Thank God for Mississippi
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
Example: LBJ (former U.S. president) once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." [0]
Example: There's a bit of doggerel in a best-selling book of miscellany, published in 1944 by publisher Bennett Cerf [1], that my dad had on his shelf: "My nose is flat | My skin is black | But I am still a man; | Thank God I am a Negro [sic] | And not a Catalan." [EDIT: This seems to have been from Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls [2], which I've not read, which is set during the Spanish Civil War.]
[0] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lbj-convince-the-lowest-wh...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Try_and_Stop_Me_(book)
[2] https://www.litcharts.com/lit/for-whom-the-bell-tolls/chapte...
That's partially snark, but mostly not. I, as an average looking white guy who lives in suburban SoCal visited some family in Alabama not too long ago. All my life I've travelled through some of the more rural & white parts of America (grew up in one!). Have always been able to strike up a friendly conversation with strangers. On this recent trip to Alabama, I took my Filipino stepdaughter. I've never gotten so many direct stares and ugly glares, from gas stations to grocery stores, in parking lots, etc.. It was actually quite shocking and eye-opening.
If you feel generally uncomfortable in Southern California, or anywhere else, but feel "at home" and happy in deep south rural areas, you probably give off unfriendly or stand-offish non-verbals in California and more relaxed friendly non-verbal commumication in the deep south, and people respond accordingly in each place.
I'm in Southern California and I get along great with people I meet. There's a convenience store clerk across the street from work, always have nice things to say with her - a couple of times their register went down, she said to take whatever I want and pay them back the next day, which is strange for a 7-11 big corporate-type organization. I hang out with my auto repair mechanic.
People are people. You get back what you put in. People always repeat the trope that everyone in SoCal is "shallow" but I've never once had this experience, but I've had it a lot of other places I've lived around the country.
> In 2021, the per capita personal income was slightly over $45,800, compared to $31,474 in 2007; it was the third lowest in the country after West Virginia and Mississippi.
> Its poverty rate of roughly 18% is among the highest in the country, exceeded only by Louisiana and Mississippi.
Mississippi still has higher GDP per capita and GDP PPP than nearly all of the EU and the UK despite its heavy minority population.
Did you mean one specific state in Europe? Excluding the EU?