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Every single person I know, as well as myself, has felt sort of prejudice in some way. One may not like people with a certain accent, or overweight people, or people with red hair, or people who wear shabby clothes, or people who have a crossed eye or a bad stutter. We all are quite capable of forming quick judgments that are far removed from fact.
As far as I'm concerned, the important thing is that you realize that your prejudice is probably unjustified (not all prejudices are bad ... if you're prejudiced against people who mistreat their pets and KNOW they're mistreating them, that might not be bad, for instance), and take every step to correct your misconceptions, perhaps by getting to really know that person you've prejudged.
There are people here who do not like Northerners, or Californians, or people with a foreign accent, or whatever. I have encountered them here. But for the most part, whatever my beefs about NC might be, the people here are pretty decent. My mother just moved down to an apartment here, and she uses a walker. She has commented about how people have gone out of their way to help her here. She clearly has a Northern accent.
Prejudice seems to be built into our DNA, and I'm not sure what evolutionary purpose it serves (if you believe in that sort of thing). Perhaps we all need to feel superior to someone in order to bolster our sense of self-worth. It seems to occur in every society, so it must be part of our nature as humans. But that doesn't mean we have to fall victim to our base nature. Locally, I haven't really noticed any particularly negative reaction to people of different races comingling; no one seems to give a damn. I'd love to live in a post-racial society where your appearance has nothing to do with your acceptance as a human being. Although I haven't seen much evidence of prejudice in urban areas, I would imagine that in the hinterlands Down East, it's alive and well. That's not an indictment; merely an observation. It would be great if we could all just see ourselves as humans at some point, rather than ethnicities bound by various constrictions meant to keep us apart. The only thing that really separates us is perception. And perceptions can be changed.
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