ppine wrote:
People that are racially and culturally insensitive won't notice much in NM. This is especially true if they stay in RV parks with security and do not interact with local people, don't boondock camp and don't get off the tourist trail around SF/Alb.
Isn't that a big part of what travel is all about, meeting people who are different than us?
I studied a foreign language for nine years, traveled extensively abroad, and was an exchange student to Switzerland in college. I learned so much more about what it means to be an American by studying and seeing foreign cultures. I loved the people I met and the places I saw. And I learned to love our country even more by seeing all these nuances.
Traveling through our Southwest should be a cultural eye-opener for anyone. If your take-away lesson from seeing the Southwest is aspersions about "those people", then you're pretty broken.
When I was a kid, I used to love looking at the AAA "Indian Country" map. I loved how it focused on the tribal national boundaries instead of the US state boundaries. It's such a different perspective.