The people you
choose to talk to
are not a representative sample of the White population in SC.
A representative sample means a large
random sample of all Whites living in SC.
And we
know what that representative sample thinks by the pols they've elected throughout SC's legislative districts, who apparently have decided that it's still OK to fly the Confederate flag in the statehouse. . .
Confederate flag flying over South Carolina State House sparks controversy on social media | abc13.com
And we also know that SC is a state where local police depts. apparently are
unofficially allowed to shoot Black people at will, having grown accustomed to doing so, until someone happened to catch one of them on video doing it.
If you want to prove to us that SC is
not racist, then you will have to explain why the prosecutor in the Michael Slager case, Scarlett Wilson, opted for a grand jury indictment of the cop, when it wasn't even legally necessary (look it up if you like)--she could've simply pressed murder charges, causing the case to go straight to trial.
CORRECTION: Decent people are appalled and heartbroken.
And you can't credibly make statements about what "scruffiest rednecks" believe about this incident unless you've spoken to every one of them in the state about it. Otherwise, you're making a generalization based on a small biased sample.
Incidentally, I know what it's like to grow up in a racist state. I grew up in the Phoenix, AZ, area, one of the most bigoted anti-immigrant places in the country. Like you, I never knew or spoke to anyone who was representative of that kind of bigotry--I was just never around them. But I certainly never felt an obligation to defend that place simply because I grew up there.
I also knew better than to believe that what the majority of people think in a community in which I live is a reflection on me. It's not necessary to defend the place where I live or grew up in order to prove that I, personally, am not racist.
this tragedy is
irrelevant to that fact--there's plenty of other evidence to substantiate SC's racism--see above.