So a racist is going to give a speech next week on the campus of the University of Alabama.

The speaker, Jared Taylor, has been called a white nationalist, a white supremacist, and a racist for advocating what he describes as “race realism.”

The student newspaper, the Crimson and White, denounced Taylor’s views as “abhorrent and incorrect” and the university made sure people knew it had nothing to do with the event.

“This speaker was invited by a registered student organization that followed appropriate policies and processes,” said Stuart Bell, the university’s president. “The best way to demonstrate distaste for hateful dialogue is not to give it an audience.”

I’ll provide some thoughts this week on Taylor’s views, the administration’s decision, and how students should respond, but before diving into all of that we should revel in this beautiful fact: If someone planned to deliver a racist speech on campus six decades ago, it wouldn’t have been called “abhorrent” and “hateful.”

It would have been called … Thursday night.Nobody would have noticed.

Campus life would have moved along as if nothing controversial was happening.

And not a single reporter would have wasted their time writing about something so commonplace as a little-known racist saying racists things somewhere in Alabama.

But we have noticed. Students aren’t ignoring it. And as you clearly see, writers are indeed writing about it.

That’s undeniable progress, and Alabamians should use this moment to pause and recognize the substantial gains our state has made on the issue of racism.

Do we still have problems? You bet.

Have our hearts changed enough? Not yet.

But are we the same state … the same culture … that cheered as our governor stood in the way of a young woman attending class at the University of Alabama? Of course not.

And for that, we can be, and ought to be, quite proud.

You’ve come a long way, ‘Bama.

@jpepperbryars is the editor of Yellowhammer News and the author of American Warfighter