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It's getting better everywhere, but there is something about the deep South that I don't think many of us can understand, unless we were from there.

You CLEARLY don't understand the deep South, or San Francisco, for that matter. My grandfather was sherrif of Neshoba County, Mississipi, during the depression (only served one term because he didn't tolerate the Klan) and my father was raised in Philadelphia, MS. I grew up in New York, went to school in Texas, Boston and New York and ended up living in SF for the time between 77 and 82. After 5 years back in New York I ended up back in the "mid south" in the Memphis area, so I've seen it all.

If your boyfriend was afraid of being lynched in Mississippi for dating a white woman he should be honest enough to admit that the odds are equal that it would be a group of black women as a group of white men doing the lynching.

And as far as places "blacks can't/won't go" there are a ton of places in New York, Boston and, particularly, San Francisco, that a white boy better not go or they be dead real quick.

You don't want to be a whitey hanging out near Sam Wo's and the Golden Dragon at 3 AM. You don't want to be a black person in the hispanic sections of South City, Redwood City or the Potrero most any time of day. You don't want to be an asian in the wrong part of Oakland EVER. And you don't want to be ANY other ethnic group and wander into an area where Tagalog is the primary dialect.

There is more harmony and brotherhood between the "traditional" American ethnic groups (black and white) in the deep south than any other place I've lived. Don't get me started on South Boston during the busing riots! The white population in Memphis area is doing amazingly well in dealing with the large influx of hispanics from Mexico and further south, as well as the amazing increase in the asian population, particularly Korean and Vietnamese.

The folks in this area who are having trouble dealing with minorities are the black activists who have finally gotten control of the city government and insisit "it's our turn" to get rich off of graft and nepotism the way white people did through most of the 20th century. They can't stand the idea of other minorities "horning in on their action." There are signs of hope in the "traditional" black community, particularly the new County Mayor, AC Wharton, and some of the up and comers in the next generation (Harold Ford Junior is as partisan as they come, but he is rational).

So do a bit of introspection on your bigotry towards an entire quarter of the country you are part of and try to be a bit less prejudiced. Oh, and try to understand when the 99% of the US looks at the loons in SF and cries "WTF are you talking about?"