As a white Northeasterner who has heard a clear majority of the racist comments uttered in my presence on my relatively brief trips to the South, I’ve never understood that apparent conceit that you and others claim of better relations in your region.
... I’ve never understood...
Come stay awhile and perhaps you will begin to understand. Avoid the larger cities, especially those with majority Black populations. Go to smaller towns and try to talk with older Blacks who have lived "Up North". You may hear viewpoints similar to those of expressed by people of "apparent conceit that you and others claim of better relations."
25 years ago I picked up a Black man hitch hiking in south Georgia. We were both Vietnam veterans of about the same age (early 40's) and were born within 25 miles of each other. Both lived through "integration" and the Civil Rights Movement.
He told of how he had graduated from high school and "got away from these racist rednecks as quick as he could"! He moved to New York, married and started a family. He had come back to Georgia to visit his mother and was now heading back to NYC.
"For ten years," he said, "I've been trying to get my wife to move to Georgia! She always says, "No way I'm going to get lynched by those night riders!"
"I try to tell her that white people in the South are prejudiced, but treat Blacks civilly. In NYC, everyone hates everyone else." He then proceeded to tell me how his mother's white neighbors looked out for her, helped with her livestock, etc. He much preferred the South.