The changes are profound. The implications of those changes are profound. A set of social dynamics can stay frozen in place for very long periods of time, almost like a frozen earthquake fault, but then move relatively suddenly - as the demographic shift in Vancouver illustrates. But it isn't the numbers suddenly shifting that provides such inspiration, it is attitudes changing as well as different people become more familiar with each other who had not been familiar before.
I put it that way because it can be different in a region, like large portions of the American South, where different races have longed lived in proximity with each other within long "understood"codes of rigid expectations. Opportunities for fresh new attitude altering associations to occur happen best when people are brought together in new ways, in new "venues" so to speak, when the slate is relatively blank, and expectations of what will likely follow are not already etched in psychic stone. We become more receptive then, but receptivity is of little ultimate value without greater proximity also, that allows new exchanges to take pace.
Urban areas are almost always more liberal than rural ones. We all know that, it is reflected in voting patterns also. And not just because there are greater percentages of minorities inside of urban areas, but also because whites in urban areas have far greater opportunities for meaningful social interactions with non whites in most urban areas than they do in most rural ones. There are exceptions to this - such as in some small communities that welcome in refugee populations. In those cases social transformation can happen rapidly - for better or for worse usually depending on civic leadership inside those towns. With positive framing, real warmth and a sense of kinship can break out across racial lines in a small town precisely because smaller towns encourage a sense of intimacy between residents.
Most whites live inside a white social bubble. That is very slowly breaking down, but the rate of how fast it does break down varies tremendously from one place to another. It's not happening so much where I live now.
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