More or less I agree with you. I encountered some of the same things, but I was removed from a lot of that geographical environment earlier in my life. I never escaped bigotry though. Perhaps that tuned me into it more... I was a long hair heavy metal enthusiast in an area mostly dominated by cowboys and ranchers. It was also during the time Geraldo Rivera was warning of satanism.

I'd walk past a catholic priest on a side walk and he'd turn his head up and away from me.

I'd get written up for looking suspicious due to walking around down town...

(these things all happened)

I was written up in some newspapers as being Satanic though no one ever interviewed me to ask me. I wasn't even close to such a thing.

I was called a druggy when I'd spent a single month when I was 16 where I smoked pot, drank alcohol, etc.

After that month I never did ANY of those things. I was not against them, it was my personal choice. That was 30 years ago and I still have done none of those things.

However, I'd get stereotyped and encounter drunk cowboys who wanted to pick fights, etc.

Bigotry appears ALL over the place...

Racism is just one of the most pervasive and obvious ones that divide us, because you can't simply stop being black, white, brown, etc. I could have stopped listening to metal, and dressed differently.

Yet I was also rebelling against the concept that I even should have to do anything like that.