I'm so tired of this type of comment. Anything that's ever even slightly critical of Alabama, and someone has to chime in, "That's not the Alabama I know!"

Bullshit. I've lived here thirty years. That's exactly how it fucking is. Pretending otherwise does nothing more than push the problems aside.

I can't help but think people who comment this way are sheltered white boys who grew up in Huntsville or Vestavia Hills. People who experience the "southern hospitality" because there's absolutely nothing non-typical about them that would lead people to not display that southern faux-kindness. Go to any small town here and you'll see that veneer be stripped real fast if someone isn't a southern white baptist. I mean, Jesus, just last week a friend of mine working in a hospital had to go to a room she wasn't even assigned to because her co-workers didn't want to help an Indian couple. They said, "They're like the.... The Muslim ones, I think? You know. The ones with the little dot? I just don't know what to say to people like that." - the ignorance is constant and pervasive. They know nothing, and they're afraid of what they don't know. This shit happens constantly. Constantly. No. Don't pretend that "Well, I've never experienced this here!" And then pretend it doesn't happen. I'm constantly hearing gas station clerks be called "sand niggers". Any political conversation I overhear turns into right-extremist psycho mumble.

Just, I could keep trying to explain why Alabama isn't worth defending but it's annoying to even do it. I do think it's telling that any time you hear from someone passing through, they almost seem to feel like they're in the twilight zone from how clearly awful it is. It's only ever some moderately privileged person who's lucky to live in one of the few oases here that tries to claim its nothing but some misunderstood haven of sweet personalities and even sweeter tea. Ugh.