Zoidberg, I think the blood separating was shocking to me, because I was too young to remember the civil rights movement. I also grew up in Northern California in a very free thinking community where racial prejudice was not much of a problem--that I noticed anyway. I had no idea just how ingrained racial prejudices were in our society and imagining that people would actually keep blood separate was just outrageous to me.
No, the church was no more enlightened that anyone else in this area--as a collective whole, they were just a stuck as the rest of American society. But if you don't ask...if you just assume, then you get no new answers--even among the Prophets.
And we had to be dragged into it--there's no question that racial prejudices existed among some of the upper church leaders. Thank heavens for the small changes which were made over time which allowed us to get to the point where the Ban could be lifted comletely.