Who do you blame for the rise in overt racism in America?

[malaise]

I blame RW radio and TV and ReTHUG politicians and hacks in the media.

[notadmblnd]

1. repulicans and the tea party pissers

[elleng]

2. Yes, all of the above.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. That pretty well sums it up

They get their base stirred up with red meat issues (which doesn't take much, given they have brain rot anyway) and then sit back watch from a safe distance.

[pipoman]

4. What are we basing a belief that there has been a rise on?

[nomorenomore08]

63. High-profile racially motivated shootings, for one?

Blatantly racist rhetoric from the right wing in general, for another?

[Uncle Joe]

68. Not to mention strangulation as in Garner. n/t

[pipoman]

71. There's no rise in either

Only your awareness has risen.

[nomorenomore08]

72. You may be right. n/t

[malaise]

74. There's a fair amount of data out there n/t

[pipoman]

86. Where? what data that there has been a rise?

It is awareness. A rise since when? The last year? 5 years? 20? 50?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

101. Not a rise in racism, a rise in the overt nature of the racism.

Ie, why have the bigots felt more comfortable in broadcasting their hatred and stupidity?

I think they simply couldn't handle the fact that America elected a black man, twice, into the White House. It drove them into a frothing fury such that they couldn't keep their bile hidden.

[mrdmk]

110. Also a change in vocabulary to a wink wink, nudge nudge with a smile of,

"you know what I mean!"

Some underhanded shit going on here with the media included and complicate all of the way up to their eyeballs...

[VanGoghRocks]

5. I know it's bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I blame Ronald Reagan

for most of it (with Dick Nixon getting a lesser amount of the blame for his so-called 1968 "Souithern strategy&quot .

[RKP5637]

18. Yep, with Nixon and Reagan most of the outrageous crap intensified, and the RW

and the rest of the misfits felt entitled.

[leftstreet]

6. There's no 'rise in overt racism' in the Ferguson PD

Sounds like business as usual

[Politicalboi]

7. Like you said radio and Faux

But also the ever declining white population scares them to death.

[BaggersRDumb]

8. Teaparty was formed to oppose the skin color of the President and nothing else

But racism was alive and well before these morons formed a group, or had the Koch Bros do it for them...

[BaggersRDumb]

109. sigh

[HooptieWagon]

9. Yes.

RW hate radio and its thinly-veiled racism, Fox news, and RW pols blowing dog whistles. I imagine there's a good number of racist/white supremicist websites on the internet also, where those views are propagated and reinforced.

[Rex]

10. Republicans.

They seem to be hellbent on destroying anything and everything.

[Adam051188]

11. the elites who seek to divide us along whatever lines they can get away with

and anyone with a "grill"...

[Kalidurga]

12. The economy

even if people don't consciously know the middle class is doomed and that their children and their childrens children will be facing grimmer times they instinctually know this. They are angry and lashing out at people that can't fight back.

[XRubicon]

28. +1

[nomorenomore08]

64. +2

[Louisiana1976]

77. +3

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. Obama! eom.

[JI7]

35. Obama becoming PResident is what made it overt, but it was always there

they tried to hide it before but having a person of color end up as president brought it out.

[1StrongBlackMan]

39. Yep ...

I guess many figured, "What else do I have to lose? The unimaginable has just happened."

[malaise]

40. But could they have had such a racist bully pulpit without the

RW blogs and groups on the internet.
Even the language of those racist cops sounds like anonymous posters spewing their hate on the internet

[JI7]

41. it was always there , we just have more cameras these days

the blogs and fox news and talk radio could make it worse in that it gets people more riled up and wanting to go out and hurt someone.

but the racism has always been there.

[malaise]

43. Good point

Cell phone cameras are our friends

[OneGrassRoot]

62. ^^ THIS ^^ n/t

[bravenak]

14. The Tea Party.

[G_j]

15. agree

RW radio and TV mostly.

[WestCoastLib]

16. It's been engineered in an attempt for the GOP to hang on to political relevance

The 1% is not blind to the fact that they are losing their grip on public opinion & demographics. With the rise of internet, they are only going to be losing younger generations more and more as people have their eyes opened to what the rest of the world holds.

Ironically, I believe a lot of them thought America was MORE racially divided than it even is. I think they actually initially wanted Obama to take down Hillary in the '08 Primary because they thought deep seeded racism would make him easy to defeat in the general election.

The fact that Obama won got them in a panic and they've been trying to exploit it ever since to drive racism. I think things will settle down a little bit after he leaves office...and we can probably expect them to start upping their game on sexism and trying to polorize the sexes in preparation for Hilary in 2016.

[Louisiana1976]

80. Excellent point.

[Takket]

17. Rush and hannity brainwashed an entire generation.

[Octafish]

19. This SOB returned racism to America.

Just to make sure people got the message of where he was coming from, Reagan declared his candidacy in 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi.



President Obama would do well to learn, if not remember, the story about the "transcendental president" from Terrel Bell, Prunefaces's shocked Secretary of Education, who heard White House staff refer to Dr. King as "Martin Lucifer Coon":



http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023640501

[malaise]

42. Excellent post

Sometimes we forget to emphasize Reagan's role in promoting racism.
Were they able to turn back the clock once the cold war had ended.

[Octafish]

91. JFK was the exact opposite. Ask ABRAHAM BOLDEN...

Tell everyone you know about him, Dear Sister...

Abraham BOLDEN, the first African American SS agent on the White House detail. A man of integrity, Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden reported overt racism by his fellow agents and outright hostility toward the "n------loving president," quoting fellow Secret Service agents on the JFK detail.



Abraham Bolden speaks at JFK Lancer.



The story of a man who told the truth:

After 45 Years, a Civil Rights Hero Waits for Justice

Thom Hartmann
June 12, 2009 11:52 AM

A great miscarriage of justice has kept most Americas from learning about a Civil Rights pioneer who worked with President John F. Kennedy. But there is finally a way for citizens to not only right that wrong, but bring closure to the most tragic chapter of American presidential history.

After an outstanding career in law enforcement, Abraham Bolden was appointed by JFK to be the first African American presidential Secret Service agent, where he served with distinction. He was part of the Secret Service effort that prevented JFK's assassination in Chicago, three weeks before Dallas. But Bolden was framed by the Mafia and arrested on the very day he went to Washington to tell the Warren Commission staff about the Chicago attempt against JFK.

Bolden was sentenced to six years in prison, despite glaring problems with his prosecution. His arrest resulted from accusations by two criminals Bolden had sent to prison. In Bolden's first trial, an apparently biased judge told the jury that Bolden was guilty, even before they began their deliberations. Though granted a new trial because of that, the same problematic judge was assigned to oversee Bolden's second trial, which resulted in his conviction. Later, the main witness against Bolden admitted committing perjury against him. A key member of the prosecution even took the fifth when asked about the perjury. Yet Bolden's appeals were denied, and he had to serve hard time in prison, and today is considered a convicted felon.

After the release of four million pages of JFK assassination files in the 1990s, it became clear that Bolden -- and the official secrecy surrounding the Chicago attempt against JFK -- were due to National Security concerns about Cuba, that were unknown to Bolden, the press, Congress, and the public not just in 1963, but for the next four decades.

SNIP...

Abraham Bolden paid a heavy price for trying to tell the truth about events involving the man he was sworn to protect -- JFK -- that became mired in National Security concerns. Bolden still lives in Chicago, and has never given up trying to clear his name.

Will Abraham Bolden live to finally see the justice so long denied to him?

CONTINUED...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/after-45-years-a-civil-ri_b_213834.html

After the assassination, he went to Washington on his own dime and reported what he saw to the Warren Commission. For his trouble -- and despite an exemplary record as a Brinks detective, Illinois State Trooper, and Secret Service agent -- Bolden was framed by the government using a paid informant's admitted perjury and spent a long time in prison. The government also drugged him and put him into psychiatric hospitals. His only "crime" was telling the truth.

Please tell everyone you know about Abraham Bolden, malaise. He's still alive. And the truth is something more people should try these days.

[Boomerproud]

53. Oh come on-he was such a nice, decent guy!

Mr. Americana and all that.

[Octafish]

92. True. He was, at heart, a fascist bastard.

The Truth of El Mozote

[RKP5637]

20. Yep! n/t

[pampango]

21. Paul Krugman has a theory:

American exceptionalism when it comes to income distribution – our unique suspicion of and hostility to social insurance and anti-poverty programs – is, I and many others would argue, very much tied to our racial history. This does not, however, explain in any direct way why we should misperceive real inequality: people could oppose aid to Those People while understanding how rich the rich are. There may, however, be an indirect effect, because the racial divide empowers right-wing groups of all kinds, which in turn issue a lot of propaganda dismissing and minimizing inequality.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/inequality-delusions/

Promoting racism helps those folks who benefit from inequality. IOW, the 1%.

[malaise]

25. As in keep the poor of all races at each others throats while

the 1% enrich themselves.


What is the role of the internet?

[yardwork]

100. It's deeper than that.

In a nutshell, the south in particular dr funded and devalued public facilities in order to avoid desegregating them. When the Supreme Court told Alabama to desegregate public parks, pools, playgrounds, etc., the Alabama responded by closing them. Rich people built white-only private clubs. Even middle-class subdivisions built their own private pools. This was replicated throughout the nation.

Many people in the US were raised to hate "government interference" and taxes specifically because of this.

[malaise]

113. Mine only or destroy

The hatred is that deep?

[yardwork]

121. Yes. And that sickness permeates the US.

[lunasun]

22. Obama - I heard he wants to start a race war

[procon]

23. Definitely, the rightwing propaganda media -nt

[justiceischeap]

24. The Democratic Party

For being progressive enough to push President Obama into running in the first place. If Hillary had been elected we'd see an outpouring of overt sexism.

But mostly I blame people who termed the phrase "post-racial" so they can be overtly racist then claim we live in a post-racist society.

[XRubicon]

26. The decline of the middle class

The middle class is feeling it these days.

When times were good people were focused on themselves and "takers" were small on their radar.

Now that people can barely afford groceries and gas they need a boogeyman to blame.

[JI7]

37. so when were things better when it came to race ?

[alp227]

75. Not during recessions, let's say the '90s and mid 00s.

Back then, you wouldn't see on message boards or hear common gossip complaints about "the poors".

[JI7]

76. i don't think it was better, they would just say things like "soft bigotry of low expectations"

concerning minorities and things like affirmative action and other programs .

they would talk about abortion as if they care about black babies being abortion.

they would do the i want to lift them up and help them support themselves with jobs instead of depending on welfare and other crap.

[XRubicon]

78. I think it goes from bad to worse tracking the economy

I don't think there has ever been a utopia in our country as far as race goes, but when the middle hurts they lash out at easy targets.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

27. The racists.

[Louisiana1976]

82. Exactly.

[XRubicon]

87. Thanks for the insight

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

93. Thanks for the commercial.

[XRubicon]

123. I like your style.

[Anansi1171]

29. I blame AM Hate Radio too.

And despite my service to this country I cant help be conclude that Capitalism is an unmitigated disaster for the majority of blacks in America.

400 years later and the slaves descendants still largely have but the shirts on the backs.

Reconstruction failed.

The Great Society never had a chance thanks to the War on Drugs ( and the untimely coincidences of Crack Cocaine, HIV/AIDS and the increased gangstarism developed out of the prisons)

[SamKnause]

30. Mainstream media;

the narrative has always been to portray blacks as inferior, dangerous, criminal, lazy, and ignorant.

Right wing talk radio.

Racist politicians.

Our two tier justice system is racist by design.

Our corrupt justice system allows for an abundance of cheap labor.

Our corrupt police are rarely, if ever held accountable.

The Fake and Failed War on Drugs keeps the private prisons overflowing.

[MerryBlooms]

31. It's always been there in pockets, but Reagan amped it up with his bullshit 'Welfare Queen' meme,

and the GOP not only ate it up, but thrived off it. They then made racism part of their platform. Their base eats that shit up and with Faux News, they have made it fucking mainstream 'Christiany'.

[seveneyes]

32. I blame those that teach that racism is acceptable

[Quayblue]

33. right on

Through action AND none at all

[Cleita]

34. It's always been there long before we had Rush Limbaugh et al.

What they did though was appeal to the racism of the white population, which is why they became so popular. After that it was easy for them to insert all kinds of propaganda to get people to vote for Republicans, go to war and many other abuses that have changed this country into a militarized third world country.

But at the bottom of all our problems and the rise of the oligarchy is racism, sexism and many other kinds of bigotry. I promise you we would never have gone to war in the Middle East so easily if there hadn't been so much race baiting about Muslims by them.

[livetohike]

36. Ronald Wilson Reagan and his "welfare queen" comments.

Pathetic fool.

[NRaleighLiberal]

38. It has always been there, but now and then a catalyst causes it to bubble up

and be more overt - and all the reasons above - Tea Party, Kochs, big money, big right wing media, hateful right wing AM radio mouths, Obama's election...so many factors.

[ruffburr]

44. I blame Ignorance and-

Small minds being fed B.S. 24 - 7 Also being a cracker who figured it out the P.T.B. love using all working class people against each other to fatten their coffers I have to say wake up stop we poor folk are all screwed and they are manipulating people to stand against our own interests , Black or White you are being used to promote the agenda of the 1%

[malaise]

45. What is the PTB?

I don't have a clue

[ruffburr]

56. ptb

Powers that be OOps forgot the periods

[malaise]

59. Cool

[L0oniX]

46. I blame us for not standing up to it where ever we are and every time we hear someone spew the shit.

[DCBob]

47. Its Obama "fault".. for exposing the hidden racism in America.

There was an excellent article recently about this on Huffington Post..

President Obama's Terms in Office Have Revealed the Hidden Racism in America

There is a famous quote by Fannie Hurst (1889-1968), a successful American writer: "A woman has to be twice as good as a man to go half as far."

Canadian feminist and former mayor of Ottawa, Charlotte Whitton (1896-1975) took that thinking a bit further: "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."

After six years of the presidency of Barack Obama, the same can be said of African American males. I have lately been wondering if a white man were in office during these tumultuous times of global and humanitarian crises if he wouldn't be given more slack from the American people. I doubt that the majority of the public would not rally behind him as our Commander in Chief while he made difficult foreign policy decisions.

Many whites, particularly of the older generation, may have subconscious feelings of superiority to blacks. My father, who passed in 2012 at the age of 92, is an example of this. Although, he evolved and supported Obama in 2008 and beyond, I recall him telling me when I was a kid that there were studies that proved that whites were more intelligent than blacks. I never believed it and even at a young age I felt the deck was stacked against African Americans from having learning and economic opportunities.

more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-e-dowlin/president-obamas-terms-in_b_5646431.html

[malaise]

73. Interesting thoughts

[Nye Bevan]

48. Rise since when? You agree there is less racism today than in the 50s and 60s?

So what era do you think that racism in the US was at its lowest point? The 90s?

[mnhtnbb]

49. I would blame it on the failure of so called Christian ministers

who have never adequately explained the message of the New Testament
to whites.

[davidn3600]

50. Racism never declined

It's always been there. It's just more hidden now. Incidents like this simply expose the tip of the iceberg before it sinks back under again.

[malaise]

81. You think it's more hidden

I disagree.

[Louisiana1976]

84. I do, too. It's a lot more open than it used to be.

[valerief]

51. The ruling class who own the media and Congress. nt

[Boom Sound 416]

52. Sometimes people who won't wait for facts

[panader0]

54. I blame Obama.

If that wiseacre hadn't been elected twice to the Presidency, these ugly cretins might have remained under the radar.
I really believe that a Black man in the Whitehouse makes them insane.

[MoonRiver]

57. I think that would make the insane people, rather than the source of their insanity, to blame.

[panader0]

60. I guess I thought the sarcasm was evident.

[Jenoch]

55. I am a bit perplexed.

Of course there is racism in the U.S. however I like to deal in facts. Does anyone have a link to a news source on the rise of overt racism in the U.S.?

[etherealtruth]

58. Here

Poll finds fresh increase in US racism
Associated Press poll says anti-black sentiment has grown since Barack Obama's historic election victory in 2008.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/10/2012102813952902929.html

Racist Backlash Greets President Barack Obama
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2009/spring/white-heat

Tufts Associate Professor of Psychology Samuel Sommers, PhD is the co-author of the article “Whites See Racism as a Zero-sum Game that They Are Now Losing,” from the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. He comments that ”It’s a pretty surprising finding when you think of the wide range of disparities that still exist in society, most of which show black Americans with worse outcomes than whites in areas such as income, home ownership, health and employment.”
http://politicalblindspot.com/study-finds-white-americans-believe-they-experience-more-racism-than-african-americans/

[Skittles]

61. Obama's election was like a light being turned on and the cockroaches (racists) scattered

they couldn't stay hidden - it just sent them over the edge

[malaise]

114. Sometimes I wonder how

he deals with their hatred. I would have exploded ages ago.

[Skittles]

116. he actually deals with it very well

I think his measured, intelligent responses make them become more unhinged

[whereisjustice]

66. I blame the rich who fund them. RW Media is just a parasite chasing after the 1%

[GeorgeGist]

67. Racists?

[Tikki]

69. Hypocritical religious institutions...

Tikki

[Uncle Joe]

70. The rise of corporate supremacy and the subsequent shrinking of the middle class have

have created a major disparity in the nation's wealth, the less than 1% are yanking all the chains.

This disparity breeds frustration and fear which are fed and then misdirected by the hate filled monopolized corporate media in service to corporate supremacy and oligarch rule.

Divide and conquer is their Prime Directive.



Thanks for the thread, malaise.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

79. Fux Noise mostly

[OldHippieChick]

83. I've actually been giving this a lot of thought

and I truly believe it goes back to 9/11. Fear was used to stoke us into a war and it evolved into fear of all things Muslim and has morphed into ye old racism. It's not going away anytime soon as the RW continues to use that fear to inflame its base as they have no real positive ideas. Fear and hatred work. So sad ... worse than sad ... despicable

[Manifestor_of_Light]

85. RW media and politicians who blame everything on our President.

Dividing the poor working classes between each other, so they won't unite and rise up against the 1% which are oppressing them.

Karl Marx was well aware of this phenomenon used by the ruling classes, and he died in 1883.

[LWolf]

88. I blame our culture's obsession with

aggression, blaming, and bullying.

[AnalystInParadise]

89. I blame everyone

E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E

[betsuni]

90. Because of the right wing bubble where there is no shame in overt racism.

RW radio/TV/Internet bubble where it is common sense. No more sitting on front porches talking to any neighbor that passes by and knowing how to have a polite civilized conversation with all kinds of people. The bubble people don't care anymore if what they say in public is mean and rude, the others outside the bubble are the enemy so it's fun to make them angry. In fact, how dare the non-bubbles try to guilt and shame you into being like them!

[AverageJoe90]

94. This accounts for a lot of that, yeah. No doubt.

But there's been other factors as well, some of which have likely been covered here.

[jwirr]

95. I blame rw radio and politicians. And I also blame rw churches that are not standing up against this

stuff.

[TheKentuckian]

96. Smartphones and YouTube catching them for all to see and hard to deny?

[Jamaal510]

97. There are so many culprits

it's tough to figure out who or what to blame the most. There's the not-really-liberal media mucking things up and under-informing its viewers/listeners. Next, we have the election and re-election of our 1st black president, which did a lot to bring the bigots out of the closet, per se. Then there's the decades-long Southern Strategy (popularized by a certain Republican former president) that capitalizes on dog whistle politics to push a regressive economic and social agenda. We have the anonymity of many different message boards that makes it more convenient than ever to act like a jackass. And of course, many people have simply been taught racist beliefs that have been passed down their families for generations.

[GeorgeGist]

98. Republicans and their Masters.

[yardwork]

99. All that plus too many low information morans.

It really frosts me that there are so many people in the US who are willing to believe blatant b.s.

[otohara]

102. The Wingnut Media

FOX turned my old friend into a racist and now we're not friends

[malaise]

112. Wow!

That must have hurt

[JaydenD]

103. Yes, those people Are to blame, plus lazy minds that believe their shit.

And lazy minds don't exclusively belong to the rightists.

[LonePirate]

106. The 1%ers, Republicans, RW media and the NRA

[hobbit709]

107. It started with Nixon and his southern strategy.

[napkinz]

111. Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: ‘My party is full of racists’

http://tv.msnbc.com/2012/10/26/colin-powells-former-chief-of-staff-my-party-is-full-of-racists/

[Recursion]

115. "rise"?

When was the golden age where it was less than it is now?

[malaise]

118. It hasn't been this overt for decades n/t

[Recursion]

119. YouTube and Facebook didn't exist (nt)

[malaise]

120. That's why I asked about the role of the internet n/t

[WillyT]

117. Reagan...

Was Reagan Personally a Racist?

People wondered why Reagan, a man who for decades dealt with openly gay men and lesbians in Hollywood, would curry favor with bigoted homophobes like The Reverend Jerry Falwell. Some argued that that Reagan was a “closet tolerant,” meaning that he it was nothing personal against the minority groups he baited; it was just politics. Whether Reagan was personally racist or not, is irrelevant: he promoted a certain atmosphere. Rosalyn Carter discribed this atmosphere perfectly: ""I think he makes us comfortable with our prejudices."

Found here: http://reaganandracism.blogspot.com/

[Texasgal]

122. I'm gonna say the economy.

Rich white people seem to get richer while people of color get poorer.

Gentrification is driving people out of their neighborhoods. I see it happening everyday right here in our "liberal bastion" Austin, TX. It's awful. Pretty soon and I mean SOON only rich white people will have the privilege of living in this nice city.