# Is America on the verge of race riots? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 9, 2008, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138 "2008-10-09T09:53:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/21 "2008-10-09T14:38:52Z")
I don’t think there’ll be riots but (I also posted this in a Pit thread) there are some relatively normal-looking people completely unafraid to spout some terrifying opinions about Barack Obama on camera: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjxzmaXAg9E) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/22 "2008-10-09T14:39:14Z")
> [@Tracy\_Lord](#): > > I was thinking more from the other side – whites whipped up by rhetoric about “terrorists” rather than disenfranchised minorities. Generally, (not always), actual riots occur among those who feel that they lack power. (Lynchings were not typically riots, being carried out without the throwing of stones or incendiaries and without mobs fighting each other. Southern lyncings often occurred with the compliance of the local police. There were lynchings in the North that did occur during riots, but the people rioting tended to be those competing for lower paying jobs against blacks and immigrants.) I suppose that we could imagine a scenario in which the current economic situation reduced large swaths of white neighborhoods to poverty, leading to violence that could be directed against Obama or against blacks as being “like” Obama, but I am not expecting that to occur. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/23 "2008-10-09T14:46:21Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > My BIL sent me a youtube video depicting some young black guys doing a military-style “routine” and then speaking about how Obama has inspired them to try to be lawyers and other high-aim professions. He’s convinced this is just like the Hitler Youth Movement and that all black people vote their “tribe.” Yeah, that had been discussed in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=486542), where more actual information about the video and its background has been presented. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/24 "2008-10-09T14:53:36Z")
> [@leander](#): > > My answer to that would be yes, but not to an extreme. Small, localised factions would arise that would inevitably be so blatantly racist that most Americans would ignore/dismiss. I’m inclined to agree with this, but I depart from the superficial conventional wisdom in believing that this would, ultimately, be a _good_ thing. We’re really finding out who people are now. The pressure is starting to push people out of their ideological closets, and to show their true colors. If that means the Right is forced to confront the ugliness on their margins, and to carve them away in order to survive as a viable political force, that can only be healthy for the Right _and_ the Left. (And for the record, this goes for the Left as well. There was a lot of stupidity among the Left over the last twenty years; for similar utilitarian/survival reasons, a fair amount of it was pared away or at least back-burnered, which accounts for the current resurgence. It’s a natural pendulum, and the means by which the country as a whole moves forward and abandons obsolete thinking.) So: Race riots? No. Temporary foregrounding of ugly racial paranoia, followed by ruthless culling of those who still cling to those outmoded beliefs? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/25 "2008-10-09T16:39:11Z")
It wouldn’t surprise me if things got out of hand at one of Palin’s rallies, simply from a small group getting too verbal for the comfort of the larger group and then acting out violently if the larger group tries to shush them. That isn’t what I think of when I think “riot,” though. Palin is going down a very dangerous road for her political future. If something happens while she’s speaking, I think she’ll be in disgrace. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/26 "2008-10-09T22:43:45Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > Ok, I’ll go with you. Can we loot too? YAY! Free digital! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138/27 "2008-10-09T23:55:23Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > Ok, I’ll go with you. Can we loot too? How about pillaging? I’ve always wanted to pillage something. If you promise me pillaging, I’m game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-america-on-the-verge-of-race-riots/467138.md?page=1)