The Blunt and Crankies are on our way home from a vacation with wonderful friends in warm, sunny places. As we stopped for the night in Whereverthehell Kentucky, she wrapped a scarf around her head because, well, it’s f***ing cold outside. Looked a bit like a hijab, but who cares when you’ve come from the Florida coast to Freezerville in 36 hours, right?

Wrong. The woman who was misguided enough to marry your humble correspondent is of Irish/Shawnee/Syrian descent, and is frequently taken as a local in whatever country or region in which we are at a given moment. Be it in Central America, Scotland, on a Reservation or so on, people associate her with their ethnic preconceptions. So, when the locals saw her with the scarf wrapped tightly around her head, they projected their image of a Middle Eastern woman upon her. Disturbingly.

Women looked at her with a condescending mixture of pity and disdain. They looked at me as if I were a wife-abusing terrorist. Men looked at us like we were both worthy of being shot by Chris f***ing Kyle.

All because a white woman was chilly and covered her head.

America, you are SO f***ing f***ed. Surprised nobody shot us based on their idiotic, bigoted, stupid-assed ideas.

Je suis Chapel Hill.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky