Voting for the black man does not come easy... (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/us/politics/27pennsylvania.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin)

“I’m no racist, but I’m not crazy about him either,” said Mr. Piroli, 77. “I don’t know, maybe ’cause he’s black.”
...
She considers the field: Mr. McCain? A grouchy old man. Ms. Palin? Please. No way. What about Mr. Obama?

Her pause goes on and on. “He scares me,” Mrs. Permon said. “The coloreds are excited, but my friends and I plan to write in Hillary’s name.”
...
In Ambridge, Vince Pisano, 47, a union plumber, reflects that challenge. As he sits on his porch, he considers collapses — of the economy and his retirement account. He is firm for Mr. Obama, but he is in a small club.

“Close friends, real close, tell me they can’t get past his race,” said Mr. Pisano, flashing his give-me-a-break look. “If Obama were white, this would be a landslide around here.”
...

This thread needs, nay, demands this link: Kentucky Rednecks Have Edifying Insight About This ‘Hussein’ Ay-Rab Preznint (http://wonkette.com/403090/kentucky-rednecks-have-edifying-insight-about-this-hussein-ay-rab-preznint)

On the bright side, at least she knew that Spain was our ally. :)

Ya, know, 'round these 'ere parts, thems some people who don't like them thar black folks.

When I moved down from Seattle, to Tennessee, I was rather surprised about the general racism infecting the local culture. It was virtually nil in the areas I have been to or lived at, as a former miltiary brat. So, when there was a few Klan rallies celebrating in Pulaski, Tn,(they had one a few weeks ago, also, for those not in the know, when the Klan restructured and went formal, it was in Pulaski) I was even more shocked about it. While they pretty much just barbecued on the square in their little hoods, still....

There is quite a bit of that mentality in the local area, so, it makes dealing with some of the locals quite annoying. The bad thing about it all, there is really no reason why, that most anyone can remember. This extends to various others such as hispanics, homosexuals, jews, muslims, atheists, and agnostics, amongst others.

Really sad was a conversation I walked into at work while just doing my job. A coworker of mine was teaching a lesson of tolerance to some of our younger coworkers about religeon. This girl at work was giving him a hard time about his religeous preference, being how he was a Deist(I had to explain to them that term), but, not a christian, he feels that he can worship god without the excess of scriptures through the bible, churches things like that, when she just ripped atheists. Now this, little girl(she is very young) wasn't aware, I am agnostic, but, she liked me nonetheless, you know fun coworker, works well with others and all that, so, I asked her, what is wrong with atheists. She couldn't give me a reason, but, she hated them. So, I asked her some stuff, she gave me some answers, when I asked well, you like me as a person right, to which she answered yes.

Then, I dropped the agnostic bomb on her. First, she was asking what is an agnostic, I gave her some simple things to go on, like one step below atheist and such, with the exceptions of I don't really know, or it is irrelevant to my daily lifestyles. I received one of the dumbest looks I have ever seen in my life as someone figures something out. There it was, someone you get along with quite well, just an average ordinary person, just no one ever asked or questioned my religeous preference, so, she learned a valuable lesson that day, that I hope carries over to other aspects of her life.

Does it really matter? Well, yes to certain people, but, I really feel bad for them really, I don't lose sleep over it though, as they are missing out on what could be a wonderful person running for office, simply for some extra melatonin pigmenting a darker complexion for skin color, when sadly about a quite a few years ago, homo sapiens might have all been black for all we know and years of evolution assisted with a response from the various areas humans have lived at for years, cooler mountainous areas, etc. Sadly history has proved time and time again, that the majority of that is irrelevant. Blacks, have been leaders and have been successful, as have women, as have hispanics, and so on and so forth through virtually every culture.

Someone I used to work with was from Lousiana and he told me a lot of horror stories about racism there. He said some wealthy, famous black athlete (whose name I don't remember given I don't really follow sports) was interested in buying a house in a wealthy all-white neighborhood. The rest of the families all banded together to buy the house and "save their neighborhood" so the black man couldn't buy it.

He says that "white flight" is very real there. As soon as anyone of color moves in, all the whites leave. Mostly because they don't want their kids going to school with "them".

His own family is that way but he, fortunately, somehow escaped that cycle.

I've been hearing a lot about how parts of PA are VERY racist. So I guess it is a regional thing. If everyone around you is like that, you're probably going to end up that way too.

Oh yeah, as an agnostic (perhaps atheist) I know all to well how we are forced to stay in the closet. *sigh*

"I don't want to sound racist, and I'm not racist," Moreland says. "But I feel if we put Obama in the White House, there will be chaos. I feel a lot of black people are going to feel it's payback time. And I made the statement, I said, 'You know, at one time the black man had to step off the sidewalk when a white person came down the sidewalk.' And I feel it's going to be somewhat reversed. I really feel it's going to get somewhat nasty." Sounds like a bit of guilt (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96086423) going on there.

Yep, it is definately like that in most of the areas I have been to in the south, pretty much everywhere in Ten, places in Alabama, Georgia, Louisana, and especially Mississippi. Never was in Arkansas nor Kentucky long enough to notice anything, and well Texas, I never noticed much, but, then, I also was 8-11 when I lived there, so no idea as I wasn't aware of anything like racism at that age. Florida was oddly ok though. In some of the larger cities, minus atlanta, it is generally ok, but, the rural areas..... sheesh.