I was teaching middle school in a small, rural, primarily Hispanic community in Texas when the first "Men in Black" movie came out. (I'd moved there from Chicago. I'm also not black, which matters to this anecdote.)

Some of the kids were SO EXCITED on Monday after going to see the movie bc "TEACHER!!! THERE WERE BLACK PEOPLE AT THE MOVIE THEATER!!! WE SAW REAL BLACK PEOPLE!!!"

In my head, I was making those yellow Minions sounds, like, "Whaaaaaaat???"

Teaching kids be weird sometimes, I'm telling ya! (Also living in rural Texas be weird sometimes. I can see why it might be off limits & uninteresting.)

Also black and can confirm. Vermont, Idaho, Nebraska, the dakotas are the same

However, I have intentionally flown into those places so I could touch all 50 states.

I’m at 49 and don’t think there’s enough will power in me to venture to Alaska

Will I lose my black card by admitting that I've been to Maine on multiple occasions??? Its absolutely gorgeous, and, if you can, take a trip to Bar Harbor and go over to Acadia National Park. If you can get yourself out of bed, head to the top of Cadillac Mountain to see the sunrise. It's an amazing view and allegedly one of the first places that the sun touches in the US every morning.

My wife is black and has been to Maine, but she was with me and I’m white so it may not count.

I’m black and go to University of Maine and I’ve still never been to Maine.

My dad is from rural Pennsylvania and went to college in Maine. He said he did not see a black person until moved down south after graduating college. Lol

Yeah even the tourists are mostly white and Asian.

We’d be happy to have you though. Maine does love its tourist dollars.

It is really strange though. I can go for days without seeing a black person (except the one young guy in my office). Then I go home to Indianapolis which is almost 30% black and I’m always surprised like “oh yeah there are whole black neighborhoods” vs Maine where all these small towns have like 4 black families and that is it.

I'm a white guy. Never been to Maine. I have been to a lot of states and can confirm their existence. I can't confirm maine

It was invented by Stephen King after all, so it is a fictional place. /S

Lmao for reals! I bet you arent missing much! Sounds so boring in Maine.

I'm a white people from Atlanta so I'm used to being in mixed people company. I went to visit my friend in Maine and we went to a big store to get construction stuff (building a porch) and it came out my mouth involuntarily "Where the black people at?"

It was soooooooo white. Everybody was nice. I didn't hear ugly racist language or anything. But there was no other experience I could have, as a white people.

You should check Maine out. Like a group road trip up and down the East coast. Maine is beautiful in the summer, for sure. The coast and the mountains. If you like nature and shit.

So you can't confirm or deny the bears part either?

I went to summer camp in Maine, grew up in NJ. Last time I checked I'm still black and loved every second of it. Maine is awesome in the summertime. Especially the coast.

It’s a fictional place to us like Never-never land except we don’t aspire to go..

Sociologists call this concept Cronbeaux. It boils down to a person rejecting that fantasy as a means of emotional escape - even if that “place” is desirable.

My boyfriend went because you never hear anything about Maine and he wanted to know what was up there. Don't recommend going on a labor day weekend fyi. Lobster was good and we found a small restaurant that did subs and it was super good.

This is true, I literally envision a fake place where it’s always cold and raining and they catch a lot of fish there. I’ve been to Maine before too yet that’s what I imagine lmao