Rampant racism here in the south. Makes my Yankee head swim sometimes.

Mississippi Gulf Coast. I was regularly asked if I ever had sex with a black man, and they were greatly relieved when I said no. I asked one of them , "what, would that ruin me for life?" and they seriously replied "as far as I'm concerned it would." Another admitted to hating seeing biracial couples to the point of stalking them and planning to do them harm. Of course, they have always had a troubled racist past there.

[smithsonianmag.com]

In Rossville, Georgia they used to have a nice swimming pool at an amusement park. It was always whites only. When told they would have to integrate the pool the owners of the park were so racist that they dug a pond around it and submerged the pool so that nobody would ever swim in it again. The swimming pool is mentioned in this article, but why and how it is "gone" was explained to me by a local.

[noogatoday.6amcity.com]

I've been to about 40 countries. The most repressive was north Africa, specifically Egypt and Marocco. In Egypt my customer actually though that the US shot down the three airlines (TWA, Swissair, Egypt air) as they were departing New York heading for Europe/Africa in the 1990'ies. Since he was my customer - an educated man - an I was in his country and company I refrained from discussing this. Driving in a taxi there was also like going back 50 years in time. In Marocco/Casablanca my customer decided to locate their office in the native district - not the international one. There was a market just next to the building where animals defacated and donkeys pulled the carts. I felt like i was sent back 500 years. This is the only place I've been where I did not enjoy walking the streets to explore the local area. I'm a 6ft. 3 inc. viking type with blond hair - so people usually don't mess with me. On of my customer contacts needed to pray multiple times a day. He told stories that he had been beaten by his previous employer during work hours. Now he worked for a civilized dutch company and felt safe. I did not know what to say - just listened.

Oddly, it seems to be a tie between the Big Island of Hawai'i & Ohio. In Hawai'i people asked me if I was working "just to kill time" since I was married, & why didn't I have any kids? In Ohio people go to church twice a week, vote for Trump, & know less about GMOs than my 8 year old did. In fact, they didn't even know what GMO meant at all.

I've never been out of the US, but within that framework I'd go either small town Kansas in the 80s or Georgia. In Kansas I got in a few fights about racism before we left. In Georgia I just looked around slackjawed at all the obvious institutionalized racism and sexism, but luckily it was a short visit.