These guys are legit nostalgic for an idealized 19th century that they've concocted in their minds. They love all that old-timey "anti miscegenation" race classification bull****. They think trotting it out shows how edjumicated they are.
...they also seem to think that if they dress it up in a suit and tie, as opposed to a sheet and a hood...it looks as good as it sounds to everybody else as it does to them. ...they're at least a little more edjumicated than the people they cater to...which probably ain't all that hard to do to begin with... ...talk about your economies of scale...!
It's a kinder gentler racism that is unfortunately quite appealing to a surprisingly large segment of America voting Republican.