As the resident white guy, I don’t stick out in your average small town. I don’t know your specs, but if you’re not like me I can understand your feelings.
But we all have a genetic lineage that is often masked. I once had an exchange with someone who didn’t know of my ancestry. His ensuing soliloquy was a bigoted rampage, drawing upon every textbook stereotype of my ancestors. Btw this was in a city-like suburb of a Big City. This is not to say that I know exactly what it’s like to live as a non-white…I don’t. But based on that little taste I got….
Comedian Bill Burr made a point that racism is rarely like how Hollywood portrays it, where a buncha whites yell at a black guy. Something like “It’s more subtle…people see someone like them, look around, look over their shoulder, and THEN out comes the ‘n’ word.”
Now, let me be honest…some of the biggest bigots are lily white urban leftists. They’re racism is more subtle, usually masked in altruistic language, and reeks of a superiority complex. They’d NEVER say the ‘n’ word (unless you’re white and get them wasted) but as Malcom X said, The white liberal is the worst enemy to America, and the worst enemy to the black man. At the same time, my circle of colleagues when I worked in Manhattan looked like the UN, and I got a LOT of goodness and empirical data out of that which is counter to what I sometimes read here.
I also met some very un-bigoted folks in my small town. Often their Christian upbringing wins the day. They also tend to judge people on their actions and not what someone who looks like them did in Chicago the other night. But for the ones who never left home, they have blind spots.
I am hoping that what’s happening now, is people are realizing that race is waaay less important, and philosophy and mindset wins the day. We black and red ants are finally looking at the jar-shaker with anger. Hopefully.
My minority status, such as it was, came from being an egghead. The only problem that created for me was a sense of not belonging. There was no bigotry directed toward me per se. I always made friends easily but didn't have any who shared my interests.
I knew early on that I would never find career or social fulfillment in a small town and left at the first opportunity.