A little added context: i was in my 20s, not a young teen. We were headed back from a family trip. We usually would drive later into the night but because of it being Christmas it was difficult to find rooms but we did try that night after we left the restaurant. I also will add that I travel throughout the southern states and they are beautiful. I have many friends in Georgia, Texas and Mississippi from having travelled through there. That being said this happened right after Trump was elected and the entire trip had a different atmosphere-- like people would try to goad me into a debate about Trump, something I wasn't interested in entertaining. People were generally a little more comfortable being clearly racist. There was more of an edge in the south than I had ever really felt (like I've faced racism in the south before but not blatant-- I guess the difference between being ignored when i ask for help in a store vs escorted out of a restaurant by police).

I am so sorry that happened to you.

Georgia freaks me out a bit😬 And by a bit I mean a lot. Great description of waffle house by the way!😂 Real nasty stuff

When I first read your story, I thought maybe it happened two or three decades ago because it sounded like a creepy movie scene from the 80s or so. But when you wrote about the Trump sticker, I suddenly realized that those racist cops just recently harassed you and your family, which makes your story that much scarier! I'm truly sorry that you had to go through this terrifying experience being threatened by such incompetent and racist idiots!

This is horrible and scary. I'm sorry you have to go through that

Racism is so fücking useless.

Sundown town racist vibes.

After the story above being from the 80's in my head this story was from even earlier, so my shock at reading Trump was so much I had to read that line a few times before realising this was recent. How has the USA gone so backwards, so fast? Woman having no control over their own bodies, anyone who isn't white, being interrogated for trying to eat waffles, thousands of people living without a roof over of their own over their heads etc etc. it truly is terrifying to watch from afar and worrying to think how far it could actually end up going!

I had a similar experience at a Cracker Barrel in Tennessee while driving a uhaul from NYC to the gulf coast. I'm half Mexican, although I'm not sure it was racial in my case but when we walked in for breakfast everyone literally stopped eating their food to stare at us. I've never been more uncomfortable and uneasy, and we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Holy sh*t! I'm in ATL and have never seen anything like that, but I'm not terribly surprised that it did, just at the year. I'm so ashamed, and I'm very sorry to your family. We're not all horrifying, I swear.

That's a sundown town and unfortunately they still exist. Glad everyone made it out.

Ew. Just ew. God I hate bigots.

OP's story reminds me of what my history professor said. She was a white woman from the deep south and she said there are parts of the South she absolutely refused to go to.

I love Waffle House...far more than Denny's and wish they'd come north to Canada. However, I've been in a little Georgia town where the FBI monitored who went in and out of a store because the owner was head of the local Klan. Another was a gas station in Alabama where the guy running it, who was black, yelled across the road to the white owned gas station get permission to fill the white people's car. These were between 1998-2002.

It is a Waffle House. Expect and enjoy everything but the racism. Everything else is part of the experience. Normally the elderly Black cook will have kicked out any racists using a chair and sheer anger. You got the one Waffle House that's just a disguised Cracker Barrel.

This is literally something I could never imagine happening. I am a rural country girl and the only ones getting a suspicious talking to by the police here would be the other ones the author mentioned - the methheads and low class trash. Actually we don’t even have that here where I live. Australian, if that makes a difference. This sounds like a movie plot.

Seems par for the course for Georgia and the Waffle House to me. I'm from Georgia and this is typical.

Is there a way to report those police officers to a higher authority? Or am I naive?

I am so glad your family was able to safely return to Canada. If you want to try another part of the US, give the west coast a try.

I’m sorry. Just unacceptable.

I’m confused… you said “in my head”, so was this imaginary, because that’s what i thought it meant

That's pretty awful. I live in Coastal Mississippi, which is very different culturally than the rest of Mississippi, but I know the type. You don't have to drive very far north to run into that kind of backwoods mentality.

I'm sorry that happened to you. I've always felt it would be a bad idea to go on a trip in the Southern states with my husband for exactly c**p like that. He's Hispanic and looks like a cross between a Harley rider and a short Santa. He has long hair and an attitude that wouldn't go over well I imagine. It would be... interesting but scary, lol.

Sending you off to a hotel 2 hours away? Seriously? No other hotels anywhere near to be found?

I'm so sorry. I wish the writer could see this. Most people aren't filled with hate.

Wow that's appalling and I was even more shocked to read in the comments that it was so recently.

Racist f***s

This is how the MAGA crowd wants our country to be. They want people to follow their rules and treat half the people list 2nd class citizens. I li e in the North and had no clue it was still like this. It's disheartening and depressing but we're fighting back.

Happened in 1960?

The appalachian mountains are full of backward people like this.

lies

I find this hard to believe..

Yeah - as a Georgian and Waffle House aficionado; this is fake.