Gettysburg, PA

[shadowkat]

Today, I asked my co-worker, whose family hails from Haiti, so she's Haitian-American, how she enjoyed Gettysburg, PA. She'd visited Gettysburg over the Memorial Day Weekend with her fiancee. And she told me that she felt...unsafe, and anxious the whole trip. How surprised and somewhat shocked she was to see the number of confederate flags in the souvenir shop. Across one wall was huge Confederate Flag -- stating it's not about the War or Racism, but about Heritage, and how the South will come back to what it once was -- eventually. The town that they visited was all white. It was the first time she'd been in a place in which she was the only person who wasn't white.

The cafe they ate it -- they were the only non-white patrons. The other patrons were starring at them like they didn't belong. In fact at one point she asked her fiancee if there was something on her face -- because she didn't understand why the people in the table near them were staring at them for so long. When she got back to their room at the hotel, all she could think about is how badly she wanted to go home. The whole weekend she felt anxious and uncomfortable.

Afterwards, she told her fiancee that they were going to research a trip thoroughly before going. And he would have to do his historical war visits with friends, she'd prefer to go to a beach or somewhere that she could relax and chill.


[I deleted the rest of this post, because I decided what I said was not important.]

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Hmm... I haven't been to Gettysburg (other than passing through it on the way to other locations since a field trip in junior high school. We toured the battlefields and the usual stuff-- I don't really remember much of it, too long ago. Certainly back in the 1960s it wouldn't have surprised me to see the things your co-worker saw and experienced, it is more than a bit sad to hear about it today.

For what it's worth, she might better enjoy a trip to Philadelphia.

Even traveling just 60 miles to the east from Gettysburg to Lancaster, PA, where yours truly resides, you wouldn't find such behavior to be the norm. I'd say the city population demographics are pretty close to what I found listed online:

The population of Lancaster, PA is 40.7% White, 38.5% Hispanic, and 14.2% Black. 36.2% of the people in Lancaster, PA speak a non-English language, and 94% are U.S. citizens.

Now, that's the city, mind you. If you venture out into the largely rural county areas, you'll find it still predominantly white. Politically it's a flip too-- in the last presidential election, the city voted something like 72% for Hillary Clinton, whereas overall in the county it was more like 62% Trump.

Despite the conservative leanings of the county, I will say that the majority of folks around here would not be so rude to an outsider like your co-worker. The area has a long history of taking in all manner of immigrants, and continues that to this day.

/end plug for my hometown

-OnM

[trepkos]

How awful. You'd have thought her fiancee might have thought more carefully before taking her there.