It's a matter of interaction. Youth now have an opportunity to interact freely with each other and figure out for themselves whom to like and whom to dislike, and the discovery is of individuals, not entire "races."
I grew up in an all-white Jersey 'burb so long ago. I didn't have black neighbors and school mates. My first remembered interaction with a person of African descent was a hospital employee. I had woken up, about aged eight, in the children's hospital ward after a tonsillectomy covered in blood in one of those crib cages. As an experienced tree-climber, I figured "up and over" to get to the sink on the other side of the ward. It took some effort, so I was pissed when this employee found me, asked what I was doing out of bed, and physically carried me back to my lock-down bed! Then he got somebody to tend to me. I didn't realize how wonderful he was at the time, just human to human, and he was taking care of a child, with gentleness and concern.
Then, growing up, there was Motown, Sam Cooke, and all the best of music brought to us by black artists, plus we saw the ugly scenes on TV of the revolting racist behavior in the south during the civil-rights movement, from fire hoses to the finding of bodies buried in a levy or berm. The racial experience was incremental, and well-shaped by my religious background, by my parents's memories of Marion Anderson and Roy Campanella, who had an estate on Morgan's Island not far from my grandparents' home, and also by the fact that I was given the opportunity to travel as a teenager, and meet other people on the other side of the world who were friendly and wonderful to me.
Now, our communities are integrated in many places, and the advances in electronic media have given the young folks more opportunities to forge friendships through school, talk, and music. There are many more opportunities for one-on-one interactions. I think that this frightens older people who have never had the opportunity to meet and interact with people who are somehow different from them.
