The real truth is that California only seems less racist because we're not directly competing with the majority of the wealthier white folks who live in the same urban centers the majority of our population live in. We're not directly competing with them for the same jobs, the same schools, the same business opportunities... Politically we've been reduced to an afterthought.
On the other side of things, the populations that the majority of our population actually does compete with on a state level - poor whites, latinos and asians - tends to be very racist but they also tend to not live in the same vicinity or the same communities that we do. Poor whites and latinos tend to live in the rural regions of the state and poor asians cluster in their own ethnic boroughs. When you meet them in prison though you see some of the realities of the racial climate... Prison relations are not representative of all race relations in CA obviously but it is indicative of there being two Californias.
The racial tension in the wealthier side of California is more obvious between the groups that compete... you don't have to look far to see white Californians bytching about foreign students (predominantly asians) filling up the UC system and even the private universities and you also don't have to look far to see them bytching about the numbers game in Southern California not being in their favor. If anything, the most "overt" racism from this group of Californians is typically from wealthier asians and latinos... A lot of them have inferiority complexes with white folks/superiority complexes with black folks and the ones who aren't outwardly racist will still seclude themselves within their own communities so economically it has the same impact as any other form of segregation.
This post is full of generalizations but as a Californian this has been my experience for the most part with the exception of communities where poor blacks and other minorities grow up together. There's really not that many of them though and the vast majority for whatever reason are in NorCal (South Sac, East Oakland, West Berkeley, South Vallejo, etc). I lived in East Oakland from age 12-19 and had the benefit of being exposed to a lot of shyt I would never have been exposed to otherwise... The majority of the state is nothing like that at all though.