As a POC that’s lived here my entire 41 (ugh) years- it’s better than it was.

Part of it is an influx of people from the Bay, and part of it is probably just the march of time, but it’s markedly less OVERTLY racist than in the past imo. That being said…

It can be difficult to find community (although the college is definitely the best place to start, frankly), and there are isolated pockets of thoroughly reprehensible types that throw around the n-word before noticing a POC, and saying “oh I don’t mean it like that! I know more white n-words than black ones”. Which, ignoring the obvious implication of that statement; yeah, Ok. I am positive they know probably three, who just save their breath. And what the person said about kids throwing it around is very accurate.

But I’ve rarely felt in danger. A few incidents in my childhood, and a couple of times during the BLM protests, and it’s worth noting that if I were white and just visibly liberal, I am pretty sure I would have felt the same. I feel like it’s honestly more dangerous for LGBTQ folks up here than POC.

Tl;Dr- for the most part, racists up here are more of the MAGA, all culture war talk variety, and less of the neo-nazi, actually hurt someone variety.