You should notice I’ve written “many,” not “all.” And I live in a village where most of the people are Native, too. I’ve just expressed my experience with these sorts of things. People here are comfortable enough with me in the room to let all sorts of opinions be spoken that would curdle milk. I would hazard a guess that my experiences are influenced by the fact that most of my adult life has been spent in the media and academia, where liberal intolerance is normative in many settings.
My observation is that American culture gives a pass to racism from some people while accusing others of the same thing even in its absence. Imagine the racism from Rev. Wright and think about a similar preacher expressing the same attitudes about African-Americans. Or Whoppi Goldberg. Or any number of rappers. And, yes, people are people, and groups aren’t individuals; there is Alan West and Thomas Sowell, too.
The good news in my multiracial classroom is that practically all of my students from all background actually live by the philosophy of treating people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. For example, every kid was disgusted when they were shown a letter from the state of Alaska restricting a scholarship to Native kids. Their immediate reaction was that affirmative action like that was racist. Many of the kids like their ancestry, but it’s not a reason to segregate themselves. Now that might be just an artifact of Alaskan culture, but it’s what I see.
My last observation is that the bigots of color I’ve met are also the old dinosaurs of the left. The world will a better place when we see their final column in the obit section.
Hope that clarifies things from up here at the treeline.
That being said, I agree that older black people tend to be more suspicious of race. Unfortunately, since they lived through segregation they get a pass.