That is so true. Blacks and whites in the south are more likely to be friends than in the west and north. There is not as much social segregation. The media makes out like the south is full of racist old white folks when the truth is there is just not as much PC going on south of the Mason-Dixon Line. What people are actually thinking is out in the open.
I remember reading James Webb who recalled his father saying “in the South no one cared how close black folks got so long as they didn’t get too rich and powerful, in the North they didn’t care how rich and powerful black folks got as long as they didn’t get too close”.
I thought that was interesting, for what it’s worth.