A 2013 American Values Survey (AVS) by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) revealed that in America, we have shockingly homogeneous networks: most of our friends are of the same race as us. This is greater for White people: on average, a White person’s network is 91% White, while 83% of a Black person’s network and 64% of a Hispanic person’s network are racially alike. Three quarters of White people in America have networks that are 100% racially alike, including no one of a different race in their networks, compared to 65% of Black people and 46% of Hispanic people.
There’s a value in connecting with people who share your identify, but also in “connecting across lines of difference.” A diverse network gives you the opportunity to listen authenticity and retrain your mental models. You will have more opportunities to learn about other cultures, about history, and the experience of stereotypes. Diversity even carries an intrinsic benefit: you are driven to more fully investigate your own beliefs when you expect to defend them to people with a different racial or gender identity.
Because people of color experience racial prejudice and microaggressions as cues of non-belonging, the first step to inviting more people into your circle is to start to heal yourself as a “smog-breather.” Racial prejudice is like a smog in our air, relates Beverly Daniel Tatum in Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria. “If you breathe in smog, you will breathe some out,” she explains. We must clean out our air and treat any internal damage. Find entertainment and education that will challenge tendencies toward silence or toxic conceptions of other people. For White folks, allied groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) offer a chance to first unpack harmful, learned narratives among members of your own group.