What city do you live in and do you judge them by what they did 100 years ago? Not sure why that is relevant.
Because short of that, 100 years is roughly two or three generations, and that’s a short time to change the cultural composition of a town’s wealthy layer.
Meanwhile, I was called a n lover as a child in South Carolina because I had black friends. This is early 2000s, mind you.
Judging an entire population on the sins of their father is just another form of baseless prejudice, like racism, so I don't support it. But deep red America is full of racists. You shouldn't judge a person until you meet them, but there's a reason I left the deep South for San Francisco. I was just tired of the fucking racism, man.
To the topic at hand - an influx of tech workers is probably awesome for changing the cultural zeitgeist of a place like Tulsa, and given that it's a major metropolitan area it probably is far removed from the culture of the 20s, or the surrounding rural areas. But it ain't San Francisco. It's an entirely fair concern, to have to deal with racists there.
It's in my opinion one of the very few example of a recovery after such events.
I came across the "Black wall street" event of Tusla a while ago, and in comparison I don't get the impression that anything was really done to in reparation or even to change the course of things, almost the opposite.
To not be too personal about how shitty I feel it is, from the wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot#Aftermath
> In the end, no one was convicted of charges for the deaths, injuries or property damage.
> A group of influential white developers persuaded the city to pass a fire ordinance that would have prohibited many blacks from rebuilding in Greenwood.
> No prosecution took place of any whites for actions committed during the riot. The city settled into an uneasy peace, and decades of virtual silence about the events began. It was not recognized in the Tulsa Tribune feature of "Fifteen Years Ago Today" or "Twenty-five Years Ago Today".
To address the "people living today are innocent" part, it's not a matter of being part of the crime or not, but wether the Tusla culture is tainted by its past or not. And to have a culture change, there needs to be recognition, reflection and rejection of past issues, with a strong will to compensate and overcome. Is there any of that?
From the outside, I'd wager Oklahoma wouldn't still have an active branch of the KKK if there was such a dramatic shift.