I live in the south...it runs rampant here...I hate it...absolutely hate it. I don't know what the problem is but most white folks I'm around can't have a conversation without bringing up blacks in a negative way...it just astrounds me. I told my husband that these folks (many in his family) must be obsessed with black people because they talk about them so much. I swear I just don't get it. He says it's because of the history here. I understand the history but, not the continued hatred that exists. I have managed to get his family to stop saying the "N" word around me because they know I'll go off on them. Their excuse of "we don't mean anything by it" doens't fly with me. I ask them...'would you say that in front of a black person?' The answer, of course, is 'no.' I then ask them, 'then why say it at all?' I know I'll never rid the prejudice that exists between blacks/whites here in the deep south, but I don't have to be a part of it.