story told by Carl Sandburg about a farmer on the Kansas frontier:
The sodbuster leaned against a gatepost and pondered the mysteries of God’s universe, hot winds and grasshoppers among them. A newcomer drove up in a covered wagon and asked him, “What kind of folks live around here?”
The sodbuster asked him in turn what kind of folks lived where he came from, and the stranger answers, “They were mostly a lowdown, lying, thieving, gossiping, backbiting lot of people.”
“Well, I guess, stranger, that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find around here.”
The stranger left, and shortly, another newcomer drove up, and asked the sodbuster, “What kind of folks live around here?”
Again, the sodbuster asks the stranger what kind of folks lived where he came from. This newcomer says: "Well, they were mostly a decent, hardworking, law-abiding, friendly lot of people. "
And the sodbuster wisely answers: “Well, I guess, stranger, that’s about the kind of folks you’ll find 'round here.”
Это классическая история, процитированная во многих книжках по психологии. У меня в сознании она всплывает частенько когда на форуме я слышу фразы навроде “держитесь подальше от соотечественников”, где живет поменьше латинос и в этом ключе.