Come to Dubuque for fun new experiences!

Growing up in Eastern Iowa we all heard the stories, read the articles, and just eventually accepted the prevailing idea that Dubuque was a trashy, racist, alcoholic town, with a superiority complex.

After spending time there over the years, I found that, although many residents aren't particularly warm and welcoming to outsiders, there are some pretty nice people and it's a pretty cool place. Maybe it's not as trashy and racist as everyone makes it out to be.

I was in your fair city this afternoon and as I was coming out of a store I was speaking Spanish to someone with me. A lady was walking towards the store, with the nastiest look on her face, side eyeing us, and started going "blub blub blub blub blub!" over and over very loudly, evidently speaking gibberish to mock us for speaking a different language. I stopped and looked at her and was like, what? She wouldn't make direct eye contact and just kept going, even louder as she walked into the store.

I think we have all heard rude and racist comments etc, which is not great, but I thought at least most people still had the "decency" to keep that behind people's backs. Up until today i had never observed rude racist behavior from a stranger in public openly directed at another person, let alone at me.

So I guess what I'm saying is, come to Dubuque for fun new experiences!