Violist, does Austria surprise you as such? After all, today's news has the cannon-mouthed right-wing Freedom Party figure Haider winning a regional election there. He is an anti-semite, racist self-labelled lover of populist tyranny and dictators.

Your treatment in London is shocking and surprising. I do not think it the norm there and the manager's resolution to the matter is clearly indicative of such.

The Eastern Shore of Maryland and even Baltimore itself is quite famous for having a highly racist attitude historically, so your treatment there does not shock me as much.

Despite our race problems in the US, I think we are best situated to transcend bigoted stupidity in the long run. It may take generations for such discrimination to be exorcised completely but it will largely go. The Civil Rights movement has benefited from sensible leadership on the right and left (despite the political bickering) which puts more value in an American ethos of Constitutional liberalism, a melting or mixing pot, and a land of opportunity for all who accept America's proudest legacies. A fantasy-laden attachment to the nostalgic legacy beloved of racists and their ilk has little place left in modern America and it shows every day.