People can be racists, that does not make them evil, it means that they have been intellectually convinced that a particular group are a threat to them. It would be most surprising if many Americans after Pearl Harbour did not hold an antipathy towards the Japanese. I've known many racists over the years and liked them as people because I am a rational human being and I know that it doesn't define every human quality they have.
Humanity's view of the world has changed drastically over time, but that's not due to inherent change. It's due to material changes in society and the ever-present ideological battle between different social forces.
We are living now in an era where there really isn't much ideological conflict. We have Islam, and the Western/European model, and that's pretty much it. One hundred years ago, we had fascism, revolutionary socialism, anarchism, capitalism, and every kind of ism. Fifty years ago we had the cold war, and wars of national liberation. Now all we have is alienation. People are like sponges. They just take on the ideas that are prevalent in the world around them.
