I define it rather narrowly such as people who not only believe in racial superiority, but would implement laws to institutionalize it if given the chance. Robert Byrd, when he was grand dragon of the KKK more than five decades ago would certainly fit the bill then and possibly now. Rev. Wright's followers, even more than Rev. Wright himself, would fit the bill. I'm not convinced that Rev. Wright himself actually believes the crap he preaches, he's just found it to be a good business model given the idiots who will lap it up.
I'm convinced that the average voter of this area wouldn't only support a candidate who happened to be black, they would embrace him. Look at the solid majority Michael Steele polled in the Maryland panhandle if you doubt me.
What this voter isn't, however, is one which can easily be intimidated by calling them racist. They've been talked down to so much, they really don't give a rat's a** what the rest of the country thinks about them.
Do you recall the Roger Coleman case back in the early 1990's? The national and even international media painted this as a case where a bunch of ignorant hillbillies were going to send an innocent man to the electric chair because he was so articulate he didn't fit in to the community.
Well, I've traveled extensively nearly the full length of the Appalachians from Chattanooga to western New York. There are few places in the country which have more colleges per capita. I do not recall a single town of 5000 or more which didn't have at least one institution of higher learning. Yet, the stereotype and inbreeding jokes persist.
The bottom line is that most of them don't see B.H. Obama as a black man, but as a smarmy, self-important big city snob who looks down on them and has thinner actual qualifications to be president than the average mayor in one of those 5000 plus small towns near the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Roger Coleman was from my hometown, Grundy, and he raped and murdered Wanda Dotson at her home about seven miles from my house.
So yes, I do remember his case and how the media slammed us all as a bunch of ignorant hillbillies who couldn't give him a fair trial. Needless to say, it gave me great pleasure to see that last minute DNA test finally prove his guilt just before he fried in Virginia's electirc chair.
My point is that we're not a bunch of ignorant hillibillies in keeping with the stereotypes, BUT politically speaking, the Democratic element in that part of Appalachia is about 30 years behind the rest of the Democratic national establishment, which is why they will not vote for ablack man, no matter who he is, Obama OR Steele.
Like I said, I was born and raised there, and didn't leave until my late 20s. I know how the folks back home think, and what their motiviations are when they pull those levers on election day.