My parents are both from a small urban area and the country. They are the people you talk about- people who rarely experience much culture and go to the nearest familiar place whenever they're somewhere different, which happens rarely. They are baby boomers, who's values seem to be know your place and just run the rat race, so they never aspired to travel much. Up until I was around 17, I thought like them.

I've been very fortunate to be able to travel and appreciate our world and open my mind. I can't imagine a life without sushi now, but it was something my parents would've found too strange or disgusting to even think about.

My point is, that leaves me with a little cognitive dissonance. I had a good childhood, I was very lucky. They also threw some casual racism around me a lot as a kid, and I'd regurgitate that. My entire community was pretty racist and xenophobic (we're talking Northern Ireland during the troubles here, so people didn't trust each other nevermind people from elsewhere). All I can say is I feel like I've been very fortunate to leave the headspace and open my mind fully. Before the internet most people were trapped in that situation for life, and they never heard a different worldview.