The article mostly was spent talking about how amazing an event this was. There's a few paragraphs in the middle talking about race, which I assume you're taki

The article mostly was spent talking about how amazing an event this was. There's a few paragraphs in the middle talking about race, which I assume you're taking issue with, starting with "Whenever I asked fairgoers about race...". The article is a look at a Southern cultural event with a long history. The history of southern culture also includes racism, and so no examination of it would be complete without a look at racial dynamics in play. This is just simply not a hit piece; it's just a thorough writeup. If you come from the conservative school of thought of, "Talking about race is itself racist", I can see how you might take issue with this article. Most sane and reasonable people do not come from that school of thought.