During my four years in Kentucky I've had some pretty great times! I made lifelong friends, dated and married my best friend plus I became Dr. Lauren. For that, I'm thankful for my time here. However, there are some things I won't miss. Being a minority in Kentucky is clearly different than most other states. There is a prevailing sense of "Good Ol' Boy" syndrome--translation: it's not what you know, but who you know and if you're not Caucasian, you don't know them. Despite being educated and well mannered, in some people's eyes you are still below them because your skin color doesn't match that of the majority. For example, I visited Fayette Mall on Tuesday, as I often do, to shop some sales. I saw online that J. Crew was having a sale and I desperately need new professional clothes for work. I walked in and browsed around the front of the store for a few minutes. Customers who entered after me received a solid "Hello! How can we help you?" whereas I was never acknowledged. Sadly, as I am used to this type of behavior from them, I moved to the back of the store where the sale items were and started pulling out clothes. After a few minutes I had 3 pairs of pants, two or three shirts, shoes and some accessories all piled in my arms. Girls next to me who were also finding good deals were asked by sales associates "Ma'am, do you need a fitting room started?" but no one ever looked my direction. At one point another shopper said, "Miss, do you want me to get someone to help you with all that stuff?" I thanked her but declined her offer of kindness. Just to make sure I was giving them a fair shot, I walked all over the store, pulling out items I liked and adding them to my growing stack of apparel. I saw one sales associate RUN past me to help a woman, who had one pair of khakis, find a shirt that coordinated with them perfectly. Disgusted at my clear mistreatment, I politely went to a table full of neatly folded sweaters and pushed them all to one side. My very heavy armful of clothing was plopped into the center of the table because I refused to make any attempt to put the items back where they belonged. I left with just as little acknowledgement as I received when I entered. Needless to say, I won't be returning to this J. Crew ever again.
Ricky and I, on our last trip to San Antonio, loved how nice it was to look around restaurants (of all levels--gourmet and fast food) and not see people who all looked exactly alike. I have yet to receive poor service there based purely on race as the minorities are the majority. Do I think all people in Kentucky are bad? Absolutely not. Do I think all Texans are perfect? No way! But until you've been a Black female in Kentucky you won't really understand why I never want to live in the Bluegrass state ever again.
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