I have a vivid memory of starting school in Sweden in 1970 or so.

I had many many schoolyard fights over bigotry...

Not only was I relentlessly made fun of and called a Dumb American; but they did not seem to accept that I was Canadian and therefore (imo at the time) vastly different than the Americans.

muahahhaha....seriously, they never let up...they seemed to hate Americans...don't know if that has changed...

Of course this is not the same level or scope as say, visible minority racism...but it was a valuable life lesson for me...

And for the record, I don't laugh at people with Southern accents or assume they are stupid.

My mother had a 'southern' accent when she grew up in Sweden.  When she attended university in Stockholm...she was made fun of a lot for her hillbilly (swedish version) accent...

so...again...I was aware at an early age that people with southern accents can be highly intelligent...like my mother...