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Imagine a place where your neighbors
greet your children by name;

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a place with splendid vistas;

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a place where you can drive
just 20 minutes

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and put your sailboat on the water.

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It's a seductive place, isn't it?

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I don't live there.

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(Laughter)

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But I did journey on a 27,000-mile trip

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for two years, to the fastest-growing
and whitest counties in America.

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What is a Whitopia?

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I define Whitopia in three ways:

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First, a Whitopia has posted at least
six percent population growth since 2000.

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Secondly, the majority of that growth
comes from white migrants.

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And third, the Whitopia
has an ineffable charm,

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a pleasant look and feel,

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a je Ne sais quoi.

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(Laughter)

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To learn how and why
Whitopias are ticking,

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I immersed myself for several months
apiece in three of them:

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first, St. George, Utah;

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second, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho;

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and third, Forsyth County, Georgia.

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First stop, St. George --
a beautiful town of red rock landscapes.

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In the 1850s, Brigham Young
dispatched families to St. George

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to grow cotton because
of the hot, arid climate.

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And so they called it Utah's Dixie,
and the name sticks to this day.

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I approached my time in each Whitopia
like an anthropologist.

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I made detailed spreadsheets of all
the power brokers in the communities,

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who I needed to meet,
where I needed to be,

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and I threw myself with gusto
in these communities.

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I went to zoning board meetings,

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I went to Democratic clubs
and Republican clubs.

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I went to poker nights.

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In St. George, I rented
a home at the Entrada,

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one of the town's
premier gated communities.

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There were no Motel 6's
or Howard Johnsons for me.

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I lived in Whitopia as a resident,
and not like a visitor.

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I rented myself this home by phone.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Golf is the perfect seductive
symbol of Whitopia.

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When I went on my journey,

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I had barely ever held a golf club.

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By the time I left, I was golfing
at least three times a week.

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(Laughter)

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Golf helps people bond.

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Some of the best interviews I ever scored
during my trip were on the golf courses.

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One venture capitalist, for example,
invited me to golf in his private club

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that had no minority members.

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I also went fishing.

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(Laughter)

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Because I had never fished,
this fellow had to teach me

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how to cast my line and what bait to use.

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I also played poker every weekend.

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It was Texas Hold 'em with a $10 buy-in.

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My poker mates may have been bluffing
about the hands that they drew,

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but they weren't bluffing
about their social beliefs.

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Some of the most raw,
salty conversations I ever had

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during my journey were at the poker table.

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I'm a gung ho entertainer.

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I love to cook, I hosted
many dinner parties, and in return,

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people invited me to their dinner parties,

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and to their barbecues,
and to their pool parties,

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and to their birthday parties.

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But it wasn't all fun.

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Immigration turned out to be
a big issue in this Whitopia.

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The St. George's Citizens Council
on Illegal Immigration

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held regular and active protests
against immigration,

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and so what I gleaned from this Whitopia
is what a hot debate this would become.

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It was a real-time preview,
and so it has become.

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Next stop: Almost Heaven,
a cabin I rented for myself

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in Coeur d'Alene, in the beautiful
North Idaho panhandle.

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I rented this place
for myself, also by phone.

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(Laughter)

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The book "A Thousand Places To See
Before You Die" lists Coeur d'Alene --

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it's a gorgeous paradise for huntsmen,
boatmen and fishermen.

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My growing golf skills
came in handy in Coeur d'Alene.

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I golfed with retired LAPD cops.

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In 1993, around 11,000 families and cops

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fled Los Angeles
after the L.A. racial unrest,

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for North Idaho, and they've built
an expatriated community.

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Given the conservatism of these cops,

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there's no surprise that North Idaho
has a strong gun culture.

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In fact, it is said, North Idaho
has more gun dealers than gas stations.

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So what's a resident to do to fit in?

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I hit the gun club.

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When I rented a gun,
the gentleman behind the counter

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was perfectly pleasant and kind,

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until I showed him
my New York City driver's license.

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That's when he got nervous.

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I'm not as bad a shot
as I thought I might have been.

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What I learned from North Idaho
is the peculiar brand of paranoia

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that can permeate a community
when so many cops and guns are around.

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In North Idaho, in my red pickup truck,

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I kept a notepad.

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And in that notepad I counted
more Confederate flags than black people.

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In North Idaho, I found Confederate flags

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on key chains, on cellphone paraphernalia,

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and on cars.

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About a seven-minute drive
from my hidden lake cabin

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was the compound of Aryan Nations,

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the white supremacist group.

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America's Promise Ministries,
the religious arm of Aryan Nations,

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happened to have a three-day
retreat during my visit.

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So I decided to crash it.

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(Laughter)

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I'm the only non-Aryan journalist
I'm aware of ever to have done so.

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(Laughter)

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Among the many memorable
episodes of that retreat...

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(Laughter)

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...is when Abe, an Aryan,
sidled up next to me.

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He slapped my knee, and he said, "Hey
Rich, I just want you to know one thing.

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We are not white supremacists.
We are white separatists.

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We don't think we're better than you,

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we just want to be away from you."

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(Laughter)

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Indeed, most white people in Whitopia
are neither white supremacists

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or white separatists;

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in fact, they're not there
for explicitly racial reasons at all.

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Rather, they emigrate there

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for friendliness, comfort,
security, safety --

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reasons that they implicitly associate
to whiteness in itself.

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Next stop was Georgia.

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In Georgia, I stayed in an exurb
north of Atlanta.

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In Utah, I found poker;

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in Idaho, I found guns;

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in Georgia, I found God.

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(Laughter)

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The way that I immersed myself
in this Whitopia

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was to become active
at First Redeemer Church,

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a megachurch that's so huge
that it has golf carts

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to escort the congregants around
its many parking lots on campus.

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I was active in the youth ministry.

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And for me, personally,
I was more comfortable in this Whitopia

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than say, in a Colorado, or an Idaho,
or even a suburban Boston.

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That is because [there], in Georgia,

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white people and black people are more
historically familiar to one another.

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I was less exotic in this Whitopia.

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(Laughter)

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But what does it all mean?

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Whitopian dreaming, Whitopia migration,
is a push-pull phenomenon,

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full of alarming pushes
and alluring pulls,

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and Whitopia operates at the level
of conscious and unconscious bias.

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It's possible for people to be in Whitopia
not for racist reasons,

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though it has racist outcomes.

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Many Whitopians feel pushed by illegals,

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social welfare abuse, minorities,
density, crowded schools.

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Many Whitopians feel pulled by merit,

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freedom, the allure of privatism --
privatized places, privatized people,

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privatized things.

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And I learned in Whitopia
how a country can have racism

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without racists.

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Many of my smug urban liberal friends

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couldn't believe I would go
on such a venture.

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The reality is that many white Americans
are affable and kind.

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Interpersonal race relations --
how we treat each other as human beings --

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are vastly better than in
my parents' generation.

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Can you imagine me going
to Whitopia 40 years ago?

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What a journey that would have been.

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(Laughter)

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And yet, some things haven't changed.

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America is as residentially
and educationally segregated today

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as it was in 1970.

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As Americans, we often find ways
to cook for each other,

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to dance with each other,

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to host with each other,

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but why can't that translate into how we
treat each other as communities?

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It's a devastating irony,

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how we have gone forward as individuals,

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and backwards as communities.

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One of the Whitopian outlooks
that really hit me

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was a proverbial saying:

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"One black man is
a delightful dinner guest;

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50 black men is a ghetto."

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One of the big contexts animating
my Whitopian journey was the year 2042.

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By 2042, white people will no longer be
the American majority.

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As such, will there be more Whitopias?

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In looking at this,

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the danger of Whitopia is
that the more segregation we have,

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the less we can look at and confront
conscious and unconscious bias.

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I ventured on my two-year,
27,000 mile journey

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to learn where, why, and how
white people are fleeing,

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but I didn't expect to have
so much fun on my journey.

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(Laughter)

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I didn't expect to learn
so much about myself.

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I don't expect I'll be living
in a Whitopia --

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or a Blacktopia, for that matter.

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I do plan to continue golfing
every chance I get.

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(Laughter)

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And I'll just have to leave the guns
and megachurches back in Whitopia.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)