I was born in 1972, so my earliest experience with noticing there were different races was during the 70s. In elementary school I can only remember my class (which was usually between 20-30 kids from 1st Grade through 6th Grade) having 2 black kids (fraternal twin boys) for a few months, and one Korean girl (also for a few months). All the rest of us were just plain white. Race never meant anything to any of us.
During that time, I used to watch mostly sit-coms on tv. A lot starred mostly white people (Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Three's Company), but I was also a big fan of the ones with mostly black people (Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, What's Happening). I didn't care what race any of the characters were, I just enjoyed watching the shows because they made me laugh.
Of course, with it being the 70s, all the shows would have the occasional "racism" episode. As a child, I never understood why racism existed. Everyone on these shows were generally good, decent people, so why should anyone hate everyone who looks like the characters or came from the same continent as the characters? I could understand hating someone for being a jerk, but not grouping everyone of a particular race under the same umbrella.
Even now, in my early 40s, if I think someone is a hoodlum or a prick or a douche, its because of how they act....not how they look.
misteryo: I first became aware of racial differences playing D&D around my friend's kitchen table.
Halflings have a +1 bonus to backstab.
Dwarves have a 10% resistance to magic.
Humans get skill bonuses and can multi-class but no attribute or resistance bonuses.
(How did it take 4 pages for this post to get made?)
LMAO....ok, we can lock this thread now! Nothing's gonna top that as far as I'm concerned!