People tend to assume that 50 years ago in the South is ancient history and 30 or 40 years ago in Brooklyn or Boston or Chicago is the present. But change happens, in the North as in the South, and young people growing up now are different from what we were at their age.
I don't doubt that people are friendlier in the South or that Black and White people are more cordial with each other. Big cities are cold places and cities in the Northeastern states are colder still. But I do object to the way we get turned into stereotypes.
On my recent visits to the South the changes from some of the time I spent there as a yute are palpable.
But I do object to the way we get turned into stereotypes.
Stereotypes exist for a reason (mostly because it's easier than thinking!).
Or as my oh-soooooo-much-more-liberal-than-you-could-ever-hope-to-be ex once said in a total huff, about a driver of a certain ethnicity, "You would think that they would at least have the decency to drive in such a way as to not re-enforce the stereotype!!!"