No New Friends: Or Why We Don't Have Happy Endings in America

In an unsurprising study, Americans don't mix. The headline screams that 40% of whites and 25% of non-whites are surrounded by their own kind. Historical data most likely would suggest that this number has been in decline. It also relies on a self-defined meaning of "friends" before going further into how often people actually mix across races.We could take these numbers to mean a whole slew of different things and create a myriad of stories about our present time. There are definitely more inter-racial relationships and multi-racial children than there were in years past.

 So, if a melting pot of a post racial America is what you were looking for in the time of Obama, it's not what America is.

Maybe that's why we can't fully complete the move from Friends to Happy Endings. It's just not who we are. Our workplaces may resemble The Office or Parks and Rec,  but we still live in a Friends vs. Living Single, Girlfriends vs. Sex and the City society. Our friendships and circles don't follow the neatly one person of color  world that great tv writers would like to purport. And, when it does, dare I say Fox got it right with their depictions on The Mindy Project or New Girl.  

Alas, at least there is a common denominator. If  you want proof that hip hop is what connects us all, "all I have to say is, no new friends, no new friends, no new friends, no new friends, no no new...."