I got a little nervous when I saw how long your post was. I was thinking, "Here we go again." But I think I agree with everything you said, so there is no point in addressing it paragraph by paragraph.

I can understand when a black person realistically thinks to himself, "There is a chance this white person is a racist and has a bad opinion of me because I am black." He is right. There is that chance. I just don't think it makes sense to go ahead and conclude a person is a racist without good evidence. We agree on that.

You said you were not sure how much of the racist sentiment remains, so I will tell you how I see it. The KKK mentality is not very common with white Americans any more. Only the stupidest inbreds who think wrestling is real talk about hating a person just for being black. However, the subtle negativity you talked about is pretty widespread, but fortunately it is generally the sort of probationary mentality I was just talking about with the black guy who thinks white people around him might be racist. I don't think it is common any more for the negativity to be unconditional. It is about what ifs. Once everything seems cool with the person, the racial tension generally ends. White people who just automatically have a bad opinion of a person for being black and continue to even after they see that the person is totally okay are on the way out. People who are like that these days pretty much don't admit it. They know how ridiculous and ignorant they will sound. Saying the word "nigger" at a cocktail party full of white people now would be like pissing on the curtains. I see interracial couples all the time now, and they don't have to worry about getting attacked over it any more. When my parents were in school, interracial couples were pretty much guaranteed to be attacked in public.

That is all a pretty recent development. Just twenty years ago, prejudice was much more acceptable. Twenty years before that, it was unacceptable not to be unconditionally prejudiced, at least where I live. Of course I live in the state that is the setting of all of the true story KKK movies, so this region's history is really extreme. But things have changed a great deal and seem to still be getting better. I think the racism is much closer to nonexistent in other parts of the country. I have cousins who live in Seattle, and I don't think the subtle weariness we talked about is very common there. If anybody does have it, they wouldn't dare show the signs of it because racism on any level is all out taboo there. I think it is that way in a lot of other places too.