Looks like the comments here are all over the place on how much of an impact it has, but I'll give you my perspective as a hispanic in the US. Race is intimate

Looks like the comments here are all over the place on how much of an impact it has, but I'll give you my perspective as a hispanic in the US. Race is intimately tied with culture, which impacts your upbringing and interests. People form bonds over their interests and experiences, like talking about their childhood or the TV/music they like--the more these differ, the harder it is to form that first superficial work bond. Even when the differences aren't huge, it compounds enough that friend groups in the US are highly self-segregated. To pick another race, it's not rare to see Asian-Americans who were born and raised in America hanging out with a group of friends who are all Asian-American. The reasons could be as simple as bonding over the foods they ate growing up, the ways their parents raised them, and the TV shows / music they listened to (e.g. much more open to C-/J-/K-pop). It's the same effect for all races/ethnicities I've seen. Note that this ignores the more subtle but still important effect of people naturally liking people who look and dress like them, which has obvious racial and cultural ties too. For example, there are studies in the US that show that white people are fine living near black people, but not too many black people. Overtime, simulations show[1] that almost any definition of too many results in self-segregation. IME coming from a working class background, economic background has a similar effect on relationships, but economic background is not visually obvious like race so it's less discussed. [1]: http://ncase.me/polygons/ http://ncase.me/polygons/