Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zxcvbn4038 | Hacker News Reader

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People can be the biggest challenge. You’ll discover that the further you get from the immigrant friendly areas of the east and west coasts. My advice to newcomers has always been to stick to the interstates while traveling within the US, and general feedback has been they thought I was a loon until they drove down a state highway and got pulled over by the cops six times wanting to know if they were lost, or got stared at constantly by all the rural people who had never seen a non-caucasian in person. The biggest issue is that most Americans can’t distinguish between the different varieties of non-caucasians so regardless of where you are from you’ll get a lot of random flack for stealing people’s jobs or blowing up the World Trade Center. Once while traveling I had a one year old girl refer to my wife as the N word - the parents didn’t cause any problems and they noticeably stuck a bottle in her mouth really quick after she said it, but obviously the girl had been present at enough discussions that she thought that is what non-caucasians were called. I imagine that when not patronizing Arby’s the family must just sit around the TV every night and holler out slurs every time they see a dark skinned person - not sure how else a one year old would pick that up.

this sounds almost like parody. Most immigrants I know had remarkably good experiences in more rural and less cosmopolitan places. Yes, the sort of 'redneck racism' for a lack of a better term exists, but on the other hand people are actually generally curious, kind and if you manage to work your way into a community you'll actually not only accepted but have people to rely on.

I suspect the take comes from a very white collar background. If you're a highly educated immigrant you'll do well in America's coastal states, if you're a blue collar immigrant good luck entering the service class.

And this is actually backed by data. Contrary to self-image major US metropolitan areas are highly segregated, more so than the south, and interestingly enough the mountain west and plains states have the lowest levels of segregation

https://belonging.berkeley.edu/roots-structural-racism

Anecdotally I’ve observed in rural areas, from which I was born and raised, fast food jobs, paper delivery, some janitorial work, etc., are all done by teenagers who do it for summer cash or just building their initial work experience. In the metro areas, where I live and/or travel, these jobs are exclusively staffed by older immigrants.

I don’t think it’s fair for people to say you’re lying. People in the rural US really can be quite racist. Same in rural anywhere I suppose. I lived in Taiwan for a couple of years and although the racial ignorance does not go as far as racism and violence (maybe except toward southeast Asians) it’s strong. People will stare, comment under their breath, make ridiculous and insulting assumptions about you, call you names, etc. During the pandemic if you didn’t look Taiwanese some people wouldn’t even let you inside their shops or restaurants, they’d request to see your passport and travel history but let Taiwanese-looking people waltz right in.

I do think it’s fair to say people in rural areas of any country have less exposure to people outside of their own little tribe. Hopefully this continues to change as internet becomes more omnipresent.

The only challenge you describe is your own bigotry. Your stories do not match the experience of any immigrants I know, including my wife. I can’t imagine where in the US you would find “rural people” who have never seen a non-Caucasian. African-Americans and Mexicans have been in this country as long as white people.

One-year-old children don’t form meaningful sentences, not even in rural America where families eat at Arby’s and holler out slurs at the TV.

You can find bigots and racist people everywhere in the world, including among immigrants to America.

I did an internship in a largely white rural town (e.g. ~0.5% black). One of the other interns who was black confided in me that he was uncomfortable walking around town and grocery shopping, since he was stared at constantly.

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