And yet, some people seem to hold the belief that these groups dominate these spaces. Neither of these places are actually majority Jewish or gay. We’ve overheard one of our alma maters, the University of Pennsylvania, pejoratively referred to as “Jew-niversity of Pennsylvania,” and one of our hometowns, Decatur, Georgia, disparagingly called “Dyke-atur.” These labels are not only deeply offensive … they are also wrong. This common way of thinking about our environments seemed fairly reasonable to us until a few years ago, when we noticed something that gave us pause.
(THE CONVERSATION) Places are not just physical, but also social.įor instance, around the North Carolina campus where we met, we knew certain bars based on the students who frequented them - the “Duke bars” versus the “UNC bars.” Or, when traveling, we may try to guess whether most of the patrons at a restaurant are tourists – and if so, go elsewhere.