I don't think fight fans are any more enlightened than anyone else, there just wasn't a unified boxing body capable of enacting American Jim Crow over a sport that was always international. You want to proclaim yourself the baddest man on the planet, you better be willing to take on all comers regardless of color or ethnicity. Not to mention the fact that ethnic rivalry made for good gates. Jimmy McLarnin was called the "Jew Killer" for all of the Jewish fighters he beat, until he ran into my cousin's left hook.
As for ethnicity and cards, look at the 1920s Exhibits. From 1921-1928 ESCO generally stated the race, nationality and sometimes religion of the subject on the card backs. Jewish fighters were labeled as “Jewish”, “Jewish-American”, “Hebrew” or “Hebrew-American”, while fighters from other immigrant populations were categorized as “hyphen-Americans” (Polish-American, German-American, etc.) or from their family’s original locations. This applied even to fighters who were born in the United States. It is typical to see a fighter born in New York listed as Hebrew, Irish, Polish or Scottish. My favorite one of these nationality identifiers was that of Leo Lomski, a native Washingtonian who was identified in the 1928 set as “Polish-Jewish-American”. The racial tone of the era also was reflected in the cards. African-American fighters were frequently referred to as “colored” champions. All this labeling appears to be devoid of demeaning intent, however, as I have never seen any pejorative usage of a racial or ethnic label in the write-up on an Exhibit card, just a factual one.
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