From Out of Town

“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 thoughts on “From Out of Town

  1. 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. 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. 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. 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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