the evidence seems plentiful and high-quality. parts of the deep South are really weird and terrifying like this. there's snake-handling churches in the Georgia county my dad grew up in. the Baptist church was desegregated in the late '90s, and a school in another area apparently had segregated proms in the 2000s.

but then there's also Atlanta which is hip and developed. so the big metro areas are fine, things just get real weird in the sticks.