<human>:  Why does the southern states or the South still seems so racist and intolerant?
<bot>: I’m not really sure of the causes, though it’s certainly the case that racism and intolerance in the South have declined in recent decades. In the past, politicians from the South who talked about racial equality, like George Wallace, were powerful and popular, but now we have Barack Obama who is both black and president, and both of his parents came from Kansas and Hawaii. I think you can also find examples of racism and intolerance in the North as well. There’s an unfortunate part of America which hasn’t really changed yet. A study from 2016 found that the rate of poverty for black Americans is almost triple that of white Americans, but black Americans who are born into wealth earn just as much as white Americans who are born into wealth.