To be dreading going to USA?

[AllisonAndColeAreBoring]

Going on USA road trip in 4 weeks.

I'm dreading it for two reasons - 1. I'm mixed race and have found out a lot of the places we're stopping off at are racist. Arizona especially. DH has booked us into a saloon motel thing in Death Valley and a few of the reviews state that it's popular with bikers and truckers and don't even consider staying there if you're not white, heterosexual American as you will stand out like a sore thumb and will not be welcome! Another place is flagstaff where the reviews state its a trump supporters haven and people of colour will stand out.

1. The driving. I'm not a confident driver but will need to share the driving out there. DH has set me up on GTA5 to practice driving on the right side of road and junctions etc but a game cannot be compared to real life can it?!

He thinks I'm purposely trying to cause drama and moaning about the hotel's to get my way on expensive accommodation and moaning about the driving so I don't have to do any.

Are my fears founded or am I indeed being a princess like he's making out?

LOL. I got a ticket once when I overtook an Iowa State trooper, doing 90 in a Dodge minivan.

Yeah I got a ticket on I95 in NH in a rental car.

Next time I'll try telling the trooper that I couldn't possibly have been doing 85 because US rental cars don't go that fast and see where it gets me...

I'd be dreading it more for the worry I'd be shot. Never mind racial issues, that would be the last of my worries. Forget that! What about not being shot? You wouldn't catch me in America for all the tea in Britain. I'd be scared of being in a mass shooting.

To be honest I think racism should be the least of your worries.

SarahJayne12

Gun violence is not really that prevalent it’s only really 3 cities in the US that are responsible for shootings.

The one thing i will say from my experiences with the south (texas to be exact) is to be sure to read what people have said about the hotels beforehand and take that into consideration.
I was lured into booking one because of the cheap price, only to discover when we got there it was in a bit of a dodgy area. It was already late at night so had to stay there overnight but it was an experience i wouldn't want to repeat. Swiftly demanded a refund and used booking.com to find a nice, posh hotel (can't recommend the wyndham chain enough!) the next morning.
I wish i had prepared myself better - could avoided spending the night listening to drunk next door talk about his love for guns, girls and trucks (yes he was that stereotypically southern!)

just thought i'd add that whilst that 1st night was horrible, the rest of the holiday was lovely. Love holidaying over in the US and driving really isn't that bad ! In many ways it was easier because the car was an automatic so it was just stop start!

Gun violence is not really that prevalent it’s only really 3 cities in the US that are responsible for shootings.

I live a stone's throw from one of those cities - I could walk to one of the city's worst neighbourhoods in about ten minutes. I used to drive DD1 to and from her university occasionally, located just beside a terrible neighbourhood, boasting one of the worst half mile long stretches of street in the city. I drove mostly late at night and obv have not been shot yet. Me and about 325 million others.

Meanwhile my old home town in Ireland has seen several high profile sex assault/murder cases in the last few years. You take your life in your hands walking from the local station at night and that was the case even when I lived there. My BIL got propositioned a few years ago at a rural railway station - turned out there was a sex trafficking ring running pop up brothels in the town.

You are far more likely to be a victim of petty crime that could really traumatise you in the UK than in the US. The likelihood of being involved in a mass shooting is slim to none for members of the general public. The odds are slightly higher for university students and high school students.

@RedneckStumpy there are tens of thousands of single shootings per year, and over the last year, an average of one mass shooting a week. That is a lot more prevalent than most of us non-Americans have experience with. Everywhere around the world, America's mass shooting epidemic is well-known. Please don't diminish the epidemic or it's affects.

SarahJayne - we're perfectly well aware of how many shootings there are and of the effects they have, thank you. Those of us who live here are are working very hard to fight that - through voting, through donations, through trying to influence our friends, neighbours, communities, non-profits, volunteering, politicians, and through running for office.

As a visitor to the US you are incredibly unlikely to experience a shooting.

YABU yes. The driving is so easy, much easier than in the UK. You just need to remember the side of the road (which takes no time at all to get used to), stop at stop signs and you can turn right at a red light unless there’s a sign saying you can’t. The spaces and roads in general are massive.

I can’t comment on the racism part but I see so many people on mumsnet talking about America and how it’s racist & there’s guns etc etc when if they actually went instead of getting their information from the internet they would see its total rubbish But if your hotel reviews aren’t very good and people specifically mention racism I would definitely pay more to stay somewhere a little nicer rather than a motel as typically those aren’t as safe.

SarahJayne There are 300 million people in the USA, yes there are mass shootings and gang shootings but I've lived her for 15 years in a major city and somehow managed not to get shot, no one I know has been shot and about the only time I'm likely to see a person with a firearm, unless we're hunting or camping, it will be on the belt of a law enforcement officer. Gun violence is real, no one minimizes it but it is concentrated mostly in inner urban neighborhoods. The mass school shootings that get all the publicity are rare enough still that they do get the publicity. The average persons chances of being shot are still far less than the average person's chances of being killed by a car and dying in a mass shooting it's about 1 in 10000 i.e. about 1 in 5 times less likely than you dying in a plane crash which is about 1 in 2000. Maybe you should reconsider those holidays in the sun.

The average persons chances of being shot are still far less than the average person's chances of being killed by a car and dying in a mass shooting it's about 1 in 10000 i.e. about 1 in 5 times less likely than you dying in a plane crash which is about 1 in 2000. Maybe you should reconsider those holidays in the sun.

Those figures are not even close to accurate.
However I do agree with your sentiment.

Actually Torn I did say 'about' not claiming exact figures, if you check the attached report by the CDC which is a govt. body not some partisan gun or anti-gun lobby, you'll find I'm roughly in the ballpark. Chances of dying in a mass shooting are actually 1 in 11125 and chances of dying in an airplane, boat or spaceship 1 in 2499 so I'm really not that far out.

Disclaimer: these are 2015 figures which were the latest I could find but I don't think year on year it will have changed significantly in the interim.

Quoting from those figures...

Police/law enforcement 1 in 7703
Foreign-born terrorist 1 in 45785

Trumpsters are going to be confused by that.

Any motor vehicle incident 1 in 108
OP - perhaps you should be worried about driving after all?

the attached report by the CDC
Nope says right on the report by National Safety Council and is an actuarial table.

As an ACTUARIAL table, the data posted is allegedly an American's LIFETIME risk of death by gun which is dramatically different to a visitor's risk, coupled with Business Insider's penchant for lurid and false information (citing WSJ, Bloomberg and TechCrunch).

Driving in the States is fab - easy and open and everyone slows down to let you out. Huge parking spaces. It's a doddle.

I found Arizona and that sort of area really friendly when they heard an English accent. We drove through lots of small towns with what looked like areas you'd expect to be racist, but they went mad for English accents. Ok, I'm white so I can't tell, but I think they'd be more welcoming to Englishness and touristy money than they would be hostile. And you can always move on through to the next place if it's awful.