I lived in Houston and the surrounding areas for a good long time. (Three of four hurricanes.) I would argue that what you left out is the fact that Eastern Tex

I lived in Houston and the surrounding areas for a good long time. (Three of four hurricanes.) I would argue that what you left out is the fact that Eastern Texas has a more evenly distributed racial makeup than places like the Bay Area. Yes, maybe they have some hispanics and blacks in the Bay Area, but it's not quite like a place like Harris county for instance where you literally could have an even mix of all three. Along with a large foreign contingent of arabs, asians, and africans. (I would even bet that Harris county along with a surprising amount of eastern texas is actually majority minority. I'm not sure, but it sure seems like it.) At any rate, if you tried to do business the way they do it elsewhere as a retailer or restaurant, you'd go under. There is just not the population numbers that would allow you to do that. This is not to say you don't have areas that make the San Fran model work. (Just visit Rice Village if you want a sort of "authentic white/asian elitist experience".) But most businesses are going to need to be open to serving everyone. Because like I said, it really did seem like most of the people, at least in Houston area, were either hispanic or black. (I'll admit that my view of Houston was coming from the perspective of a small town Wisconsin farm boy type. So it's entirely possible that Houston is not majority minority. But it really did seem like it to me.) EDIT: Just looked it up. Harris county, and a lot of east texas is, indeed, majority minority. It's about 60% black and hispanic. It's about 31% white. So, yeah, it wasn't just my imagination or my upbringing.