Patsy Nakell, The writer is the editor in chief of the magazine Ny Tid. Currently she is on leave and studies at Harvard University on a Nieman grant in 2007.

New England in the north-eastern USA looks nearly like the Nordic countries. It´s not just nature and the climate that look familiar, but above all, it´s the mentality. A polite, light small talk, which Americans have developed into an art form is missing in Boston.

But things mustn´t be exaggerated. Nevertheless, this is America, and we Scandinavians, including those with Arab blood in their veins, have to make an effort to adapt ourselves. Despite stereotypes, not everything in the USA is negative.

A typical feature of American culture, which is my source of admiration and wonderment, is a spectrum of cultures. Boston is conspicuously colourful at least to a resident of Helsinki. What I find the most fascinating is the street scene, but equally fascinating is how and what people talk about. Diversity, discrimination, cultural identity and representativeness are concepts that are discussed equally naturally among the white American population as Finns keep talking about reducing taxes.

A diverse character of society is something that has been learnt to be taken for granted.

In the previous Congress elections Massachusetts got its first black governor, Democrat Deval Patrick, who recently appointed Juliette Kayyem, an Arabian-American professor at Harvard, in charge of Homeland Security. The decision has been celebrated as courageous and correct because Kavyem has been an outspoken critic of internal security policy, i.e. Homeland Security.

In this country people tend to be particular about diversity. Universities take pride in their black students, companies compete on a place on the Diversity Top list, which is targeted at enterprises responding to cultural diversity in the most positive way. At Christmas the airport in Seattle had to remove Christmas trees after receiving complaints from passengers who had been irritated by Christian symbols. Indeed, overreactions occur, but there is something touching in this society which endeavours to attend to the fact that all its citizens can feel they are normal and they contribute, in spite of their culture, race and colour of their skin.

Unfortunately not everybody receives similar appreciation. There is a population group in the USA that has entirely been left to its own devices, in other words, the poor.

According to author Walter Benn Michaels, Americans are, in fact, obsessed with cultural equality, but couldn´t care less about social-economic equality. Even a cultural war is all right if it isn´t a class war.

At top universities, such as Harvard, you can indeed admire a fantastic diversity among students and teachers, but it´s a diversity that just extends to the colour of your skin. To both poor white and black students, top universities are most often unattainable. Only the genuine bright sparks of the lower class - a rarity in any class - can compete at an academic level with those who have been provided with healthy food, good education, a peaceful home, career counsellors and so on.

The world where the colour of the skin or a culture differentiates us has a problem which can be solved relatively easily. We learn to tolerate cultural differences, even praise them. On the other hand, the world where people feel worse and worse because some have (much) more money than others, has a problem which requires just a little more than nice tolerance. In other words, it requires measures and sacrifices.

As Nordic people we can sigh of relief. As a matter of fact, we have a generous welfare society. At least for the time being.