This is all anecdotal, of course, but from my experience: the average culture of the state is apathetic at best to things that'd be considered unthinkable to your average person in the vast majority of other states, (incidents involving children openly joking about lynching the only black student in the institution, solely referring to them with slurs as the teachers smiled, listening and doing nothing come to mind; for other minorities, like LGBT, it was a bit worse.) and at worst, encouraged somewhat.
There are a few things that contribute to this, I believe. Primarily, the state is incredibly isolated from the rest of the States. There's no real way for other cultures to reach citizens in the State, because it's not a State with a particular pull. States like New York, California, Texas and Washington all have reasons for your average immigrant to go, yet the state of Missouri is fairly void of reasons. There's no particular industry that excels in it, and few people would think it's particularly a "Cultural Mecca," which results in a lack of people coming in. Despite this, there's a very strong sense of pride you'll see in some, quite like nationalism but pointed directly at the State, which leads to a general dislike of foreigners.
The land itself contributes in a different way. There's very little in it for youths and adults to do within. You have agriculture, the bar scene and . . . that's more or less it. It is incredibly void of anything resembling something of interest. There are fields and shantytowns all about, and the majority of cities within look as if they haven't changed a bit since the 1970s minus a bit of rust and wear - trailer parks without wheels. Arkansas doesn't look a far amount different. Even amongst my (quite liberal for the area) group of friends at the time, you could see resentment build as they saw the interests of other groups getting served, whilst their own almost entirely (from their perspective) ignored.