Part of the subtext of his article is the idea that too many people see what's going on as something sui generis and thinks that we have regressed. Hanson is pointing out that, no, things have not regressed but have improved in many ways, as you pointed out. I think of when I was a page at the Richmond Public Library and watched a Klan parade down Franklin Street. Or the arguements I had with my father about interracial marriage. Now I'm married to a woman of another race and my kids and grandkids are of mixed race. Yet the more things change...