Arkansas people

Hmm, and we didn't make it out again last night, either - Cat spent the bulk of the day at something called Patchy Quilters, where they seem to have really not been very nice to her (just ignoring her & not including her). It's the 3rd or 4th time she's attended them, and she seems to get badly handled by them every time, so she won't be going back there.

But it left her in a foul mood - at first she decided to go spend the evening with Betty, her friend, who has a Monday night sewing group: but then changed her mind, and spent the evening at home, reading (and stewing, I think).

Oh well, the people here really are quite peculiar. Some of them are tremendously friendly, and a lot of them are initially charmed by our funny accent, but ... there seems to be so much sexism, and so much scarcely-hidden racism, at every turn.

Cat had agreed to perform dog-sitting for our next-door neighbours (who have 4 dogs), so spent several evenings over there last week, acclimatising the dogs to her presence, and she was quite shocked by the open racism they exhibited to her (something they wouldn't expose in 'mixed' company, but, well, that's how that goes).

Holly, the wife, took us to their favorite diner for breakfast on Saturday, and sure enough, it was 'authentic American southern diner', complete with couples (all with the male sitting on the outside, the women against the wall, in all the booths), and of course Confederate flag and lots of Southern Pride bits & pieces. Shame, as the food was actually very good, but still, we won't be going back there.

I should emphasise, I suppose, these people (our neighbours) aren't ignorant or stupid - he's a psychiatrist, and she's a senior teacher - but they still seem to have this overlay of automatic racism, and they don't seem to feel any need to try and rise above it. I know I have plenty of unconcious racism still, but at least I struggle against it, at least I know it's wrong. That doesn't seem to have fully penetrated, in Arkansas.

More pontificating tomorrow, I hope.