All right. 'animalistic' might be too strong of a word to use. But I've been to some very rural areas of WV in the past few years, and I've seen the attitudes I'm speaking of displayed in some pretty disgraceful ways. So I don't think it's a stretch to make the claim that racism is part of the problem, as it is in Georgia too.
"Animalistic" in particular is going to spark outrage because after all, the "black people are animals" theme drove the debate of race for much of the
18th and 19th century. Blacks were often considered as a lower evolutionary form of human in science, partly because humans evolved in Africa. There have been books upon books and papers upon papers comparing jaw angles, breast shapes, and half a dozen other body parts of blacks to those of whites and apes to show blacks as an intermediate form between the apes and "more fully evolved" whites.
Calling rednecks, whether or not they are racist, "animalistic" is sort of an interesting thought for its historical significance. In general one must be very careful when painting another group as lower along the progression of human development in such a way because when specifically asking for an egalitarian society it becomes quite ironic.
Of course I doubt you thought about it this way when you posted it. But it does read interestingly.