This assessment makes a lot of sense. I'd add that in some ways the kind of racism in places like where I grew up can be more toxic than you might see in some places in the south now. The African American population where I'm from was under 1%, so there certainly wasn't a lot of day to day interaction, but there were certainly a lot of epithets, many of which I blindly repeated when I was little, before I knew any better. Not sure how much has changed, but I doubt much.

Speaking of wishing I knew better, my prediction of Obama taking 10 points in TX was, oh, just a little off. Goes to show why I'm not in the politics business. Talk is cheap. I just hope things don't get too nasty now. So far it's been a relatively civil primary campaign compared to years past.