A response to Leo's Question on Thursday's class discussion

As a transfer here in Baylor just for one year, and an Asian international student, I would love to use my personal experience to response Leo's question about the friendship between students in different ethnic groups.

The question is why Asians always be friends with Asians, blacks always be with blacks, and whites are playing with whites.
Well, in my personal opinion I would say the main reason is that making friends with the people similar to you is more comfortable. And even among the same ethical group, people are tending to find friends that are similar to them. We are growing up in different families, which mean we have different living habits and cultural background. Even though Chinese share the similar  living style with Vietnamese, the living habits gap is narrower that the gap between Chinese and African Americans. Family education counts a lot. In most Asian families, I believed that children are required to sleep and get up early, which is believed to be good for our health. Also, Asian students may more tend to share with each other. A friend of mine means that a person could share all my secrets. However, most of the Asian students are "shy"during the class, which due to the education system in Asia, most of the classes are lectures, and it would be considered as offend to the teacher to interrupt the lecture even though one has a question.  So, when communicating with the foreigners, most of Asians are good listeners, rather than a speaker.

I have an African American roommate last semester. I was not getting along with her during the whole semester. I thought the main problem is the different living style. She loves to listen to music while studying,  and what worse is that she listens to the music through the TV, which means she could not wear a headphone. And she gets used to sleep with the TV on during the night. I sometimes complain to my Asian friends. All of them felt her behaviors are unbelievable, however, when I told these to another African American friend, she doesn't think that was not such a big deal. From then, I gradually find, with a consistent ethical, you have a larger chance to find someone matches your life style.

Well, things are same within an ethical  group. When I was studying in Sichuan University in China. Most of my friends came from the northern parts of China. Because northern parts of China share the similar eating and drinking custom. While, the southern parts of China share the same customs. The more common things you share with each other, the easier or more chances you would have to become friends with each other.

If we have to use Aristotle's friendship to explain this, I thought it dues to the "pleasure". You can share the pleasure with each other because the people you are getting along with shares the same or similar topics with you.