they just never had to actually deal with a Black person in power.
Whether we like it or not, this country was founded on the idea that White people are superior to people of color, that men are superior to women, that native born (indigenous people, Black people, and people of color notwithstanding) are superior to immigrants, that Christians (except Catholics for a period) are superior to any other religious tradition, etc....
Our institutions still carry the residuals of slavery, of anti-immigration, and anti-civil rights.
While the most vocal and caustic of the bunch are a smaller minority of the population, the reality is that it doesn't take much to inflame and embolden the passions of those who hold those beliefs but have been held back from expressing them through recent social norms. Historians have noted that we tend to have significant upheaval by reactionary forces every 50 or so years since the Civil War. 50 years after the CW in 1910's was the heyday of the KKK, in the 1960's the Civil Rights movement sparked another backlash, and here we are in the 2010's and Trump's election after the audacity of a Black man being elected.
We have unfortunate evidence that while it is ultimately a diminishing population over the long run, there are still parents passing their racist and sexist beliefs to their young, as evidenced in the recent Covinton High situation.
Racism, sexism, religious intolerance by Christians, and xenophobia are issues that have never really been thoroughly dealt with in the United States.
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