As a Chinese American, I kinda have this self-imposed rule to never enter the boundaries of a red state, and even within Blue/Purple states, to avoid ending up in some rural town. Bascially, half of my country is inaccessible to me due to my perceived fear of potentially being a victim of racism.
Am I being paranoid?
I may have some insight here actually. I recently ate in a buffet (bonus, with the local church crowd that had just been released) in a small town about 45min from my house, the type of place that has no signage or anything (beyond the name on the front) because you’ve either been there before or someone you’re with has, so you’re just expected to know “plates here, line starts here, pay here, bathrooms hidden here for some reason,” etc. I am a white guy, but never been to that small town, so all the patrons were looking at us like “who the fuck are those people” simply because they knew everyone else there at least in passing or “seen around town” but we stuck out like a sore thumb simply for being “new.”
Could’ve just been that.