A small, self-professed liberal town in Western Massachusetts. Amherst has a population of about 35,000 and a median age of 21.8, thanks to UMass, Amherst College, and Hampshire College. A town that prides itself on believing strongly in diversity, 76.7% of the population is
white, with only 6.2% hispanic and 5.
1% Black. The government is a town meeting with select board members, which are overwhelmingly
white.
The residents and
parents in Amherst are so concerned about political correctness that they petitioned to prevent the high
school from performing West Side Story, because the play portrayed Puerto Rico and hispanics in a negative light. Instead, the high
school put on a production of Guys and Dolls, which is one of the most sexist musicals ever written.
If you attend a choral performance in Amherst, each of the following will probably be on the bill:
-at least one song from Africa
-at least one song in a different language, probably more than that, probably one in Yiddish (most of the performers will have no clue what they are singing)
-at least one song about loving each other and/or
peace, and will most likely be related to diversity
-none of the songs will be overtly
christian, in order to include everyone
Amherst once had a MaDonald's, but it went out of business, in part because it was next to
Antonio's (which sells pizza by the slice until about
1:30am, with ANYTHING you could ever think of for a topping).
