I, too, am pretty old and I remember about 1980 some Ithaca College kids on Halloween dressed up as KKK members escorting a guy in black face and chains who was carrying a sign saying "Eat at Sambos." They were all suspended and a few were expelled. Even though the things you say were true back then, even then we knew that racially insensitive jokes were not cool and making them had consequences. People have this sense that 50 years ago we could dress in black face or make jokes that make an allusion (intentional or not) to lynching and everyone would laugh and be okay with it. That just wasn't the case.