Tolerance vs. Acceptance

While reading this, I was continuously trying to place this whoel society in parallel to some stage of American diplomacy. Why? Because I found it entertaining that even behind many ruses, a foreign diplomat so FOREIGN was accepted. He had three legs! Goddamn! And they were okay with him walking around. Now, what this reminds me of is in Gone With the Wind, when the description of the new composition of the town was given. Where never a foreign accent was heard before, after the war started, the Confederate streets were full of European accents and no one turned their head anymore. This seems the same as in Look to Windward, where foreignness has been dulled down to acceptance. At what point do instincts against something so utterly different get worn away? Have we ever actually reached somethng so accepting as a society?