mobile, alabama

i went on a trip to mobile, alabama today. the project i'm working on involves a car race. the company has decided to use the mobile international speedway as the location, and i joined the group of coworkers to check it out. this is the first time i've stepped foot in the deep south. (in my head, the DEEP south consists of mississippi, alabama, and georgia. louisiana has creole and cajun influences that distinguishes it, and south carolina is geographically not as south.)

granted, we were only there for a few hours to check out the speedway and then had lunch at a local joint in mississippi so i know i'm not giving the deep south a fair chance. but i still had a feeling that i wouldn't see much diversity in the population today. i was right. people i met and saw were either white or black. everyone was nice, but i felt like an alien.

i've lived in lexington, ky, but there's a tight-knit chinese community. being a marine town, jacksonville, nc is really diverse (especially the female population). then, there was durham and chapel hill which are college towns. los angeles and new york which are metropolises. the only other time i felt so out of place was stopping for gas in kansas. come to think of it, at least the people i met today were really nice. the people at the kansas gas station stared with no reservations.

it's just odd to still run into places in the 21st century where i feel out of place on a racial level. i guess america will always be america.