Diversity in Madison. Does it exist?

I wrote my first couple of blogs recently and was asked more than a few times what I thought was lacking in Madison. Simply, for me, it’s diversity.

I hate to say it but Madison is just not the most diverse place in the world, and when you’re a young professional just starting out, you would naturally want to find a city that you feel comfortable in—a place that you can call home, with people you like to surround yourself with and who make you feel as comfortable as possible.

I’ve never been the most active person when it comes to diversity related issues, but I know what I like about the people I surround myself with. While I grew up in white suburbia, I’ve lived all over the world, and I like my fix of diversity. I’ve been brought up with it. I know this might sound kind of foreign but when we were younger and moving around from city to city my parents would always make sure my siblings and me were surrounded by other Indian kids. Obviously they wouldn’t go to the same schools that we’d go to, but that was why my parents stressed even more that we make friends with them.

Back then, I resented my parents for forcing me to be friends with them or even try to understand what their reasoning was behind it, but now I realize how important those kinds of friends are. My parents never forced me in college to be friends with all the Indian kids, somehow it just kind of happened. My closest and best friends mostly happen to be Indian or Pakistani. I never actively sought them out; somehow we were just drawn to each other. We shared the same experiences growing up (such as being forced to be friends with other Indian kids!) and it just made it so nice to be able to be ourselves around each other without having to explain every little detail about our lives.

Don’t get me wrong, I love explaining about my culture and my life and my experiences growing up, because I absolutely love people’s genuine interests in wanting to learn more, but sometimes it’s just easier to not have to do that. I just like people to know that I can never have enough spice in my food or that when you enter someone’s house you just take your shoes off.
And when it comes to Madison (I’m not just talking about the Indians or Pakistanis, I’m talking about all the ethnic people that somehow seem to leave the city after they finish school) I’m sure they all have their various reasons for leaving, but I’ll bet diversity, or lack thereof, is a huge part of it.

I wouldn’t even know where to begin to try and fix the lack of diversity in Madison, but I do know that it will be a long process. And to be perfectly honest, yes, Madison might not be so diverse ethnically, but I have never come across people who are more interested in learning about and welcoming to a diverse crowd. So I guess Madison does seem to have the foundation for being more diverse, it just needs the right people to stick around and make it happen.