hanging out with people who know why it
is bizarre to only have
friends who look exactly like you.
Seriously. It has been difficult to find someone who
doesn't think it is normal and natural to primarily associate with people who look like you, regardless of whether those people have anything else in common with you.
Here is a story to illustrate my situation and my point. Let's say I moved to a new neighborhood named Sesame Street. Who are
the people in your neighborhood? There are Big Birds and
Snuffleupaguses and
Counts and various
monsters and
domestic partners and grouches. Let's say I'm a frog. I could hang out with Kermit and his nephew Robin, but they are often busy with
The Muppet Show on another set. I could hang out with the other characters in my neighborhood, who seem nice overall. The problem is, those characters tend to segregate themselves by gender or by category: the boys, the monsters, the birds, the grouches. It's hard enough to break into a clique. It's even harder when many of these characters have never before met--much less befriended--any frogs before; and previously, their closest encounter was with those burping
Budweiser frogs from the TV.
So, if 1) the other frogs are rarely in my neighborhood, and 2) the people in my neighborhood are confuzzled by frogs in general, then who am
I supposed to hang out with? :(
I encourage you readers to take an honest look at the people in your lives. If you look to your left, then you look to your right, and your closest friends are near carbon copies of you--down to the highlights in your hair, or the lack of hair all together--you should think about that. Just like the employees at
Enron failed to diversify their 401K portfolios, your homogeneous friend investment could lead to high vulnerability. But most importantly,
frogs are super nice and sometimes shy, so you should try to include them, i.e., me. :)
.