Obama didn't create Trump, the people who hate Obama did - Crosspost from GD

[JustAnotherGen]

SummerSnow posted this little gem in GD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7790192

Obama didn't create Trump. Hatred of Obama did.

In America, the boomerang of black advancement routinely includes a white backlash. Obama's presidency is no exception. Trump's front-runner status is irrevocably part of the historic obstruction and backlash against President Obama, whose election was an immeasurable advancement for African-American aspirations. His very appearance in the corridors of power is enormous.

But this same appearance has inflamed the minds and rhetoric of those who want to "take their country back." And take back from whom? They have some very particular people in mind. Though racial backlash is rarely discussed in mainstream media, a look at U.S. history reveals that there have always been specific repercussions to black progress.

After President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the backlash included the birth of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee in 1865. After Reconstruction, what happened? Several Southern states passed the Black Codes in 1865 and 1866 to restrict the liberty of African Americans.

In 1919, black veterans returning home from World War I noted the irony of being in uniform and fighting for a country where they received no justice. They also returned home to increased competition between blacks and whites for jobs. The response to those fears over black soldiers demanding rights and mere job competition? The Red Summer race riots in Illinois, Arkansas and Washington, D.C., with whites also destroying the wealthiest African-American community in America—Black Wall Street—two years later in Tulsa, Okla.

[blm]

1. Exactly. He is the RW propaganda machine's MONSTER.

The one that went into overdrive after Obama won the WH.

[narnian60]

2. +1

[Jackie Wilson Said]

3. And it is important to pay close attention to what and who Drumpf is, regardless of

whether he is running for president or doing his nonsensical reality TV.

He is the epitome of the worst personality, character, etc a human being can be or possess, and yet because of how our system is set up, he rises to the very top.

He really is a great reflection of what we have become as a society.

[JustAnotherGen]

13. Amen!

When someone shows me who and what they are - I believe them.

[Blue Meany]

4. This is partly true. But Democrats had a role in creating an opening for Trump

by essentially abandoning the the working class, failing to protect unions and not promoting the importance of racial unity--or at least working class solidarity that was not divided by race-- as necessary for the advancement of working class interests. In the 1930s and 1940s, there were bi-racial unions and political leaders who pushed this vision, even in the South and in economic situations just as bad as what we have now. But their rhetoric was matched by the policies they worked for. Third Way Democrats have talked the talk, but not walked the walk for working class voters of any race. Obviously, racist Republican rhetoric is not going attact people of color, but it also might not attract working class whites if there was a Democratic platform that spoke to their interests, and a message that explained our their fortunes were integrally tied to solidarity with workers of color and organized unions.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I'm not holding the Democratic Party

responsible for the abject inhumane racism displayed by white Trump supporters.

They had an individual choice.

They are making a choice to be hateful because *insert ethnic group* took something from them.

I don't want to join hands with them and I won't give up an inch of progress to them. We cannot under any circumstances step and fetch or cater to that mentality.

For every vicious Trump supporter in that demographic - there are two white Americans in the same economic situation who aren't taking things out on blacks, mexicans, muslims, and the GLBT community - not to mention women.

Their sickness and blame lies within. It's on them. Their priorities, problems, and perspectives - because they are foaming at the mouth racists . . . are none of my concern.

[lamp_shade]

5. This is excellent. K&R

[Harriety]

6. I think there are a few reasons for Trumps popularity

The Tea Party's hatred of our President has pushed it, and the media's coverage of everything Trump says or does are two really big reasons he's is where is now. Really sad.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. another thought - reality t.v.

People have been rewarded for displaying cruelty for about 16/17 years now - and it's become accepted to be an asshole as a result. Trump was even part of the phenomena.

[ancianita]

9. Absolutely. But their prejudices and fears have been stirred up and manipulated for generations.

Whole structures have been set up to keep that protection racket going. It's good to understand all this. Tim Wise describes all this the same way.

But understanding is the booby prize if nothing else helpful or constructive follows.

These haters, like their forebears, deserve the space and chance to change and outgrow this system. Obama acts in awareness of this and we need to follow his lead.

Just because there's always been the inclination for mobocracy doesn't mean we give in to any oligarchic contempt that both panders to the worst of human fears and beliefs, and writes them off each new generation.

Whole swaths of people who were born into a system they didn't make, who scrambled to use it for their own advancement, can be described, but not condemned.

We don't want to be another version of them, or we can get dragged down by them.

[nxylas]

10. But Obama is so divisive!

Look at him sitting there like he's the president or something. He's so upp...uh, I mean arrogant!

[LiberalLovinLug]

12. Exactly!

He is pitting us poor treaded upon white racists against all decent Americans! Dammit.

[maindawg]

11. Donald Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do

Hello, he talked about this like 20 years ago. He told us he would mine day run as a radical Republican and that the Republican base would follow him right off the. Cliff. He is working for the Hillary Billary campaign. He is destroying the Republican party removing the obsticle.

[Starry Messenger]

14. Trumpism is the perfect distillation of several years of white resentment.

It all came to a head with their resentment of the first Black President.

Good article.