To be honest, I think it’s easiest to feel sentiments like “There is no racism anymore” when you’re in a completely homogenized culture. eg, a Japanese person living in Japan, or a white person in Poland (the latter was a common critique for the monoskin designs of The Witcher). Those people don’t ever even need to confront the question of racism.

In a way, that at least means the ideological “war on racism” is only being fought in multicultural areas like the South - where minorities at least exist. It’s harder to identify whether that means it’s “worse” than other multicultural areas.

I feel similarly about the flags. At worst, I try to remember that even if 10 people on a street fly confederate flags, it’s likely some of them wish for slavery, while others just have jaded, disillusioned ideas that it vaguely represents independence and national pride.