No, that's not what I'm asking you to accept at all.  In fact, I believe that the only way to address this issue is to be MORE upfront about the racial dimensions and the way they are woven into other dimensions, enabling those of us who want to ignore them (in the South and the North and the Midwest and the West Coast and all the comfortable suburban homes where white folks have been trying to escape the question for 45 years)to do so.  Its clear that what Dean meant was "rednecks" both Southern and not Southern (plenty of pick-up driving, cf decal wearing white folk who vote R in his part of the country, the rust belt and the mountain west.) so I wish he'd just said that, then clarifed it with a context that demonstrated he understands how bloody complicated this all is.  His trying to simplify it is what got him into trouble, and claiming moral high ground over overt racism in a country that still functions with racial structures to this day is both condescending and a little disingenuous.  That's the problem the Democratic party has in the South, but with folks like me on the left, too.