My wife is from there. Its a small industrial/fishing town. Very high Portuguese and Cape Verdean community. Nightlife you'll want to go to Providence, R.I. (45 minutes) or Boston,Ma (1 hour). Most people who live there grew up there. Very blue collar. I can't speak on the racism aspect of it, but its not the south, so the racism might not be so overt, but there could be an undertone of it if you're not CV or Portugee. There is also a high concentration of drug addiction, mainly heroin, but drugs are everywhere in this country, so grain of salt.