I'm originally from the Northest and have sttled in south Mississippi. Up north, they tend to bend over backwards to let Blacks know how much they care; "Why, some of my best friends are Black.", and end up embarrassing themselves and the targets of their "largess of tolerance". Down south, we just tend to get along and take each other's measure by what a person does or does not do. No special efforts to "right terrible wrongs, real or imagined". I guess one might call that treating everyone else as equals and with due respect.
Not perfect by any means as there are racists and "dogooders" everywhere, but us southerners (even the transplanted "damn Yankees" like me) seem to have a better handle on this "problem" than the "I feel your pain" snobs up in the Northeast Blue States.
The South is, and has for a long time, been much more harmonious racially then the northeast. There is today more segregation in New England then in the most of the South. Definition of a hypocrite.
I too spent years down south. Tennessee for a year, Jax and Titusville Fla,. I found the same to be true. If a black man walked into the room, he was treated and addressed like any other man. Up here, everyone gets ultra politically correct, condecending, and the atmosphere turns very uncomfortable. Some of the best racial jokes I ever heard were told by my black friends.