian, Greek, or other Mediterranean types glancing over at me, I guess it's only natural due to the fact that I have a Mediterranean background. I'll say hi or smile like I would to anyone else.

Perhaps it´s got to do with the fact that familiar faces seem more friendly:

Far from opposites attracting, people tend to choose friends who look like them, research suggests.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3613570.stm

[Gus Morea]

I act the same (within reason) towards pretty much everybody.

I do catch myself staring at people of the same or similar subraces though, especially after having frequented forums like this one. "Look at that occipital flattening and convex nose on that specimen. Must be Dinaric...." LOL

I've been on the other side, since I often catch Med-type people staring at me too. My brother and other Greeks have told me that it happens to them all the time. But it seems like it's mostly people "fresh off the boat" that stare, and not as many Americanized people who just have Med-type ancestry. Americans are taught that it's rude to stare, but I guess this isn't so in other countries.

jojocircus said:

I was wondering how you respond when you encounter somebody of the same race/subrace. Are you friendlier/less friendly? Do you notice others of the same subrace or do you just not care? Personally, I sometimes notice others of the same or similar subraces looking at me. Usually I ignore them because I don't know what else to do.