Sunday, June 24, 2007

Segregation By Age

At a large barbecue today, I noticed that the people in their 90's sat together, those in their 60's together, those in their 50's together, and those in their 20's together. (Not all decades were represented, though there were a few outliers). No one made anyone do this, and the barriers were not impermeable, but the tendency was very strong. Some few people crossed over to discussions with other generations quite easily, and close relatives were equally likely to be with family as with age-mates.

I have long thought that age is a bigger segregator than race. When my boys played soccer or basketball and I came to a game or practice, I gravitated to the parents regardless of race, not the kids in the stands. I might talk to the young people a bit, particularly if I knew one well, but my comfort zone was with the dads. New Hampshire may not be a good measure of this because racial minorities are super-minorities here - though the Christian schools tended to have a higher percentage than the public schools. Perhaps it is different elsewhere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ageophobic, Geezerophobic, Juvenileophobic.

I am OUTRAGED!