Ethnicity no bar

Perhaps the most striking part about staying in the US and working with people here is how the whole thing makes you so aware of your 'ethnicity'. Now thats just a glorified and made-to-sound-good form of the term 'race'.
No, dont get me wrong, I am not talking about any kind of racism here though, nor any discrimination as such, but just about the fact that in this environment I suddenly find that your accent, your colour and your usage of the English language all tend to have a newfound significance. In India, where of course the South Asians dominate, such things never had too much into them. There, you are just either Indian or a foreigner! The common guy on the street won't even know how different it is to be from the USA or from Serbia.
Here, though such differences rarely go un-noticed. I found myself doing that too and it didnt take me too long to be able to distinguish Koreans from Chinese and Vietnamese from Japanese. Then you hear a white guy talk and you know immediately from his accent that he's Eastern European. And being in California, its very easy for you to identify the Spanish accent and the guys of Hispanic origin. I admit I notice stuff, but I swear I dont know what any of it usually means! What I mean is, people here cant help but notice racial differences among each other, but most people (and not all) fortunately never draw conclusions about individuals from this petty observation.
Its sad, really, that such things are probably the first details that you notice about a co-worker or a hostel-mate. But thats how life here is. The large Mexican influence in this State has another kind of differentiation setting in within the mind-set of the Caucasians here (as some damn forms that still require you to fill out your ethnicity describe them 'Whites, not of Hispanic origin'). However, I feel its too premature for me to comment on that as I have seen a very restricted set of the US population and their perceptions thereof.
I personally was so glad that there are these many Mexicans here! Mexican food rocks, really. I mean apart from all the cheese that they love to stuff all their meals with, the taste and preparations have an uncanny similarity to good ole Indian food. I mean I loved it when I could draw exact parallels like
beans and rice = Rajma Chawal,
Quesadilla = Cheese Paratha,
Burrito = Chicken frankie.
Tortilla = Maize Roti!

So I am still learning how to act/respond in this 'multi-cultural' society. Though stereotypes still exist in a lot of people's psyche here, its great to see that most people (young and old as well) ensure that a person neva gets too conscious of himself. One-off cases keep coming up, when someone's accent is such a huge give-away that you know immediately that guys talking to him are just so curious to know where he's from! But as far as I can see it, its just curiosity. And I also kinda believe that Americans (and this means all races!) at times too get proud of the fact they are multi-cultural and that people from all over the world co-exist here. I do feel its something to be proud of.
But then there was this Indian guy I know who put on a long kurta, which he loves to call his Indian shirt, one fine day and took to the streets. He complained of some people staring at him and kids pointing fingers. Dude! Now, imagine a guy wearing an eskimo suit walking on Indian streets, wouldnt all of us invariably turn around and 'stare amazed' just to get a second look! I mean if some people here find the Indian shirt unique and they look at you a little longer than usual probably just to see what you are wearing, its not discrimination for heaven's sake!

Yupp it takes time :) but its fun!