From my experience, Bosnians are very friendly. As in, very. I only found nicer people than Bosnians in Slovenia. I am of mixed race and apart from some strange looks I had no problems anywhere in Bosnia. Serbians are a bit different. More temperamental, so you should be a bit more cautious there. But all in all, they're ok. I'm not sure about Macedonia though. I would stay clear of Albania.
Of course! Not safe as much as it was during the time of Yugoslavia but it's pretty ok. I can't tell you much about Macedonia or Bosnia because I was only in Serbian part of Bosnia called Republic of Srpska but I am sure that is very safe. Speaking about Serbia I am Serbian so I can give you firsthand information. Street crime such as mugging is very, very rare, I would say it's much safer than London and cities in U.S. People are very courteous to each other, more so than in more western capitals, very friendly and you can easily get a bunch of friends because they are very open. You will see old people walking the streets late at night without fear. Belgrade has a unique culture, most of the younger generation speak english so you will not have communication problems. And absolutely don't worry about non white thing , younger generations are very well-educated and open minded so therefore they are not racist. The only thing you should not do is talk about politics and stuff like that (NATO, Kosovo etc.) because the wounds of 90's war are still very painful for us, history is another thing and every Serb will be happy to talk with you about that because we're proud on our rich history. You can see a lot starting from Belgrade Kalemegdan Fortress, Temple of Saint Sava, Nikola Tesla's museum where is placed his urn, Ada Ciganlija, many national parks and beautiful mountains like Kopaonik, Zlatibor and Go?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHpcAFS...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLKXSgXN...
Also, I can suggest you to see other people's experience.
Charles is American guy and he came to Serbia to see are we that bad as western propaganda presented us and he liked it that much that he now live here for more than 3 years. This is his youtube channel where he talks about Serbia: https://www.youtube.com/user/cather76
And we have Brazilian guy who have stayed to live here because he fall in love with Serbian girl, he also have youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvp4Jtm4-g-eezZmScFe6uA
Well, I'm Serbian, and first of all, I'm offended by Sen's answer, do not listen to that guy. He's a Muslim, it's in his blood to hate Serbs. He's totally wrong about our 'not so glorious history', because man...that was something. We had emperors and kings, and not so many countries can say that. We were fighting with Turks for 500 years, because we didn't wanted to give up on our religion - Orthodox christianity. And if 500 years of struggle against so much powerful empire isn't glorious, than what is? Bosnia is full of Muslims. Why? Because they gave up, they surrendered to the Turks, unlike Serbs. Also, in WW1, Serbia had about 450,000 men. Austrohungarian empire had 55,000,000. Did we back up? No. We stood and fought, we resisted to be slaves, we fough for our freedom. So, yeah, Sen, very nice of you :)
Now on to your question. I don't see Bosnia, Macedonia or Serbia as dangeorus place. Balkan is so lovely :) We have the most amazing food - cevapi, sarma, palacinke, burek, kobasice, pljeskavice, rakija... those are probably the best things you'll ever try. We are very loud and like to have fun, and we are super friendly. As for the language, younger population speeks English very well, so you won't have problems with that.
Here's opininon of a American non-white about Serbia : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-av8_0fj...
And, there's more his videos, where you can get a slightly in sight about Balkan mentality. Now, you may think that it's totaly silly, but they are young, so try to forgive them :) http://www.youtube.com/user/crnisrbi
Things you can see in our beautiful Serbia : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHpcAFSM...
And ofcourse, you can tell a lot of a country by it's music. Listen here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIq14KTrt1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyN4FeeMqAA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUgxerVgAaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvCP8GEQ9gI
Make sure to check out the last one ;)
And, we gave so much to the world. Two words - Nikola Tesla. If there wasn't for him, you and I wouldn't be sitting in front of our computers today, and we would still live in dark. Mihajlo Pupin - he invented the first machine that worked as phone. Novak Djokovic - who on Earth doesn't know who he is?
So, as you can see, we aren't bad at all. :)
Edit: Just telling the thruth, Sen :) It's okay, I understand, not all of us come from a country with a so long and richful history and customs. We all know that we are putting people, in this case things, down because we're unsecure about ourselves, and we want others to fall at the same level as we are. Nice try, tho. It's not your fault that your grand-grand-grandfather got tired of Turkish evil and wanted it to stop, many did that as well, and I'm not sure how his father, and his father would react now if they could see you spreading hate against the Serbs, because, let's face it, Bosnians are 80% if not even more Serbs that became Muslims. :)
Bosnia and Macedonia are perfectly safe. Serbia on the other hand... is not that bad either :) I think we're pretty much the same when it comes to non-whites. We're not used to them but we're not wanabe KKKs either.
Macedonians might be slightly more prejudiced because they have a lot of gypsies there who are stereotypically bad citizens. There's a neighbourhood in their capital with Roma majority and it's crazy over there. They also don't have as many tourists as Sarajevo and Belgrade so they might have weirder reactions to your appearance.
Bosnians are the complete opposite. The majority of our tourists are brown people from the Middle East who come here to see the Orient-influenced Europe. We can be a bit too friendly sometimes. Our country is known in the region for 3 things: humour, food and music. We joke about everything and a lot of times our jokes are not politically correct. So be aware of that, especially if you plan on making friends here.
Serbs are a bit colder. They're best when they're drunk. They're also good story tellers. There's not much to see there but you'll hear a lot of interesting stuff, especially if you're interested in their oh so (totally not) glorious past :) Make sure to learn their three-finger salute. They'll fall in love with you instantly.
Edit: Wow these Serbian chicks are trying hard to lure you to their Mini Mordor. Jobaha's answer is just a glimpse into the hours-long lessons you'll get about Turks and Serbs and bravery and victim complex and heroism which isn't actually heroic at all... Prepare yourself for a culture shock. Or just don't talk to them :D
Almost any place in Europe is safer than almost every place in the U.S.- especially for women.
