It's not because of cultural/personality issues. It's because there is a much larger racist population in Appalachia. I used to do a lot of business travel recruiting doctors to rural West Virginia and Kentucky. I was utterly appalled at how openly racist people were. Clients would flat out tell me they wanted "all American" candidates. When I asked what that meant, I was told, "no foreigners, no blacks and no funny names". It was completely pathetic.
look at webb's family. he married an Asian woman, and she's family (and many other appalachian families look like that)
There are people who are kinda hostile to people who won't fit in -- and may not want to take the time to have to learn how to deal with someone new.
Yeah, some people there are racist. that's not everyone, by a long shot, and to obscure some of the cultural differences is to miss something.
