While this is still at the top of the board, and there is no chance my post will lend it the credibility of a bump, I would like to say the following:
Southern Racists are deplorable, and tend to be the most ignorant racists of them all. At least Northern closet-racists have the excuse of not being brought up in the South after Civil Rights, where they would be taught in school every year, about the struggle for equality and civil rights, mostly alongside classmates who were black.
Southern Racists give the Southern people and heritage a bad name. They have hijacked an historic and important flag, to use as a symbol of hate and racism. Their distorted and ignorant perceptions have permeated a great segment of the mainstream, and persist as some sort of universal 'truth' to this day, among less-informed people. That is unfortunate. There is a lesson to be learned from our past, as deplorable and unacceptable as it may be in today's culture, it is still important to preserve.
Growing up in the South, I have witnessed Southern Racists first-hand, and to a fault, they are all stupidly ignorant people. Fortunately, the gene pool is mostly confined to cousins, or the Phenix City area, in my state. The overwhelming majority of black and white people in the South, have a happy healthy and non-prejudiced relationship. They attend each other's family events and gatherings, they go on vacations together, they work and play side by side with each other, celebrate the accomplishments of each other's children... the whole thing! Nowhere, is there any racial prejudice or disharmony happening. There is a very small and isolated segment of outcasts in society, no matter where you go, and the Southern Racist is one of the most ignorant and insignificant of them all.