I'm a Tex-Mex Houston boy. I'm now middle aged, which I don't feel, and have lived here my whole life. I recently went on vacation; a nice drive from Houston to South-east Missouri and the drive was beautiful. Love SEMO and I love St. Louis. But when I stopped to eat along the way or on side trips to small towns I felt like an outsider for the first time.
Most people don't realize that Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the country. In elementary school those many years ago, my friends were white, black, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Hispanic, and equally distributed between boys and girls. It was a rainbow and that is all I've ever known
However, in the first stop outside Dallas, the restaurant was all white. I was the only Hispanic customer. It was odd to me. Now, we in Houston joke about Dallas all the time, but people don't tend to mix a lot in Dallas from what I've been told. You can go to any enclave of Houston and you will see a mix of races and ethnicities. That is just how it is here.
I experienced the same thing when we stopped to eat in Little Rock, at a nice restaurant in Evansville, IN, and a fast food joint in Branson. I've been going to SEMO for ten years now. I find it relaxing and Cape maybe a small town but it feels like a big city in many respects. I've never felt like an "other" there and that may be because its a college town. But even as a gay Hispanic man, this time was the first time I've ever felt different because of the color of my skin.
Now, I was never treated badly or anything like that anywhere on this trip. But for ME coming from the background I do, it was disconcerting. Like I said, you can go all over the city of Houston and run into a rainbow of people. My Honky boyfriend (as he describes himself) even commented on the lack of diversity in the places we visited.
I think I am glad I grew up where I did and grew up in a rich diverse environment. It helps me deal with all the different issues that come up in my work life. The real lesson for me was simple. There is an America out there that is not diverse, that is not integrated. It's something I had never encountered over an extended period of time. I think I can understand how racial fears can be played. And abortion is very much an issue in these places. But the people who live in these places are PEOPLE and they were nice, friendly, honest, hard working people.
It can be easy to dismiss them as Republicans or whatever else one might call them, but I think change at the pace society is changing has rocked foundations few thought would be cracked. Society is no longer homogenized, but diversity has become the norm.
I loved my vacation. It just happened to be eye opening as well.