Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   More bovine excrement Date:   6/25/2020 12:53:54 PM

I don't know about around the lake but it sounds like most of your experience in the south is in more rural areas.  I can tell you in the urban areas there are a significant number of interracial couples.  Heck, my daughter went to prom her senior year with a very nice guy from her class who was black and no one cared one bit, including me.  One of my son's best friends is married to a black woman.  My nieve is married to black guy who is so conservative he makes me look like a flaming liberal.  It is very common here and no one even bats an eye, nor should they.  But I grew up in a small town in SE PA and I can tell you interracial dating and marriage was not seen in a positive light but I assume things have changed there as well.

As for homosexuality, indeed more southerners are committed Christians and oppose things like gay marriage.  And again, if you live in a rural area versus an urban one you can be sure there is a different view of things.  And that isn't just in the south.  It is everywhere.  Atlanta is about as gay a town as they come....just spend an afternoon in Piedmont Park for a dose of reality.  What you ascribe to the south is actually an issue of urban versus rural.

But we agree that southerners are as a general rule much friendlier and more hospitable that the northeast or midwest, regardless of race. And I try every day to mimic it.  It's why I often pick up a nice young African American man that walks from the bus stop to work in a building in our office park, especially when its raining.  It's what southern people do and I like that part of their heritage and the northeast could learn something from them.