"You've noticed that, too," John says and that doesn't surprise him much either. It's hardly the sort of thing that's kept exclusively under wraps and while he knows it certainly doesn't apply to all the people who haven't simply appeared in Darrow, there does seem to be a good number who consider them other. That's a good way to phrase it and John knows as a white male, he's experienced very little of that himself, but he'd found it impossible to ignore, especially in the military. The army treated women as if they were inferior and being stationed in Iraq, he had more than once witnessed someone being treated poorly because of the colour of their skin.

"I would argue that is bettering the city," he says. "The idea that those of us who are coming from somewhere else don't have something to offer is absurd. Making for a more inclusive society betters the society as a whole, not just the people who have been treated as outsiders."

Which he doubts he needs to tell her at all. Jessica may not have the same kinds of experiences John has, but she has others that have made her perceptive. Yet another reason why it would be better for people to be accepted into their new lives here.