It seems like every time I talk to someone in Asheville about what they like about the city, the world “diversity” pops up. So many different kinds of people, faiths and lifestyles are represented here. Even though I’ve lived here since the early 1990s, I’ve had trouble agreeing with this view, as Asheville—and downtown in particular—seems to be more increasingly more homogenous from a racial and socioeconomic view.
But maybe I’m wrong. Anyone care to explain what exactly makes Asheville seem diverse?
That’s a buzzword that white-middle-class-hemp-clothes-wearing-carpet-baggers use to let you know that they’re really A-OK with brown people. Really. Now lets go hang out at Mast in the basement next to the wool socks. They wick away water.
That’s a buzzword that white-middle-class-hemp-clothes-wearing-carpet-baggers use to let you know that they’re really A-OK with brown people. Really. Now lets go hang out at Mast in the basement next to the wool socks. They wick away water.
It seems like every time I talk to someone in Asheville about what they like about the city, the world “diversity” pops up. So many different kinds of people, faiths and lifestyles are represented here. Even though I’ve lived here since the early 1990s, I’ve had trouble agreeing with this view, as Asheville—and downtown in particular—seems to be more increasingly more homogenous from a racial and socioeconomic view.
But maybe I’m wrong. Anyone care to explain what exactly makes Asheville seem diverse?
I do not know that many in Asheville understand diversity well enough to articulate it. There is little toleration for diversity of opinion even though there are many opinions to engage and everybody has one. Asheville, in spite of it’s vocal “subculture”, remains a racially divided small city with a culturally diverse white population separated economically and socially from a relatively non-diverse black population. Asheville is not what it seems to present itself as being.
Concrescent - wow…I haven’t seen the term “carpet-bagger” since I was in school learning about the civil war. I’m not sure if you were even using it the same way? It seems to me that most of the Asheville transplants are from the southern States to begin with - perhaps Asheville is about as “cosmopolitan” as they’re willing to get.
Travelah - for maybe the first time to my knowledge, you and I might actually agree about something.
i think when ashevillians talk of ‘diversity’ they really mean ‘tolerance.’ While our reactions vary from uncaring ignorance to knowlegeable empathy, there still seems to be a strong voice of ‘live and let live’ here in Asheville.
i think when ashevillians talk of ‘diversity’ they really mean ‘tolerance.’ While our reactions vary from uncaring ignorance to knowlegeable empathy, there still seems to be a strong voice of ‘live and let live’ here in Asheville.
I’d agree with that. It’s a very tolerant town, at least as far as sexual identity and religious views go. I’ve seen some pretty stark examples of racism and sexism here, but I’d argue that there’s a general trend towards distaste for this kind of attitude.
Its tolerant of you if you are part of a very exclusive, elite group of people from a very, very narrow demographic sliver of the population (middle class, predominately white dropouts with sexual identity politics and simplistic liberal education backgrounds. you know, most of those at Warren Wilson in the past decade.)
So, yeah, if you are a lesbian, trans-sexual, part-dolphin with blue hair and the right tattoos in the right places, who can afford to shop at greenlife, then, hey! prepare to be accepted!
If not, eh, you still have the rest of the country to feel normal in.
i have lived in madison county for (mostly) over 20 years, and worked/played in asheville the same amount of time ... i find madison county much more tolerant of different sorts of people, especially as applies to attitudes, beliefs, etc. than asheville ever was ...
i lived in asheville briefly two different periods of that time (west asheville and montford), but returned to madison where neighbors of all types live in better harmony ...
it’s one thing to experience the PRESENCE of diversity (which really doesn’t exist much in asheville either ... dreadlocks do not constitute diversity) and another to experience the TOLERANCE of diversity. asheville does not have that, and seems to be drifting further and further from it ...
bell hooks is one of my favorite authors and writes books on these issues ... she said that growing up as a poor, black woman, and becoming a well-to-do, highly educated professor and social critic, she had always experienced much more prejudice because of her poverty than color or gender. that rings true in asheville as well, in my opinion ...
in asheville, there is a liberal elitism that is very intolerant of opposing views ... the most “liberal” work environments and social environments there cannot tolerate dissent ... they call themselves lovers of diversity, but they are very threatened by it for some reason ...
as an german who moved to the US, i can see the diversity to some other places in the US.
Here, people are from all over, its not like an old traditional pot where everything is like it was every time.
people are probably an little bit more open to changes, opener to strangers and open to the arts.
that makes people who are loving this moving to this area. all people i met here in the last 3 month are original from somewhere else.
and since people are more from somewehere else, they do not mind that i´m also from somewhere else.
and than… man… talking about food! 1.5 years i where thinking that americans just eat the nasties things in the world…hehe… now i know..NO…wait a minute… there are the others and i found them right here in asheville.
i even find rye flower…since i (ignorant like i can be by time…smile) ONLY german bread, and so i have to bake every other day bread… and everything i need and want they have….lol
asheville is somehow diverse, more open, more relaxed, more mixed in differnet minds and such…
sonja
Clearly this is not the most racially diverse community.
I think there are other ways to describe diversity in this area that is not as typical….
I think the diverse reasons people are moving here and the diverse regions they are coming from bringing diverse experiences and diverse needs, might be one way to describe the incoming population. I also think there is some diversity in the stages of life that people are coming here ...
I think it’s a buzz word. Question might be, who started this idea? Years ago I came to realize that i did not fit into your typical small town environment so I’ve always sought areas like this but don’t kid yourselves, just because there’s a lot of people who do not fit in with the native culture living here, does not mean prejudices have evaporated.
Metro areas are usually the best for people who are “different” can manage to find a safe haven. That is to say, the native culture no longer holds sway, no longer has the numbers to push their values on the newcomers for surely most of the diverse culture is composed of new comers, not natives.
I once attempted to make Lake Placid, NY my home. Why I cannot explain as I do not enjoy winter sports. But, that town was so small that the only way a self employed individual like myself could make it there was to join one of the local churches and try to fit in. Asheville is too big to impose this sort of control. It is large enough that fringe dwellers can create their own gathering spots, networks, etc., but not large enough to really melt into the general population.
People like me always kind of blend into the woodwork as what separates me from the locals is not so obvious. I am not gay, do not appear any different than the average person in the area, live in a new community of people who mostly do not mix with each other enough to discover the differences but, I get by because I have no need for any networking thus can remain more or less anonymous just so long as I am a cooperative neighbor. I also love certain aspects of mountain culture and can sit myself down at a bluegrass festival or Shindig on the Green and blend right in, even communicate with folks on a superficial level and nobody knows my deep dark secrets.
Suffice to say, where my differences have come into direct conflict with local inhabitants has been on forums where my so called “liberal” attitudes have met with derision. But, of course, out in public I do not advertise. If one is friendly and congenial with people one encounters this is all the grease that is needed to fit in, so to speak. Downtown Asheville, on the other hand, has earned the local name “freakville” and the so called freaks do not mind standing out, in fact for many it is part of who they are to make a public statement.
My personal background is so diverse, in fact, that I have no difficulty relating to anyone from farmer to sophisticate , from mechanic to professor, from straight to gay, from Baptist to atheist, from bluegrass fan to concert goer. Most people fit into a narrower mold than I thus I need to change my shirt to fit the milieu I find myself in.
Steve, to me, the defining words for Asheville are “friendly acceptance”. Strangers smile and say good morning to each other here. People chat about the weather while pumping gas into their vehicles. Hippies, yuppies, baby boomers, gen-xers, yankees, locals, Baptists & pagans & Buddhists all co-exist. Martin Luther King would be happy that blacks and whites get along so well in Asheville.
I once saw a pickup truck with a “Sportsmen for Bush” bumper sticker parked next to a Volvo with an “Impeach Bush” bumper sticker. Both drivers smiled and said good morning as they got into their vehicles. We are truly the happiest place in the whole USA. Think I’ll see if Donna Fargo will adjust her hit country song and insert those words.
William, this has been exactly my observation. Take religion and politics out of the mix and we have just men with similar emotions and needs. It’s when we make the mistake of judging others that we close the door to this sort of openness.
