Glendale Armenians: As a non-Armenian who went to junior high and high school in Glendale, CA, I’ve felt intimidated and been threatened. I think the only thing that stopped them from hurting me physically was that I always tried to stay out of their way. If you confront one, you find yourself confronting 4 or 5 more.
7 ANSWERS
Michael Merrill, Chief Prober: TheVelocityLabs.com, Career Coach, Media Executive, Dad, Hubby
I have lived or worked in Glendale and have for over 16 years. My best friend is Armenian. Glendale is ranked one of the safest cities in the U.S., which speaks to the generally close community Armenians (who are about 1/3 the population). My experience with Armenians across both have been great. They have fantastic family cultures with very close nit families. They have each others back and if you have friendships with them they have your back too.I can see how approaching a group would be intimidating. That said, it is easy to feel that way with any large group as you automatically feel like an outsider.
Anonymous: I am a Glendale native and lived in Glendale for more than half my life.Usually I get along with the Armenians. One of my jobs had a lot of Armenian co-workers and I loved most of them. At Glendale College (as well as in High School), most of my fellow students were fine. But there were *those* Armenians who were pushy, didn’t seem to want to assimilate, and (forgive me) smelled bad. They also seem to be more prone to want to haggle in business and rip you off if they can. They are part of the equation too.For the most part I feel nothing bad towards Armenians. If I encounter one and they seem friendly, then I feel warmth. If they have certain characteristics (that I’ve outlined above), that sets off alarm bells and I avoid.
Anonymous: You can certainly find more upper class communities of Armenians around the world than the one in Glendale Armenians. But most people from the Levant, the former Soviet Union and Iran – whether Armenian, Jewish, Druze, Arab Christian, Muslim – are productive and successful in the USA relative to other groups. Big public high schools in California or New York are unfortunately always a bit of a jungle. Glendale is heaven, relatively speaking. The schools are safe and highly ranked in terms of student achievement.