different languages, seeing different dress. The employees all have name tags with their first name and what languages they speak. THere are flags from all over the world hanging from the ceiling. It makes me feel... included?

that's dragging Georgia kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

can come to see us. And many want to, at least until Turnip and the Reich Wing manage to destroy our society.

I went to one of the most diverse universities in the country (20% foreign students at the time) and my college experience would have been much less without that. I actually feel sorry for people who attend "middle American" state schools and church-affiliated schools and never have the experience of having their "normal" values challenged, or hearing how other people live, and what their value are.

By 'foreigner' I mean someone whose native country I wasn't lucky enough to be born in.

After a few decades of kicking around here, I've started to be able to identify people who don't look like they'd be a fun "conversationalist", or whatever. It's not that I want to delve directly into politics or religion, but sometimes the ability to have an off-handed comment about the current state of affairs is nice.

Maybe it's when you are at a check-out and look at them (and they you) and you see empathy, or see an empty soul.

Trading. Helping each other out. Enjoying the safety net, regulations, and services that a strong government provide.

They fucking HATE it!

In fact, they hate that.

I was looking for an extension cord and asked an employee for help. It turned out he was deaf, and he handed me a device where I was supposed to (I thought) type in my question, and I couldn't figure it out so another employee, who barely spoke English, came over to help. Somehow between the three of us, we put it together and I got my extension cord, and everyone was happy. Why people can't appreciate that is beyond me.

Last edited Sun Jul 27, 2025, 03:49 AM - Edit history (1)

I think he had just run to the restroom, but people were lining up to place their orders (they stayed pretty busy) and the only employee around didn't speak English and was looking a little flustered standing at the register and telling one person after another "No English". Of course they had a printed paper menu, so after waiting a few minutes, I picked one up, pointed to the item I wanted while holding up one finger, and pronounced the name as well as I could (I tended to order the same few items over and over, so I had heard the cashier relay the order by voice many times). "One {I figured he probably knew what that meant} -- kung pao chi, cha la, bai fan" (phonetically rendered by me, I have no idea of the 'official' transliteration). The fill-in cashier relayed the order to the cook and rang it up (most dishes were the same price) and I put down a $5 (or maybe it was $6) and he pulled out a handful of change and spread it on the counter. I picked out what change I needed and (IIRC) held up a coin -- probably a quarter -- and said "one more", which he put on the counter. I put my change in my pocket, he returned the rest to the drawer, and we were done. No sweat. Needless to say I was left feeling very smug and cosmopolitan, and I hoped the cook-cum-cashier maybe got a little boost of encouragement. Before the next customer in line could try the same trick, the manager showe up and took back the register, and all was well, with the line shorter by one and one more purchase on the register tape despite his absence.

The United States of America!

What kind of person would you have to be, to oppose any of that?

We can all get along if we try.

Walmart isn't very high on the economic ladder. I hope that each rung on the economic ladder in your area is similarly diverse. And I hope that the immigrants towards the top were able to work their way up in the US rather than arriving with bags of cash looted from their own countries.

To end on a positive note, a Haitian worker at Walmart was guarding a small child wandering around while the (presumably US parents) were not paying the least bit of attention. I was pushing my cart down the aisle and had I not been paying attention the child would have run directly into my cart. The worker made sure that she caught my eye well before I needed to stop. The parents had no idea what was going on. This is in SW Florida so very likely they were Trump voters who have no idea that foreign born workers are looking out for their child when they can't be bothered to.

Costco, Lowes, Target, 2 Walmart's and a major grocery store chain have good DEI policies in place.
The other big box store, some bars and a few barbers shops have different policies and customers.
What we lack is a good diversity of restaurants. We do beef really well but, sadly not that great of a
choice of others.

......emigres to this country. They have formed an wonderfully mixed social group and have nothing but good things to say about their wonderful employer, Walmart. You could call their Walmart a "melting pot" without fear of contradiction.

Don't feel threatened by it.
Appreciate it instead.

Most of the convenience stores out near me are owned by non-whites. Even when I was a kid, we had a pretty diverse population. One Korean family owned a little store, another had a nice laundromat. There were lots of others like this. No one bothered anybody. You didn't want to shop there? Plenty of other stores.

When I lived in a little dinky town in Texas, the best places to eat were the Mexican-owned restaurant and the one owned by an old black lady who cooked the best damned food you ever had. My ex was telling me before he took me there that it wouldn't look like it, but it was clean and had good food, but it was run by a black woman. I looked at him and told him he must not know me at all, to think that would stop me from a good meal.

my friend and I were coming back from church (we attend a Greek Orthodox church about an hour away and carpool) and we had to detour off the interstate in this dinky little town of Mount Jackson, VA. Imagine our surprise when we passed a gas station/truck stop with a sign that said, "Fresh Indian Food Served Daily"! We looked at each other and said, almost in unison, "Well have to come here and get takeout!" There's not another Indian restaurant closer to either of us than Harrisonburg!