I ask from a speculative POV. It seems to me that ex-AG Holder’s term was marked by endless pronouncements about the racism of American society. Obama was also active in this-he elevated the Gates thing (Cambridge , MA) to a national issue. At the same time, there was string of police actions resulting in the deaths of several black people, which (again) were elevated by the news media.
I had asked a question about this in an earlier thread-(was there an actual increase in white-on-black police killings?)-the SDMB opinion was that there is no reliable data to base a conclusion on. However, I now ask the question: did the Obama/Holder period mark a time of increased racial tensions? Was the endless harping on the issue the actual cause of this, or not?
Right now there’s a thread about whether some guy is *really *black. I suppose it could be argued that racial tensions are higher now, but I suspect that you’re looking in the wrong direction for the cause.
Looks like someone is “Just asking questions” again.
Obama didn’t escalate the Gates thing; the cop did. Obama de-escalated it. Obama didn’t tell cops to shoot blacks; they did that on their own. If you have eyes, the racism in American society is all too evident.
One man’s “endless harping” is another man’s “long overdue conversation on a topic too many Americans wish to ignore.”
Up front: I Have absolutely no use for Obama or Holder, as SDMB regulars already know.
Now, have Obama and Holder made things worse? Of course not. They just didn’t (and COULDN’T have done) what some white people hoped they’d do: make the whole racism issue go away.
I think many white voters and many black voters had very different ideas of what electing Obama would mean. Many white voters wanted Obama’s election to mean “There, we elected a black guy. Racism is OVER in America, and now we can stop talking about it.” Conversely, many black people thought, “Finally, we can get STARTED working on racism.”
Those are pretty irreconcilable attitudes. Small wonder Obama and Holder couldn’t make any headway.
Personally, I don’t think anything is elevated other than the coverage in the media. Now they are covering the protests after a felon with stolen guns, one of which was pointed at the police, was shot. Racism has always been a nasty part of society, but suppose you could ask any minority from the pre civil rights era which America they would rather live in between then and now. I would say the tensions were more “elevated” back then. That is not to say that there isn’t more to be done, but blaming everything on the “white man” without allowing some responsibility to be shared by minority communities is doing nothing to solve the problems. I know this is a sensitive subject and any opinion other than the towing the proverbial rope the media is dangling in front of us is sure to invite attacks, but IMHO this is more of a political movement that will likely die down after the next election cycle. I think the Government is very comfortable when the citizens are bogged down and divided by any problem other than the problem that is Government and the cancer that has overtaken it like a cancer.
Have there always been such a high number of protests and rioting after police shootings and they’ve just not been national news?
So you’re saying cops shooting black people isn’t a cause for racial divisiveness. Your argument is that racial divisiveness is caused by black people talking about being shot by cops.
I was able to come up with serious responses to your post suggesting we achieve peace in the Middle East by kicking everyone out of Jerusalem and your post suggesting dead people have email access. But this thread went too far for me. I can’t think of any response to this thread that won’t get me a warning, so I’m out.
I think it was someone else who came up with the idea of making Jerusalem into a Disneyland city.
You’re right. It was Robert163 who started that thread. My apologies to all involved.
Yes. When ever non-white people become more vocal in their struggle for justice in a white-dominated culture, whites get worried, decry the rise in racial tension and blame it on the oppressed.
Agreed. I hear a lot more whining from white rightists nowadays about how they’re losing the fight than I ever did when GWB and his predecessors (of either party) were in power.
The recent burst in Confederate flag protests are another example of the same thinking.
To rednecks and similar thinkers, the deeply racist and white-advantaged society we have today is something that “ain’t broke and don’t need fixin’”. So shut up about it and let the good times roll on seems to be their goal.
I got into an argument about this where the other person said flaggers were being treated with racism, segregation and violence. When I called BS, their examples were that at a flag rally, the opposition has called flaggers names that were “racially based” and some people had their flags violently removed from their vehicles. Poor oppressed whitey.
Obama and Holder have certainly gone out of their way to make false accusations and misleading statements about race, on issues more substantial than “the Gates thing”. One example is in Louisiana, where the state created the Louisiana Scholarship Program in 2008 to give the poorest students a chance to escape failing public schools by offering vouchers for private school tuition. The Obama Administration soon swung into action, determined to block the voucher program and leave poor, mainly black children stuck in Louisiana’s worst public schools. Their lawsuit was based on a claim that the voucher program would increase racial segregation, a claim which they didn’t have any actual facts or data to support. The State of Louisiana responded with actual research on the matter, documenting clearly that the Administration’s claim was a lie and that the voucher program actually decreased racial segregation in schools. Realizing that they were guaranteed to lose in court, the administration withdrew its lawsuit. Obama and Holder did not apologize for lying in court, wasting taxpayer money, or trying to prevent poor children from getting the best possible education.
Instead, Holder naturally came back with yet another attempt to hamstring the voucher program based on the same false claim that it was a threat to federal desegregation efforts. He lost again. He didn’t apologize again.
Your summary of your cites is a load of pure baloney.
Apparently if you’re against school vouchers, you’re racist. Or something.
At least, according to the GOP. Because Obama’s racist. Or something.
I do not recall a time where the cited summaries of events have been so lacking in any kind of justification. Two examples:
-
Seven studies have proven that vouchers reduce segregation: click the link to see the seven studies and you get a very convincing 404 error.
-
Judge rejects DOJ’s effort to shut down the voucher program. The link to the judge’s ruling specifically says that the information the DOJ requested must be delivered annually. The actual text of the judge’s order looks like a total endorsement of the DOJ request.
Anyways, back to the larger topic at hand. White people, as a rule, get more upset about the boogeyman’s shadow of reverse racism than they generally get upset about actual racism against African Americans. Therefore, some white people may think that Obama and Holder made America worse. That’s pretty much all there is to it.
“Racially divisive rhetoric” is a direct descendant of “outside agitators.”
Here’s a corrected link. The discussion of racial segregation begins on page 19.
No, it isn’t.
First, Holder’s DOJ requested that Louisiana had to provide information to the federal government about each student who received a voucher 45 days before the student’s family was notified. This would have been an onerous requirement. For example, students who moved to a new district 44 days before the start of the school year would not have been able to receive vouchers for the year. The judge, thankfully, chopped the time period down to 10 days.
Second, and much more importantly, is what the judge’s order doesn’t include. What Obama and Holder wanted was veto power over vouchers; they asked the judge to rule that federal bureaucrats could simply deny poor children access to private school. The judge totally rejected that request; you can read his order from start to finish and see that there’s no mention of any such power being granted.
Thus, although the state was required to provide data on the race of students, the judge granted Obama and Holder no power to ruin students’ education. A victory for poor students, a defeat for Obama and Holder.