This is such an interesting post.
As someone who grew up in NJ and lived there until 10 years ago, I'd say it's in the middle. Not a hotbed of overt racism, but not a place where the majority of middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods are racially integrated.
I grew up in Belleville and there was a lot of racism b/w the blacks and Italians. When I was a kid we lived in a two-family house owned by an Italian who lived in the first-floor apt. One day, my sister invited a black friend over after school. The landlord was home at the time and when he saw her friend going up the steps to our apartment, he pulled my sister aside and told her that "******s" weren't allowed in his house.
My sister started to cry but was scared and told her friend she would have to leave. I was embarrassed but too scared to do anything so I called my mom at work. She came home, told off the landlord and then walked with us down the street to the girl's house and apologized to her mother for what the landlord had done.
The girl was never allowed to visit us again (her mom didn't want her to encounter our landlord) but my sister and her remained friends trough high school.
Later, as other immigrant groups began moving into town there was definitely prejudice between blacks and Asians and blacks and Hispanics.
After I got married I lived in Nutley and our block was like the United Nations with people of a lot of different ethnic backgrounds. Everyone looked out for each other and I don't remember any racist incidents, though I'm sure racism exists everywhere.
Now I live in one of the whitest states in the U.S. and b/c the majority of the population is ultra liberal there's a misconception that racism couldn't possible exist here. I've actually had people tell me that they're "colorblind" and can't see the difference b/w blacks and whites.
But, until moving here I'd never heard someone my age use the term "colored" to reference a black person.
Interestingly, our state hosts a refugee resettlement program in an effort to import more minorities yet there is constant racial tension and charges of racism in the city where the refugees are resettled.
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