The "niceness" in the south is usually only skin deep. They'll stab you in the back as soon as doing so benefits them. The social aspect seems to only be a fishing expedition looking for weakness as well. I'd much rather have a ramdom woman in the supermarket simply walk past me than strike up a conversation that ends in back-handed compliments.
If you are different - be it race, color, creed, religion, sexual preference, drive a Ford instead of a Chevy (or whatever car make they find to be the only good one), or live in an area that they find objectionable - then you are suddenly the enemy. I was blind to it until I left the area for a few years and then returned.
In the PNW most people will not bother speaking to you but they wont steal things out of your shopping cart at the grocery store (referring to products that you haven't yet paid for, not a wallet or purse) and they will not jump ahead of you in line and act like it is your fault.
