<p>On the positive side, that kind of prejudice can only exist as long as it is unchallenged. Mainstream progressives cannot defend a “Regionalist” position, because it is the opposite of progressivism. I think it is mostly ignorance of what the South is really like. If you don’t know what is really like, then it would be easy to assume it is still like the portrayals of the Jim Crow South of the Civil Rights Movement.</p>