[VRM]

MT,
I'm a (Damn) Yankee (living in New England). I've had the good fortune to be able to travel extensively for both work and pleasure. I can say that I have experienced more racism in the American south than I have in any other part of the US.
I once threatened to leave a job site (phone company work) when the central office techs and managers tried to 'impress' me with their less than civil treatment of a waiter at the place we were having lunch. I'm sure my accent (or lack of one - I've been confused for English, Canadian, Aussie, but never New Englander where I grew up) gave me away as something other than southerner.
There were also a few that I met in the hills of WV who did not take kindly to strangers, or the cell tower CO at the top of their hill. The CO had to have an electrified fence and security cameras otherwise the place and workers cars would be looted.

On the other hand, with the exception of the Irish and Scots, I have never had better hospitality from strangers. I would agree with the term 'soulful' to describe many Southerners, but there was also a distinct lack of curiosity about anything outside their own comfort zone for many of them. I have not met every Southerner, but I do feel that I have met a reasonably representative sampling from a variety of locales from 'civilised' Atlanta to Bayou Cajuns to backwoods trappers. Not all of them met the commonly accepted criteria for 'racist' or 'redneck' - in fact I would have to say that the majority of them did not, but the minority that did seemed significantly larger than the racist minorities in other parts of the US. Though Hawaii also seemed to have a lot of racism.

I also have to say that the most racist country I have ever been to is probably China.

Steve