A few years ago, I worked at a place that wanted to terminate someone for basically gross incompetence and harassment. The person was bad at their job and would yell at anyone who tried to fix anything they made. There was a lot of hand-wringing in the company about how exactly they were going to fire this person, because they also happened to be a black woman. Now, that was certainly also an instance of prejudice on the company's part--assuming a black woman would be more likely to sue for wrongful dismissal--but the point is that a lot of concern and effort was put in to making sure the firing of this woman was not in any way motivated by race.
At the same time, I knew a couple of project leads, two men, who were themselves Indian, who openly discussed their hatred of Pakistani people. If a Pakistani person ended up on one of their projects, they would just lie about that person's performance, say whatever was necessary to get them reassigned or fired. People knew what they were like. But no scrutiny was ever applied to these guys.
I don't think "racism towards white people [has] become acceptable". What I think is happening is that racism from white people is getting a lot more scrutiny, but that same scrutiny is not being applied to all people. Many working environments are getting more diverse, so we end up getting exposed to opinions that we've just never had the chance to hear before. If this had been 50 years ago, two Indian guys would probably have the same opinions about Pakistani people. But they also probably wouldn't have been project leads at such-and-such company.
At the same time, I knew a couple of project leads, two men, who were themselves Indian, who openly discussed their hatred of Pakistani people. If a Pakistani person ended up on one of their projects, they would just lie about that person's performance, say whatever was necessary to get them reassigned or fired. People knew what they were like. But no scrutiny was ever applied to these guys.
I don't think "racism towards white people [has] become acceptable". What I think is happening is that racism from white people is getting a lot more scrutiny, but that same scrutiny is not being applied to all people. Many working environments are getting more diverse, so we end up getting exposed to opinions that we've just never had the chance to hear before. If this had been 50 years ago, two Indian guys would probably have the same opinions about Pakistani people. But they also probably wouldn't have been project leads at such-and-such company.