Urm, color line much? You still have people to this day who want certain people to KNOW THEIR PLACE, and people who KNOW THEIR PLACE tell their kids not to piss off the others.

Oh but racism is so old, it's practically solved! Plus you can't just legislate away feelings!

No it's not solved, and feelings are protected by the law, the same ones micro town people would rather be lax about. And it's systematic enough to still be a widespread issue.

Or for a less "racist whistling" example, think about how local sports team rapes could go unpunished. Whole towns would stand behind their high school star against rape accusations, even ones that should be investigated and turn out to be truthful. "They're just kids, they have their whole lives ahead of them! Why won't the mean state prosecutor just butt out?"

If this feels like something that "has probably happened someplace", just imagine how it extends to things other than rape. Bullying. An otherwise sociable person can get away with picking on someone less sociable and important to the town if they have the favor of the townsfolk. Well, there's your commonplace popular masochist.