Houston, specifically. The Economist has some nice things to say about us:
Mr Kotkin particularly admires Houston, which he calls a perfect example of an “opportunity city” — a place with lots of jobs, lots of cheap housing and a welcoming attitude to newcomers.
He is certainly right about the last point: not too many other cities could have absorbed 100,000 refugees, bigheartedly and fairly painlessly, as Houston did after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. With vibrant Asian communities alongside its balanced Hispanic, white and black mix, with no discernible racial tensions, and with more foreign consulates than any American city except New York and Los Angeles, Houston is arguably America’s most enthusiastically cosmopolitan city, a place where the future has already arrived.
We Heathen call it Home. The state itself is certainly not without problems (as the article points out), but Our Fair City gets all too few shiny notices such as this.
No discernible racial tensions? Isn’t there a black surgeon (wasn’t he as M.D. Anderson) in Houston who would strongly disagree with that statement based on his being pulled from his Mercedes and beaten by the Houston Police in a blatant racial profiling incident? Did I make that up? Of course, one incident doesn’t racism make, it just creates tension. I thought I read about that incident on your website even. All the same, good on Houston. Its cosmopolitan nature, Texas style, probably does give it a good leg up.
I haven’t googled it up, but the surgeon-getting-roughed-up story I recall was about an old white doctor. Even so, sure, there have been racial incidents with the cops, but that’s more of a cops being dicks thing.
What they mean is that racial politics in Houston aren’t like racial politics in other places. Our makeup here is too equal (about 30% each white, black, and hispanic, and 10% everything else), and the mix too rich, to sustain the kind of resentment that is more common in places like the traditional South.
Those are nice things to say. I would say that there are certainly racial tensions in Houston, however, as I have seen it up close and personal as a civil rights lawyer in this town.
But, he is not saying they do not exist. What he appears to be saying is that there is a higher level of tolerance in this city. And, I believe that is true.
There are bad apples, no question. And, they can be quite poisonous. But, for the most part, we do have a tendency to “get along.” I believe a lot of that is the incredibly international flavor of this city.