As a resident of the city of Chicago and someone who is familiar with the South Side I will say this: Don’t worry about racism. This is not to say that it doesn’t exist in the city of Chicago or the South Side, but racism is every where - be it in the northeast, the West Coast, middle America or the South. Some places it may be more palpable, but I always give wherever I am traveling the benefit of the doubt - it is only fair to the people residing there. If I were you I’d concern myself with urban safety, be it traveling at night and how to get around the city safely when the street lamps turn on. This goes for anyone moving to Chicago, be it a female or male.
A little about me: I am Asian and I went to a university located in the cornfields of the Midwest; the city it was in was no larger than 22, 000 people and the population of the university was a little over 12, 000. I was an ethnic minority at my school and mentored a young (white) boy nine years of age at an adjacent city no more than a ten minute drive away. His family was borderline food stamp worthy. When I first visited the family I was worried that my ethnicity might be a problem - my worries were not fulfilled. The family welcomed me and I voiced to the boy’s mother, when I was alone with her, about my hesitation. She politely said that me being not white was a good thing since she thought her son could learn something from me. Take that as you will. On our last day together before I graduated he said that he’d miss me, to which I asked “Why?” “Because you’re a good person.”
In the small city I was attending university I never experienced any racism or “microaggression,” at least to my knowledge and reflections on my daily interactions with the locals. In fact, it was me that was entering the city filled with negative presumptions as I talked to my philosophy professor during student orientation. I said some unflattering things about the city which I now regret; I am lucky it was behind closed doors.
As for the narrative that the GOP vote being more racist, please grow up. As I moved away from the academic & modern liberal bubble that is higher learning I have shed such insecurities and unfair beliefs.