Is the American South safe to travel through?
I asked about this on /r/AskAnAmerican and got lambasted pretty thoroughly, but I'm asking as an honest question and not as a troll. I'm moving to Louisiana from about 1500 miles away in about a month and driving the entire way, it looks like a fun trip for the most part.
Now my folks did a fair amount of road tripping (both separately and as a couple) in the late 70s and early 80s and their descriptions of Texas and the surrounding states sound more like a horror movie than an actual place in the US. According to my folks, police in Texas/Louisiana/Arkansas regularly would throw people they were traveling with in small town jails overnight for having long hair, being black, looking "like a liberal", and things like this. They said southern people look down on anyone who isn't a clean cut, right wing, Christian heterosexual nuclear family, and will do pretty much anything to make sure people that don't fit that cookie-cutter stereotype get out and stay out.
I have several friends who travel now, and they say these aren't really issues anymore, but that some parts of the south are still scary. What should I be avoiding? I took all the bumper stickers off my car and bought some neutral clothing for the trip so I don't set off anyone's hippie radar, but I still drive a Subaru and have a huge beard so it may have been all for naught.
What's your opinion on this? Do my folks have a point or am I being a lunatic for no reason?
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