Yes, it is a feeding ground for the Religious Right, racism, and homophobia. Yes, I have seen plenty of pickup trucks with gun racks and Confederate flags decorating the windows, and yes, I have even seen belt buckles bigger than a person's head. There are rednecks, and some of them are worse than anything a person from Greenwich, Connecticut could even imagine. However, like anywhere else, there are more moderates than extremes. There are more decent people than bad.
Good things come out of the South.
Great literature is written there, and there is a culture worthy of people's presence. The South has an amazing culture of storytelling. There is racism, but it is not as prevalent as most people assume. In fact, by sheer numbers, Tennessee is more diverse than Massachusetts. This regionalism is not a problem unique to Amherst College.