OFF TOPIC - Vic's trick

I went to Google and typed in "fabric stores in San Diego," because that's where I thought Karen lived. You do that for any area or town in the country, or world for that matter and a list will pop up, or many websites with listings will come up as well.

It's a great tool when traveling and you want to know where Thai restaurants are, etc...

Victoria

I believe Karen lives in the great ethnic "peasant" mecca of Sacramento.

Ya. I have nothing to add LOL.

Splutter!

Pat P

As a matter of fact, we DO have a very large and diverse immigrant population: all manner of Asians, scads of Russians and Ukranians, Africans, South Americans, Greeks, and the omnipresent Mexicans. Many of them are from peasant backgrounds, and dress in their ethnic peasant clothing, not the Western-style suits and ties affected by businessmen in their homeland.

Whites are no longer the majority in Sacramento, and are on their way to not being the majority in California.

I find the variety of food and other items to be fascinating, and often shop in ethnic stores in safe neighborhoods. I do stay away from unsafe neighborhoods, and would no matter whether the people there were immigrant or native-born Americans, since I'm no longer able to fight off an attacker. I know several suburban women who won't come downtown because they're afraid of the homeless (who are predominantly white), even though downtown is (according to police records) much safer than the neighborhood where Hi Fashion Fabrics is located.

However, I simply don't choose to dress the way they do, which doesn't in any way mean that I'm looking down on their cultures as a whole. What was it Lucille said the other day that "different" is OK? Different isn't "less than" it's simply "different from".

You can appreciate someone's food and culture without wanting to become part of it. I love Japanese food, but I have no desire to wear a kimono (which is a good thing, because the ones for sale are designed for people 9 inches shorter and many sizes smaller). Conversely, the fact that I'm not interested in buying a kimono doesn't mean that I do not appreciate my Japanese friend for the diversity she adds to my life. She has never for one minute seen the insult that you infer from my lack of interest in trying to look like her (which is pretty darn impossible for a tall redhead) or dress like her family. Her grandmother would look just as ridiculous in my grandmother's German dirndl as I would in her kimono, and she accepts that my style is different than hers, period, not that I am insulting her culture by not trying to look like them.

I never once said I disrespected these people's culture, just that their clothing is not my style, and therefore I would not spend the time and money to make clothing from their ethnic fabrics. In what way is that any different from a SAHM saying she wouldn't spend the money on a dry-clean-only business suit and silk blouse that would stain every time baby spit up on it? It's not HER style to dress for appearing in court, just like it's not my style to try to look Russian, Vietnamese, Mexican, or anything else that I'm not.

Better do your nominal research. I didn't look hard, one hit and this came up. I hardly believe anything you say, but not because you lie, it's because you blow it out your ass most of the time. Am I to believe in five years the population of non-whites in Sacramento, or all of California if you wish, went down below how many "other" races are there?

Well, with your good breeding and all, sure.

Do you know this is what you sound like:

Yak yak yak yak yak yak yak. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. Beep boop bop beep beep boop boop bab. Bababababababa.

I lived in the great city of New York for the better part of my life. I never, not once EVER saw anyone wearing a kimono. Get a grip on yourself. I have never SEEN a kinomo being sold, not anywhere.

YOU DON"T SEW SO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? What's with this constant mention of business suits? You haven't worn one in years. Stop bringing them up.

Elizabeth

Yes, but my point was California is not in danger of being all minority. Not with those prices. I just spent 9 days in Santa Cruz on a retreat and I went up to Trader Joes, here and there, and I don't think I saw one brown face in the bunch. Not even the clerks in the shops. The whole thing is really silly, anyway, because there is someone in the discussion who doesn't sew and we were discussing fabrics, patterns, and things related to that.

I'm not sure I understood what your last sentence meant. Whites will continue to be...long after we are not longer the majority? What did that mean? I'm pretty slow on the uptake of such matters :)

Jinx I got the same impression from her long descriptions mirjam

@yahoo.com> wrote:

Oh, I like!

A request for "craft store derry nh" shows me a place I've never heard of before. And about billion scrapbook stores!

Thanks Victoria!

Cheryl

I think, perhaps, she hopes that if she uses enough words we'll miss the actual meaning behind them.

Caryn

Um. Have you been shopping in Chinatown? I bought my DD a kimono there spring of 2005. I agree that I didn't see anyone wearing them, but there were plenty for sale in NYC.

Right, but California would not have to be all minority for the white people to no longer be the majority. Nor would any other group have to become the majority for whites to no longer be the majority.

Well, yes. And in fact the statement that *I* would have to buy fabric at the Wal*Mart that I've been boycotting since nobody else sells clothing fabric these days was an example of inappropriate generalization from limited experience, quite clearly. We have a very nice local chain called Fabric Place here in the Boston area.

I was pointing out the difference between a plurality and a majority. Most people use the terms interchangeably, but a majority has to be more than 50%. So Bill Clinton, for example, was elected with a plurality of the popular vote (43%) since he had the most votes, but not over 50% of them. So when Karen says that soon white people will no longer be the majority, she's technically correct. We will still be the largest group, but we won't be more than 50% of the population, so we won't be the majority.

Elizabeth

I lived in Brooklyn and worked in Manhattan up until 1995 and I did see people wearing kimonos and burdas and caftans and saris and pretty much any other kind of ethnic style you could imagine.

Maybe that's because I worked right where all the major, aka expensive, hotels were and there were visitors from all over the world. I guess you never walked down Fifth Avenue or Madison Avenue on a warm spring day.

Lucille

I worked on Madison Ave & 57th street for several years. I rarely if ever saw a woman in a kimono. Yes, caftans on occasion, and then usually not on actual Africans, but on African-Americans. I saw, and still see, lots of saris. I can see why women from India don't want to give them up, the colors and fabrics are just so beautiful, and they look very comfortable, especially on hot muggy days (as we get in the D.C. area where I live now).

I'd love for my local fabric stores to carry that sort of fabric, to be honest. Mostly here it's either fabric for quilts or fabric for gowns, and very little in between. It's not exactly encouraging me to sew again, I don't dress in ballgowns or calico! lol

caryn

Bowing with humility~!

...and what IS it with scapping? It seems there's a scrapbook place on every street these days. I love all the pretty papers, but I buy then, cut them up and use for stationery (sp?). What I wish I could find is a great price on large sheets of navy blue card stock. I have a huge project I need tons of that color for.

Of course, (ahem) Major Moxie in Chinatown you'd find Oriental influenced clothing for Asians, what I meant is that the implication that people are walking around Sacramento in droves wearing peasant clothing and kimonos is a bit of a stretch.

Ah, okay. I just learned something. I actually never heard the term "plurality" so I was happy to see your definition in parenthesis. Now I fully understand. Thanks for explaining that.

Back when I hung out in Central Park by the Fountain, beyond the Mall and at the bottom of the great steps, every Sunday was a cacophony of fashion. People would walk around and around the fountain and on one side there were steel drums playing, the other conga drums and on the other side hippies with flutes. I did see African garb, etc. I am not talking about the occasional person dressed in their native clothing on Fifth Avenue. Actually, for a part of my life growing up I lived on West End Avenue and 72nd St. which was two blocks from The Dakota. So, yes I've been to Fifth Avenue and I worked at 360 Madison Avenue. So, do you believe there are people walking around in kimonos and burdas in Sacramento in droves?