And as a brown kid that lived there, I can say that there is a blanket of racism that is so thick that it doesn't look like racism.

The only way I was able to become aware of it was getting away from it long enough that my normality returned and then I ended up going back to visit friends and family and wondering why the hell people are following me around grocery stores.

There is still some of the evil angry racism that they portray in movies where they say the n-word and hang people and treat people of different skin colors as if they were subhuman, yes. That hasn't gone away, but it is generally societally frowned upon, and people that are technically racist cheer when people like that end up getting caught for their crimes and suffering retribution.

The racism that is there is that they "other" people of different skin colors. Even if you are "one of the good ones", you are still only allowed to associate with the group because of your "one of the good ones" status, and your skin color is the reason why you have that status.

The racism is so deeply embedded into the fabric of southern society that the people that live under it cannot see it. It's like when you go to somebody's house and they own pets, and they think their house smells fine, but all you can smell is the pet smell.

They've gone nose blind to it.