Could race relations have been better in the 1980s?

Could there have been less racial tension in the 80s? What could have prevented the racial tension that occured in the OTL 1980s?
 
I think this varies by geography, even within the USA.

I can only speak of Minnesota in the 1980s. Race relations are worse here than they were before about 1985. The Rust Belt economy tanked and Reagan's budget cuts caused a huge migration of poor, mostly black, people from Chicago and Gary to "Moneyapolis", so named because Minnesota had higher welfare grants than the surrounding states. Unfortunately, a disproportionate number of these newcomers were criminals and troublemakers who didn't fit the so-called "Minnesota Nice" model. Some of them were legitimately trying to protect their children from the gang influence in Chicago but were so out of touch they didn't realize their own kids were the gang influence....

This cause a backlash that destroyed liberalism in this state. Even the DFL (Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, our semi-socialist version of the Democrats) became conservative. They tried to make a law that newcomers from other states who applied for welfare would get no more than in the state they came from. Of course, SCOTUS ruled such policies unconstitutional in 1962 and they did it again. So Minnesota never raised the AFDC/TANF grant level for anyone since 1986 (the cost of living is now about double what it was then).

The general public in this state is much more racist, on average, than it was 35-40 years ago. A lot of it is hard to quantify or explain, but the attitudes are often quite obvious.

Could this have been prevented? The best way to do so would have been twofold:

1. Keep Reagan from causing the recession of the early 1980s.

2. Change the AFDC law to remove state discretion of grant levels, either by having one standard level throughout the USA or making the level proportionate to the relative cost of living in each state.
 
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