Whats with white people and cold weather?

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This is something that never fails to both beguile and entertain me every winter. Not being caucasian, I do not understand, so please, someone here help me out. What is with white people and cold weather? Specifically, without fail, every winter, I see many many many white people walking around without jackets on. The weather can be at or near freezing and they freely walk about in t-shirts, sandals or shorts with just a small jacket on to keep them warm. Can someone explain this one to me? I just kinda laugh, I have nothing negative to say, but I've always been a bit curious.

Maybe they're just daft or can't be bothered to wear a coat. There's daft people of all colours, though.

I'm a honky, and I don't understand it either. My dad and cousin are both like that. I usually wear two coats in the winter.

I wear a T-shirt and shorts when morning lows are in the 30s.

Tim

Probably white people can stand cold better. Many young Swedish women walk around in short skirts in the middle of the winter...

That can't be as hot of an image as I'm thinking it is. But as to the main question, I am white and don't wear coats. It is my way of showing that I'm not cold, and it probably proves strength on some unconscious level. It's like when black people have those weird breakdancing competitions, or asians have calculus races.

I wonder if it is an evolutionary thing too. If you look at maps and the origins of people, especially in the US, you will notice that persons of color tend to originate from warmer climates (Africa, Middle East, India even the olive skinned people will have originated from climates such as the mediterannian and souther Europe) whereas white people tend to originate from colder climates (Norther Europe and Russia). The only exception to this rule seems to be those from East Asia (China and Japan).

It is also known that people will not move too far from the climate that they are used to. This was especially true in the 1800s when farmers were common and a farmer would stay within the climate zones that they knew best how to grow in.

That may be an explaination.

What about Native Americans?

Tim

stereotypes ftw. its funny to see how people stereotype others. Thus far, blacks like hot weather and can dance, asians do calculus, whites do not dress warmly in winter, and are thus, strong. Anything else I'm missing?

Yes, white people are not strong. Those roidheads Giambi and Mcgwire notwithstanding.

I'm white and I can't stand the cold. But the thing is, I hate having to wear a coat. And when it comes to shoes in the summer, it's all sandals all the time. But back to the whole cold thing. I was born and raised in Texas for quite a while so I guess I'm just used to the heat. Right now it's only about 60 degrees here in Indiana and I'm basically freezing right now. So unlike most "white people", I can't stand the cold.

People with pale skin generally come from areas with colder weather and less sun. Thats why they have developed a skin with less melatonin, because they need all the sunshine they can get.
So, generally, they might be able to handle cold more easily, perhaps to the degree that the more stupid one's don't realize that they should probably put something on.

Personally, I prefer cold weather to warm weather, because cold weather can be defeated with more clothes, but when it's warm, you can only take off so much clothes before you're naked.

I disagree. Compare a person from Japan, Manchuria or Beijing with a person from Hong Kong or perhaps Vietnam or Thailand and you'll see that asian people from northern places are generally paler than asian people from southern places.
But take also into account that Western europe is a whole lot farther north than you might think.
Advanced civilisation is possible so far north because of the warmth of the Gulf stream.
Beijing, being a city in northern china, is about as far north as Madrid, a city in southern europe.

Of course, other factors play in, such as if they're farmers/nomads or city-folks, for example (Farmers and other people living out in the open a lot are generally more tanned, being more exposed to the sun)

I haven't heard of a skin color latitudunal gradient among western hemosphere natives, who live from the arctic to tierra del fuego. They might have been here 40,000 years, which might translate to two thousand generations. Skin color ususlly has variation among human groups, so it seems that natural selection could have got started on producing the standard color gradient if it wanted to.

I'm not aware that people in equitorial africa are darker than native people in southern africa. I guess people have moved around a lot, and the same would apply to western hemisphere natives, but people in europe have moved around a lot too.

This makes less sense the more I think about it. I love stuff like that.

I get SAD. I try to remain in denial of winter for as long as possible. People make fun of me for wearing shorts in December.