Why are whites in LaSalle Parish, LA so reactionary?

[Damocles]

Racial insecurity and anxiety, mainly. Their whiteness is the only thing they have, so, bereft of any actual economic security or real prospects for advancement, they resort to punching laterally - or even downwards.

Were they to acknowledge that Black people have just as legitimate a claim to the levers of power that they do, that would force a degree of introspection that they can’t abide. So, instead, they double down - and become extremely reactionary as a result.

It is, fundamentally, an environment of fear. They fear the implications of being a racist, and so engage in vehement denial that anything they do is motivated by race - even though, to an external observer, it is obvious. It is a degree of self-deception only a person in denial is capable of achieving.