You're right, we don't have a lot of Roma here, but I do know about them and their reputation and everything (my grandmother was Ukrainian so she would talk about them a lot) which is why I chose them. In the US the crime rates for Black people is MUCH higher than for any other race (your average black adult is six times more likely to be in prison than your average white adult). The difference is that we don't just say "oh man, you better stay away from those blacks or else they'll steal from you." We try to figure out why the crime rate is higher (most obviously because a very large percentage of blacks live in poverty and live in cities, both are significant factors in crime rates), what causes those factors (basically they were trapped in poverty after being freed from slavery, many had to continue working for their former masters for really shitty pay. Since then they have not had the opportunities to get decent education which keeps them from being able to get anything other than low wage jobs), and now we are trying to fix this. Unfortunately that last part isn't easy and no one agrees on how to do it. Charleston county has been trying to stimulate schools in majority black communities with money, and there are many scholarships for black Americans to try to close the education gap, but there's still a long way to go. But, that's why the attitude towards the Roma is shocking to me, the modern black poverty situation is our fault (our meaning white people, specifically our ancestors) so, we work to fix what we fucked up. I don't know why the Roma have a high crime rate, but it seems like countries should be working to help them not just dismissing them as thieves.

As for South Carolina, the rural areas of the state are likely some of the most racist areas of the country. They are over represented in the state government and realistically make up less than 50% of people in the state (still an unfortunately large percentage, but not the entire state or even the majority of the state). There used to a confederate flag on top of a confederate soldier memorial on the state capitol grounds which is ironically next to a very good slavery memorial. The movement against the flag on state grounds is nothing new and the fight to get it removed has been going on for over 10 years and is what led to the creation of the slavery memorial. Currently a very large African American museum is being planned in downtown Charleston. The state has a very racist past and it is working to move away from it. Racism hasn't been defeated, but it sure as hell is losing.