Acceptance versus Tolerance...

As people, and especially as people who work for the YMCA, do we accept everyone we meet? As a child I was taught that tolerance was a positive thing. But today I got a new perspective. It is one thing to tolerate someone and their culture and way of thinking. It is very different to accept them as equal. During our own time of segregation in the states, blacks were simply tolerated by society. Nobody really wanted to sit with them or eat with them or even drink from the same fountains as them, but they tolerated their presence in society by segregating them from the majority. Tolerance is putting up with people, but this does not bring about meaningful long lasting change. Think about your daily life... Do you truly think you openly accept everyone you meet? Or are there some people who frustrate you that you simply find it easier to put up with? Have you made a genuine effort to try and understand and accept these people and their opinions, even if they are different than yours? Or is it easier to just label them as "different" and leave them be along with the status quo?