Back in the early 70s I was at high school (North of Manchester) and living with my Grandmother. She was a the typical racist Granny, she said she didn't hate black people or Asians but she used to say black people weren't like us, the brain acts different and wouldn't let me play with them because I might catch something. The thing is, like I say, there was no real hate, she really believed this. The only thing I remember her saying with venom was when her best friends brother married an Indian lady, she said he shouldn't because she was dirty! This is what I grew up with at home.
At school there were all races present even then. Again, I really didn't come across much true hate, but at that time racist language was the norm. You labelled each ethnic group with the terms that are unacceptable today.
By the time I left school and started work in the late 70s my Gran had passed on and I was living with my "Auntie", my Grans best friend with the Indian brother in-law. Though she may have used some of the racist terms for identifying a ethnic group, I feel in no way was she a true racist. I had black West Indian and Asian Indian friends who were welcome in our house, we'd go to the pubs etc, and yeah, some racist terms by todays measure, but no hatred.
At that time, my best mate was mixed race Indian / White Irish and one of my first girl friends was his sister. (If Gran had been alive she would have had a heart attack.)
Now, this brings me to my main point. Yes, there was a lot of casual racist terms but I hadn't encountered real hate. That was until I was out and about with my best Mate. Any time he encountered a Muslim / Pakistani, he just went off on one. I mean real hate and that wasn't from his Mums Irish side, it was from his Dads Indian. He told me the hate went both ways and will never heal. I know it's not race, but religion and cultural that caused it, but I was shocked and it's stayed with me to this day. As a result I've never understood the claim that minorities are not racist, just white people.
Apart from that, WAS the 70s more racist than the present day? From my point of view there were many more racist terms used in everyday language but far less hate. I also believe the PC brigade spend to much effort vilifying someone for a racist comment that might have been a stupid slip of the tongue or said in very poor taste, when the real problem should be trying to bring people together.