The last time I truly felt unsafe in a public place was a little barbecue restaurant in a central Texas town of 10,000 people. They thought my wife looked Middle Eastern, called her a sand n-word, and chased us out of the restaurant.
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A friend of mine just moved out of Llano for that reason. She couldn't take it anymore, and she's white. She bought another place in New Braunfels instead. Austin people retiring to the surrounding towns are having flashbacks to the 60s.
People who are traveled and open minded culturally do not understand how intimidating it is for someone from Bumfuck, Kansas to encounter a foreigner with "weird" language and food. Society makes them feel obligated to accept difference, and they simply don't want to.
I grew up in a small insulated white town. There were two reactions to visitors from other languages/cultures — fear and curiosity. Familiarity eventually overcomes most fear, but it’s never everybody even among the fearful — just the subset that react to fear with aggression.
I grew up in a rural West Texas town and somehow didn't end up a rube. I do not think I possess anything special that prevented it; merely a sense of curiosity.
Curiosity may not seem special, but it's actually THE diffentiator. Many people in both rural and urban areas are profoundly incurious, and therefore unable to see past their own environment, lives and interests.
this kind of black-and-white generalization helps no one and alienates the well-meaning people who happen to live near the dicks you're trying to criticize.
Only time I've felt unsafe in NYC was steppeding outside someone's apartment after midnight and it was completely deserted. Surrealness was played up by harsh street lighting (high kelvin, not incandescent) and literally no people, moving cars, nothing. Felt fine when I got back where it was busy.
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I have some guesses.
I don't give a F - U - C - K.
The best Cooper's is in Mason, too.