I wondered the same, race was never a thing at our grade achool or highschool either in 80s or 90s. Like it never crossed our minds to think the brown/black kid, they were just kids, and some were the super popular kids. One of my white friends was super into rap and breakdancing and his entire friend circle was black. They called each other niggah as a greating ( but ER ending back then) Once I got into a career though I met a lot of the generation above me that were racist assholes. i’m not sure why our gen didn’t win out over the older gen.