As a Chinese American, I kinda have this self-imposed rule to never enter the boundaries of a red state, and even within Blue/Purple states, to avoid ending up in some rural town. Bascially, half of my country is inaccessible to me due to my perceived fear of potentially being a victim of racism.
Am I being paranoid?
my Chinese friend is occasionally harassed or disrespected for looking/sounding asian around all of the states, so your concern doesn’t sound paranoid to me.