Stir it up and you'll hit a riptide. It starts with a story of Chris, who's white, playing with some black children in his yard in a white Sunflower neighborhood, where white men burst from a nearby house, yelling racial slurs and running the kids off. But that was years ago, back when Chris was still working with Teach for America. No doubt race relations have improved since 1994. The scene might have been set yesterday, or 40 years ago.
Some attitudes slip through time with similar ease.
In many places racism hides beneath a veneer of businesslike restraint. In some that skin is exceptionally thin. She doesn't see Mississippi that way. To her, going to Mississippi means visiting family in Hattiesburg, Greenville or Cleveland. But from my experience, I basically stay at my relatives' house, so to me, it's more family based, or community based.