Dude, what would you say about me? :)
I went to school in the deep Bible Belt in Oklahoma as a brown guy. I did field work in rural ozark and ouachitas. Then in rural Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. These are as red state as they get. Trump gets 90% votes there! These days if I say this to people they will say that there is 90% chance that I will get shot.
I didn’t.
Was the time different? The area I am talking about there was limited light of civilization back then and same is true now.
I ate a lot of biscuits and gravy and chicken fried chicken:) I didn’t feel any racism there back then. I doubt I will get it there now.
That said, racism exists here and is deeply entrenched. Why I didn’t felt it I don’t know but I can’t lie.
Was I lucky? Am I lucky?
Possibly - hard to say. I wonder if it was timing, because I reckon there were periods that were pretty good. When I came to Finland, the people who had the least problem were the retirees, as they had lived through war and hard times and were far more accepting. Their kids however, the people in their 50s, were pretty terrible.
But in Australia where I grew up, they were pretty backward.
I am talking mostly rural America. I don’t think much has changed over there in 25 years!