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Chop - being a fellow Mississippi resident in a town where until 3 years ago we (by law) were not allowed to celebrate Independence Day due to it being the day in 1863 that this town fell to US Grant during the civil war (it was a day of mourning here still), I agree that there are fantastic things and people in this state. That said, I can tell you that there is just like any other town in the world, those that are very vocal, some even publicly, about their contempt for certain races. I have customers that come in my store in town, that I have told to not come back because of their vocal opinions.
I also do not accept the current "mainstream" thought that racism is limited to one particular group or ethinticity - Ive seen it go both ways.
Interestingly, I was not born here, but in a small college town in Florida where we lived for the first 8 yrs of my life - and with my mother being one of the most vocal newspaper reporters of the time in the civil rights battles, I've had the pleasure of many cross burnings in my front yard, as well as watching my father have to carry a gun every where we travelled.
We then moved to Wash DC and I have vivid memories of watching the city burning in the fires set during the riots in 68 - and walking down the streets where armed guardsmen were stationed every 10 feet to protect certain areas as well as machine gun nests set up on the Capitol entrance steps and snipers on every federal building roof downtown.
But so much for the history part - there is a very blatent "stereo-typing" visible where I currently live, and while a bunch of it is actually perpetrated by the people involved on purpose, the most interesting part for me, is that it doesnt come anywhere close to the hate and real racism that I have seen in every part of this country. The worst I have ever experienced personally, was actually in Hawaii where being white was being the minority and the heel of society.
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