Racism in the United States is astonishing. As a non-American, until Obama’s time, I used to think that, there was just some institutional racism left over from past decades and a few extremists in the South—but not much else. After Obama, it’s incredible how most white people have become extremely right-wing extremists, all because of a single president of mixed descent. Now, the problem seems enormous, and a solution doesn’t appear to be anywhere in sight.
I’m a white American from the northeast and I felt the same way. When trump won the first time, it felt like I’d just discovered that the floor underneath my bed was rotting away.
I was blind to it because I didn’t need to see it, but it was always there. My relative privilege insulated me and ensured that I contributed to the problem
I am from Boston, northeast has always been super racist and still is.
We just hide our racism by using different words, like ‘those people’. Go to any town/city meeting and you will see 50% of the people going up to talk about their ‘concerns’ using phrases like that. It’s all very veiled and vague, for sure, but it’s incredibly obvious what they mean. Being racist here is 100% cool as long as you are not doing it directly.
And hell, most of my white progressive anti-racists friends, are very very uncomfortable around non-white people. I had the ‘privileged’ of growing up a lower-income mixed race community, but most of my peers have zero experience with non-white people.
Well yeah, but there’s also naked and aggressive racism, like lynchings, for example, that I just didn’t notice before. I mentioned where I’m from because I also thought that only happened “in the south.”
Neither is acceptable, to be clear, and both happen all over the US, tragically.
As an American I feel exactly the same. There absolutely were holdouts of racism, but I felt we were moving forward and leaving them behind. Obama’s presidency set the stage, then trump and covid set everything on fire and the mask came off. “Draining the swamp” just meant revealing the scum at the bottom of it and setting it free. I was shocked at how many racist, petty, selfish, aggressively ignorant people there are in the US.
Don’t get me wrong, he did plenty of divisive things. Pioneering the idea that the president can just call in a drone strike without the approval of Congress if he can get a quick kill in, for example.
But that’s just an ‘improvement’ on the same shit that every US Prez has done since the Gulf of Tonkin. Literally every single one has authorized the use of extrajudicial authority to silence their critics or exercised military clout without approval. The War Powers Act of 1973 functionally gave away the most important power the representatives had. They’ve just invented a casus belli and gone to town, every god damn time.
Obama wasn’t divisive, not by comparison. He was an improvement. At the very least he acted like there was some kind of civilized intent behind the enormous war machine he was driving. Recently, we just haven’t had the luxury of a President that is polite enough to let us ignore how brutal this hellhole really is.
After Obama, it’s incredible how most white people have become extremely right-wing extremists
That hasn’t been my anecdotal observation. Obama’s election definitely freaked out the existing White racists and motivated them to get more politically active, but I haven’t seen non-racist Whites suddenly become racist because a Black man finally got elected president. Where are you seeing this? Better yet, is there research or polling data documenting it?
You somehow failed to understand their comment. They very clearly write that they thought it wasn’t this bad until Obama became president and they (the person you replied to) learned just how bad it actually is.
And a lot of countries are way less racist than the US. They aren’t saying there is no racism where they live, which again is weird how you don’t seem to understand.
So both things you said are fully because you failed to read something that shouldn’t be possible to misunderstand because of how clearly they are written.
it’s incredible how most white people have become extremely right-wing extremists
Whoah whoah whoah there. Not most, just a very loud, very visible minority which receive signal boost from the Epstein class’s media consent manufactories.
What’s astonishing to me, as an American who grew up in white conservative rural and suburban areas, is that the racism is just one facet of a much larger shitty state of existence.
I see the same things IRL from ordinary people, like extended family, that I see from the people in the media who seem like hyperbolic caricatures trying to test Poe’s law.
It’s just an existence based in negativity. Every request has a hurried frustrated tone. Every discussion is composed entirely of complaints. The complaints about others are bigoted sure, but also very focused on money and material possessions which those other people never deserve and the speaker is neverrrrr jealous about. Personal identity is built from all the things you don’t like.
I have a good relationship with my family, but they are still miserable and draining to be around.
I find the balance. They are less than a half hour drive away and we don’t see them all that often.
My kid has grandparents and cousins he likes. Fortunately at most of the get-togethers at grandma’s house, we tend to separate into two floors of the house. So I get to hang with my nieces and nephews and spend most of the time with walls between me and the old miserable people.
neo liberal economics always bring hard times which politicians like trump exploit to blame hard times on minorities, it has been going on for decades and it will go on till end of humanity if we do not tear this whole economic system apart
It’s more like they start to unfuck the things that Republicans fuck up, but never completely before the next Republican rolls in to continue the tear down. And they never quite get to the part where the wealthy have to give up their tax breaks or limit political spending …
As an American reading what you said is encouraging, at least knowing that when this whole place burns to the ground humanity can carry on in a meaningful and useful way. Not sure the area I live in can even be salvaged at this point.
Most people are racist. Some of the biggest racists I ever knew were Asian and Hispanic.
It’s just white racism is considered wrong and bad, and the other kind of racisms are not, because the white media industry is obsessed with self-flagellating itself over white on black racism as begin the only legitimate racism.
There is also a massive issue with asian on black, and black on asian, racism. But White people don’t know about it or talk about it, because white people are mostly obsessed with racism in terms of their own guilt, rather than understanding how it operates systematically across various groups. A lot of Trumps minority supports were for him because he’s racist and they agree with him.
Racism in the United States is astonishing. As a non-American, until Obama’s time, I used to think that, there was just some institutional racism left over from past decades and a few extremists in the South—but not much else. After Obama, it’s incredible how most white people have become extremely right-wing extremists, all because of a single president of mixed descent. Now, the problem seems enormous, and a solution doesn’t appear to be anywhere in sight.
I’m a white American from the northeast and I felt the same way. When trump won the first time, it felt like I’d just discovered that the floor underneath my bed was rotting away.
I was blind to it because I didn’t need to see it, but it was always there. My relative privilege insulated me and ensured that I contributed to the problem
I am from Boston, northeast has always been super racist and still is.
We just hide our racism by using different words, like ‘those people’. Go to any town/city meeting and you will see 50% of the people going up to talk about their ‘concerns’ using phrases like that. It’s all very veiled and vague, for sure, but it’s incredibly obvious what they mean. Being racist here is 100% cool as long as you are not doing it directly.
And hell, most of my white progressive anti-racists friends, are very very uncomfortable around non-white people. I had the ‘privileged’ of growing up a lower-income mixed race community, but most of my peers have zero experience with non-white people.
Well yeah, but there’s also naked and aggressive racism, like lynchings, for example, that I just didn’t notice before. I mentioned where I’m from because I also thought that only happened “in the south.”
Neither is acceptable, to be clear, and both happen all over the US, tragically.
As an American I feel exactly the same. There absolutely were holdouts of racism, but I felt we were moving forward and leaving them behind. Obama’s presidency set the stage, then trump and covid set everything on fire and the mask came off. “Draining the swamp” just meant revealing the scum at the bottom of it and setting it free. I was shocked at how many racist, petty, selfish, aggressively ignorant people there are in the US.
Seeing Americans label Obama as the most “divisive” president was eye opening…
Meanwhile, Trump was saying Obama isn’t even a US citizen! All while specific persons are saying Obama is dividing the nation…
It’s disgusting…
Don’t get me wrong, he did plenty of divisive things. Pioneering the idea that the president can just call in a drone strike without the approval of Congress if he can get a quick kill in, for example.
But that’s just an ‘improvement’ on the same shit that every US Prez has done since the Gulf of Tonkin. Literally every single one has authorized the use of extrajudicial authority to silence their critics or exercised military clout without approval. The War Powers Act of 1973 functionally gave away the most important power the representatives had. They’ve just invented a casus belli and gone to town, every god damn time.
Obama wasn’t divisive, not by comparison. He was an improvement. At the very least he acted like there was some kind of civilized intent behind the enormous war machine he was driving. Recently, we just haven’t had the luxury of a President that is polite enough to let us ignore how brutal this hellhole really is.
That hasn’t been my anecdotal observation. Obama’s election definitely freaked out the existing White racists and motivated them to get more politically active, but I haven’t seen non-racist Whites suddenly become racist because a Black man finally got elected president. Where are you seeing this? Better yet, is there research or polling data documenting it?
I think it’s more that a lot of racists hid it rather than openly reveling in it like they do now.
Ding ding ding we have a winner. Trump emboldened them to crawl out of their hidey holes and air their grossness in public.
I mean, exhibit A, Obama won election and re-election.
We were racist long before Obama.
And what country are you from where racism is not an issue?
You somehow failed to understand their comment. They very clearly write that they thought it wasn’t this bad until Obama became president and they (the person you replied to) learned just how bad it actually is. And a lot of countries are way less racist than the US. They aren’t saying there is no racism where they live, which again is weird how you don’t seem to understand.
So both things you said are fully because you failed to read something that shouldn’t be possible to misunderstand because of how clearly they are written.
Racism is just tribalism evolved.
This is reductive.
No really, where, because a non-racist place to live sounds fantastic, especially nowadays.
Whoah whoah whoah there. Not most, just a very loud, very visible minority which receive signal boost from the Epstein class’s media consent manufactories.
What’s astonishing to me, as an American who grew up in white conservative rural and suburban areas, is that the racism is just one facet of a much larger shitty state of existence.
I see the same things IRL from ordinary people, like extended family, that I see from the people in the media who seem like hyperbolic caricatures trying to test Poe’s law.
It’s just an existence based in negativity. Every request has a hurried frustrated tone. Every discussion is composed entirely of complaints. The complaints about others are bigoted sure, but also very focused on money and material possessions which those other people never deserve and the speaker is neverrrrr jealous about. Personal identity is built from all the things you don’t like.
I have a good relationship with my family, but they are still miserable and draining to be around.
Why would you tolerate this?
I find the balance. They are less than a half hour drive away and we don’t see them all that often.
My kid has grandparents and cousins he likes. Fortunately at most of the get-togethers at grandma’s house, we tend to separate into two floors of the house. So I get to hang with my nieces and nephews and spend most of the time with walls between me and the old miserable people.
neo liberal economics always bring hard times which politicians like trump exploit to blame hard times on minorities, it has been going on for decades and it will go on till end of humanity if we do not tear this whole economic system apart
What? Republicans trash the economy then leave the next Democrat to fix it.
But because the changes in policy take time to affect the economy, it looks like the democrat caused it.
But every time, the Democrats end with an improving economy and the Republicans end with a declining economy.
You think Ds have ever fixed the economy?
New Deal was a long time ago, they’ve fucked it up ever since, hand in hand with Rs.
Coincidentally, the leadership and a sizeable chunk of BoTh PaRtIeS are filthy rich! And their families! For generations…
I wonder why their wealth grows substantially after taking office? It is a mystery ¯_(ツ)_/¯
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_members_of_the_United_States_Congress_by_wealth (this doesn’t count all of their wealth of course, see Panama and Pandora papers for proof of how they hide money with shell companies)
Tell me you haven’t looked at any data on the subject without telling me you haven’t looked at any data on the subject.
What democrat has improved “the economy”
All of them. It’s a very clear pattern to anyone who bothers to look.
It’s more like they start to unfuck the things that Republicans fuck up, but never completely before the next Republican rolls in to continue the tear down. And they never quite get to the part where the wealthy have to give up their tax breaks or limit political spending …
As an American reading what you said is encouraging, at least knowing that when this whole place burns to the ground humanity can carry on in a meaningful and useful way. Not sure the area I live in can even be salvaged at this point.
I don’t know about “most” white people, but other than that, yeah
Most people are racist. Some of the biggest racists I ever knew were Asian and Hispanic.
It’s just white racism is considered wrong and bad, and the other kind of racisms are not, because the white media industry is obsessed with self-flagellating itself over white on black racism as begin the only legitimate racism.
There is also a massive issue with asian on black, and black on asian, racism. But White people don’t know about it or talk about it, because white people are mostly obsessed with racism in terms of their own guilt, rather than understanding how it operates systematically across various groups. A lot of Trumps minority supports were for him because he’s racist and they agree with him.