They're not reading it wrong, they are packing an agenda into it. People chronically bring up the American south of 60+ years ago as examples of how contemporary full span America is racist. Just look at all the replies.

The outward shameless and crippling racism of 1940's American south is still in full force in many countries, but they never get attention for it because the minorities there are too minority to even show up on the radar.

Japan is probably going to collapse because giving a foreigner a position of power (commercial or government) is basically unthinkable. Meanwhile America "the most racist country on Earth" just had a black president for 8 years and has a congress composed of 25% minorities.