The whole thought of racism is an interesting one. Reading this thread I was thinking back to my recent trip to Africa and realized I experienced racism. As white crackers we sort of stood out and as a result prices were higher for us then for a local. Even the owner of our Safari company said the same thing. He speaks Swahili, has lived there from 15 years, knows the people, but he still gets charged a higher price then if his Tanzanian wife goes and buys the supplies. This is white man = money. It never really bothered me as I was expecting it, but it's interesting to think about in light of this conversation.
And back on topic, my first reaction when I see that flag is "redneck". I don't immediately think "klan member" but I admit part of my redneck pie chart does have a slice with a label with racist connotations.
I think it's important to realize as humans we all have our biases, and they are not always accurate. It's what we do though, we compartmentalise as it makes things easy. You can be told "this is a bad area of town, you better watch yourself" and look suspect at every guy you pass whereas you'd pass the same dude in another area of the city without thinking about it. It's really facinating to see how our minds work and also very interesting to see how a group of 4 year olds interact. They don't have any preconceived notions.
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