It's appearently 1906 in Memphis

[Tarquelne]

I take it you've never had some sort of industrial job?

I hooked hoses - big rubber ones - up to machines to see if the hoses would explode.

The more rubbery the hose, the nastier the explosion. A little fact that's come to my aid again and again later in life.

It was actually kinda soothing. Except for the hoses, the machines, and the explosions.

I assume we had a supervisor, but I don't remember ever seeing or meeting one ... which might have contributed to the old hands knocking off after they'd exploded - or not exploded - X number of hoses.

You don't have to be intelligent to be a supervisor. Sometimes they even become one just from being there the longest, since there are no other candidates.

I expressed myself poorly: I have trouble reconciling the guy's apparent stupidity with the verbal skills necessary to utter the words he's accused of saying. I'd expect more of a halting babble.

Though it's almost certainly not really so much "stupidity" as it is a matter of very, very, very poor judgement. I mean on top of the racism. Of course that's exactly the sort of person I'd expect to racist. Evil, stupid, or a fool are pretty much the only explanations.

Evil is rare, true stupidity is almost as rare, but fools are a plague.