“We’ve started having problems in this area that we never used to have before,” a local resident says. “It’s all those people who come from out of town and spoil things for us here. Crime, dirt – all kinds of problems, and all because of people from out of town.”

“What, like us?” I ask, shocked at uncharacteristic rudeness.

“No, no, of course not!” my interlocutor looks appalled. “You and N are wonderful people. I mean folks from out of town.”

“We are out of town,” I say. “Hell, we are from out of the continent.”

“No, no,” the local is getting frustrated. “I mean, you know, those people, FROM OUT OF TOWN, you know?”

4 responses to “From Out of Town”

  1. Benoni Avatar
    Benoni

    Maybe they meant people who don’t live in your town travelling there and messing stuff up because they don’t need to respect a town they don’t live in? Not that I’m on their side, this is all conjecture.

    People are weird.

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  2. good enough professor Avatar

    See, you got hung up on the “out of town” part and missed the key information: “those people.” When a white person is talking to a white person, “those people” = “black- or brown-skinned people.” I’m guessing “from out of town” means “Spanish is their first language” + “‘I’m not racist so you’re not going to catch me saying ‘Latino’ or ‘Mexican.””
    ;-). And if you’d figured that out already, forgive the Yanksplaining.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar

      In our area, it’s definitely an allusion to black people because nobody has seen any Hispanics. It took me a while to catch up with what was meant.

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      1. NancyP Avatar
        NancyP

        Yep, it is the old “but we can’t extend Metrolink from E. St. Louis to here” syndrome.
        I’d be worried about the deer collisions.

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