Contempt for Southern racism:

Compared to most mid-century Southerners, my family was quite liberal and I was personally a bit more liberal than they were.

I have lived all over the USA and I have worked and socialized with people of many races. I have found attitudes toward race among various races and cultures can not be taken for granted.

When I lived in New Orleans, my best friend was a Panamanian from an olive skinned upper class family. To put it mildly he did not care for blacks. A close female business associate was a very dark Indian from a Sikh family in the diplomatic service of India. She hated blacks, I always figured it was because she was often mistaken for a black (AA) person.

You would never have been subject to racial prejudice in my part of the South so I assume that your and your family's moderate views were based on the same moral compass that guided me and my family.

I have worked with Cubans from the Miami area and I found their racial attitude to be indistinguishable from your run of the mill Caucasian. Some liberal, some not, but certainly not necessarily simpatico with blacks.

In any case, I have found that racial prejudice is everywhere and sometimes where you would least expect to find it.