Like anywhere, there's a couple bad eggs, and since I'm white there's bound to be things I don't come into contact with. But I will say that once you get past the gruff New England exterior, most people take pride in not being racists. I heard it said that west coast folks are nice but not kind, and east coast folks are kind but not nice and it's a pretty good description, lol. If you break down it's really likely someone will pull over and help you out, but they might give you shit about your car while they're fixing it.

My hometown is a whopping 2500 people and we have a Chinese restaurant run by a Chinese family. They've been here for almost 30 years and their child was born here. He's now working at a local store and is managing the younger kids. My brother used to work for his family and back in the day my friends and I used to frequent their place. I can't speak for other people but my friends and I always considered them part of the community and we were on a comfortable joking level familiarity. The father would mess with us and we had some pretty hilarious times there. Again, I'm speaking for my friends and myself, but we always were ready to call out the bigots. Definitely there were a few parties where we actively confronted ignorant rednecks, sometimes ending in fights. We weren't afraid to put the fear of hippies into those types of assholes.

Vermonters tend to be pretty progressive. It was the first state to give women the right to vote way back in the day and the first state to vote to allow gay marriage.

I wish I could answer more thoroughly, but i have experienced all this from a white perspective. From my limited observations though, I think most people are more curious than hostile. I won't say racism is non existent here. I've spoken to some people who have definitely had some negative experiences. And a few of my friend from high school who are black had some scary ones growing up.

I know Vermont is making efforts to get new people moving into the state. And while the population is very white, it's getting more diverse which is nice to see.

I guess the short answer is yes, I do think it's better up here compared to the south, racially speaking. Although that's a low bar to pass.