Just saying someone has a Southern "accent" is prejudicial and ignorant. It's true that anyone, Southern or otherwise, can slur words so they're not clear, but on averages, Southerners who speak clearly with their native inflections and pronunciations are easier to understand than your typical Yankees, whose speech is generally thin, nasal and rather
pinched-
sounding. Yeah. But I can't understand people with Southern Accents therefore I won't hire them.
People talked about hate in the South in the 1960's. What a crock. Apartheid, sure, no doubt about that. But hate, well, I grew up in the North and I lived for a few years in the deep South, and the people in the South don't hate like the Yankees do, on average. Wow. You must read completely different history books than the rest of the world.
If you want to see how hate works, look how the big-media organizations have descended on Southern radio and TV and have been telling them that they speak wrongly, and that Southern "accents" are something to be ashamed of. Damn the liberal media! (That was a sarcastic statement - do you know how right-wing that sounds).