Many years ago I was employed by a government agency to do a commercial/retail study of communites in Walker County AL. A young lady with a degree from a prominent North Carolina University was sent along with me. On the way back to Birmingham she asked why Black people were so scarce in this area. Without missing a beat I told here that there were never many slaveowners or plantations here, so that explained the situation.

She responded that I had just uttered the most bigoted statement she had ever heard, and never spoke to me again.

IMHO the real problem concerns inability to apply logic or investigate a topic. How could any reasonable person presume that the EP had anything to do with prejudice? People really want to believe what they want to believe -- and that include every one of us. Some folks are just more obvious about it than others.