This premise was (or is) simply not true.losthighway wrote:We came out of a LONG post Civil Rights Amendment period where the popular perception was that anti-racism was color blindness. Most people hated hate, tried "not to see color" and felt great about themselves. I don't know if later (painfully late) developments with gay rights could be grouped in with that or not.
I am not sure where or when you grew up.
The above may apply to a liberal subset of white people, but it doesn't apply to where I'm from, where even those people are definitely way in the minority.
I grew up in rural Northwest Ohio, born in 1974, moved there in '77, meaning I mostly grew up in the 80s (school, socialisation).
It was very white, totally white dominated, and hella racist, against all kinds of people who weren't white, near and far.
That didn't change in the time I spent there, nor was it different in the white suburban or rural spaces I lived in or spent considerable time in due to my long-distance dad's work across the Midwest, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Those places were not integrated in any significant way and probably are not particularly different now from what I gather from friends who stayed or made the choice to go back and start families etc.
What changed radically, and only really of late, is that the wider culture has become more integrated, the way our culture is mediated, more representative. And they, my old neighbours,or many of them, are uncomfortable with that, the snowflakes. It is not flattering to them, or many of them.