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?
A little paranoid but I’m similar and while I’m white, my family is Asian and none of us want to visit red areas. It’s not as dangerous as say, being LGBTQ+ or otherwise looking a certain nonconforming way, though. The worst we’ve got over race is my wife being assumed she doesn’t speak English which is frustrating but not dangerous.
I personally just avoid places like that because I’m also very uncomfortable around religious people. If they knew how atheist I am I’d be hung in an instant (or worse, prostelytized to!)
White straight male, I live in Tennessee right now. I have to avoid being in public areas around people for extended periods to keep myself out of trouble. I remember I had an appointment I had to go to recently right after the Zelensky Trump meeting at the white house (maybe an hour). I walked in and they have 1 large TV in the lobby playing Fox news and the lady behind the counter is saying “I don’t see how he can be President if he doesn’t want peace” regurgitating some bull shit narrative she’s being fed. It takes a lot to not say, “He wants peace, if someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night and takes your kitchen and signs a peace deal because you want peace and then keeps shooting at you in other rooms then takes the dining room, are you in the wrong for saying the only way towards peace is to get out of your house?”
This happens in Blue cities too 😅
I’m like bruh, I’m awkward and introverted, not like I’m a foreigner on my first day in the country 🤦♂️
I think the world “atheist” is gonna trigger a lot of negativity. “I’m not really into religions” would be a better phrase.