Just as an aside that is relevant to this topic, for the first 21 years of my life when I lived in the city where the demographics were virtually a 50/50 split between white and black, I never saw interracial couples. You would think it would be commonplace due to the numbers of whites and blacks living in the same area, but it just doesn't happen. Everyone sticks with their own. Once in a blue moon you MIGHT run into a white guy dating a black girl or vice versa, but it was extremely uncommon.
It was such a rarity that I still vividly remember the first time I ever saw an interracial couple eating at a restaurant together when I was a teenager. It didn't seem to bother anybody and I didn't notice anybody staring. Everybody was just eating, having drinks, and socializing just the same as you'd see in any restaurant. It was just interesting to see something like that because it was so unusual where I lived.
Another stereotype that I used to believed was the idea of rural people having a problem with outsiders, especially black folks, since in those small communities everyone knows everybody else's family going back generations. I thought this would make them extremely unwelcoming to outsiders, especially "city-folk" like me, and you constantly hear about how prejudiced, bigoted, and hateful they are towards black people.
When I moved away from the city to a much smaller town, surrounding by dairy farms, cows, horses, etc. they welcomed me almost immediately. Sure, they all had to ask where I was from because of my accent, but they were pretty solid as far as neighbors go. I've never experienced anything like that in my life. Everybody waves to you when you pass them and people will actually stop if they see you walking and offer to give you a ride. This has happened to me about 8 times since I moved here, compared to zero times in the city lol.
And as far as blacks go, I've never in my entire life seen so many interracial couples. It's like, the people around here don't even give a damn. They are more interested in their sons and daughters choosing a good spouse based on character rather than merely judging them based on what they look like.
My theory is that in the country, the whites and the blacks grew up so close to one another for so long that they got used to each other. They have them as neighbors, coworkers, their kids go to school together, etc.
This just further proves how misguided and cretinous the American media's reporting is. It seems like anytime you turn on the news, there is some lily-white news anchor trying to instigate animosity in order to manufacture a fictitious divide between Americans. The click bait "online journalists" (it pains me to even call them journalists) are even more awful. Much, much worse than what you see on the major news networks, which is no easy feat to surpass the absolute drivel they put out there.
I seriously wonder how these people live with themselves, knowing that they are spreading misinformation that is clearly fabricated in order to confuse, enrage, and divide people. Thankfully, we have alternatives online that at least try to stay objective most of the time.