Growing up Indian

The article “Communities” by Joshua Zeitz focuses on something we talked about many times this semester, which are people of the same ethnicity living in areas heavily populated with their own kind. Even today this idea exists not only in living close to people of the same race but also their children growing up together.
    My parents came here when they were around 20 years old and began living in the Bronx right next to Yankee Stadium. They did this because it was close to their colleges and their jobs but also because a lot of their family and friends that moved from India moved there. When I was born they wanted to move somewhere more suburban so they moved to Rockland County because once again that was where they knew a lot of Indians. Growing up in Rockland, my parents felt a lot more comfortable sending me to an Indian family to be watched rather then any of my neighbors. Even going to birthday parties of my school friends was rare for me. The people my parents forced me to grow up with were all Indians until I was about 14.
    After reading this article I realized that it’s not only where you live but also how you are raised that determines how comfortable you will be assimilating with other people in the future. Growing up mostly around Indians made me a lot more comfortable around them and grew so close to them that even in the future I can only see an Indian as my best friend. My parents since they grew up in India understandably want me to marry an Indian girl.
    You would think that America being described as the melting pot would be more integrated but as the immigration into New York City continues people continue to feel closer to those of their own color. Instead of all ethnicities being fused together in America it is closer to a lot of different clumps in one place. The way I was raised I believe I’m going to be closer to Indians my whole life but things may be different in later generations.

I put this picture because this shows my friends that I am closest to and as you can see everyone is Indian.