Not that question.
The question that asks "Why couldn't it be ...." is the rhetorical one because it seems obvious to me that answer to "Can I see that bag" could just as easily have been "Certainly".

Happy to clear that up.

I don't think we've travelled very far yet. All that has happened is that people are more familiar with non-white people because there are now many more of them (there were virtually none 50 years ago outside of a few small areas in big cities / sea ports) and they have been around for a couple of generations. Accordingly, the worst excesses of fear-driven racism have all but vanished. However, I think it will be another few decades before racism both inherent and 'institutional' in the UK will fade