Well I will tell you this. When I lived in Louisiana I had a friend who was my best friend. He was a black man. Did I see him any different than me. Hell no. He would bring me his truck every time he wanted something done to it. It was an 84 Silverado that I built him a 427 for and he would drive it to the track run 12:20's and then drive it the rest of the week.
We hung out. baraqued, went to black and white bars and no one at either ever said anything racist to either of us.
Maybe it is a different thing over there but I can honestly say that he and I looked at world just the same.