Racism increased a lot after Obamas victory ?

This according to WTOPnews

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1518607&nid=104

Is this the fact?

I haven’t heard a thing about this until now. There is nothing but euphoria in my area. Even those who voted Repubican seem to have some sense of pride at this historic milestone. If these hate crimes are happening, they aren’t getting much press, at least not here.

I heard about this last night.

Well, they have a very obvious and - too them - very scary target. Before, the instigators managed to keep quiet in the face of racial tolerance and equality. Now that we have a momentous, historic achievement to be happy about, they can’t do anything but vent their spleen.

So, while I have no proof either way, it wouldn’t surprise me at all that more idiots have popped up on the radar. It also would not surprise me if the rate of race-based crimes were about the same, but the media is significantly more sensitive to reports of it. I think we’ll know for sure when the FBI has compiled their criminal statistics for this and next year.

There has been an upsurge in White Nationalist activity, but that doesn’t mean racism has increased, only that racists have become more anxious.

It’s going to be intersting to see how racism fares with the non-threatening Obamas in the White House. Can you imagine the pictures of the girls with their puppies? We may need to have a national stockpile of insulin to get through the next 8 years.

In a couple of years Obama may show up a NASCAR race and get a standing ovation, especially after he creates a college football playoff system.

I see more of the “he’s a Marxist/Socialist!” if anything else. Most of the insults are pretty close to what we heard about Clinton when he was elected-he was going to turn the country into a communist dictatorship, yada yada yada. All a bunch of non-sense.

I think it’s just that you hear more about the scary racist types, since some of them seem to be coming out of the woodwork-not that there are more of them-just that they’re louder now.

What I’ve mostly seen from conservatives is “I didn’t vote for him because I don’t agree with his politics, but this is cool for other reasons and we can be happy about that (but not the politics part).”

I saw an article yesterday that there have been many more threats (as perceived by the Secret Service, I guess) against Obama than other presidents-elect. I would think racism a likely impetus behind many of those.

It would have been odd IMHO if the racists didn’t get stirred up when a black guy is elected president. Hopefully there’s not more of them, but just the pre-existing ones getting their panties bunched.

That’s been my take. Also, I can see a lot of these hitherto more closeted racists seeing their “there’s no such thing as racism” arguments validated to a certain extent by the election of a black president.

No. I am underwhelmed by the breathlessness of the story.

It’s right up there with the kind of self-fulling myth that makes medical personnel convinced there is real evidence that full moons bring out the crazies.

There’s gonna be some short-term hoo-ha from the already racist. From the racist black cohort there will be inappropriate gloating from the “we on top now” crowd; from the racist white cohort there will be inappropriate mutterings about “niggers thinking they done arrived.”

But mostly the non-Obama supporters are worried about their pocketbooks and his policies, not his race. And his supporters are wondering if change that affects their daily grind is really going to happen. Give it a few months to settle down, and he’ll be just another piece of grist for the public mill. That will be a real step toward ending racism–when we can confidently criticize him for being an ass and not worry it will be taken the wrong way.

I doubt racism itself has increased. But the election of a black president is the kind of thing that would bring out whatever hardcore white racist fringe already existed.

I went over to the Hannity Website and into the forums there to see if any of the stereotypes that followed his viewers were valid. It took about a second and a half for the page to load before I saw the first: “He’s not My President” and “No way a chimp is our president” I don’t care to repeat any of other slurs that are there. Then click on any of them and you have people yelling virtually across the message boards at people clearly being racist, bigotted and down right vile.

It’s a little sick because on the one side I am horrified by peoples bare ignorance and racism and on the other hand I revel quietly in the fact that he really did it.

Two cents from a conservative who didn’t vote for Obama:

It’s certainly POSSIBLE that the election of Obama has led to more racist incidents, that his election has energized white supremacist groups to take action. I’m perfectly prepared to believe that.

BUT… I’d like to see more REAL documentation and some REAL stats. Frankly, this is the kind of “news” report that drives me mad. It reminds me of the hype given to a press release saying that wife-beating skyrockets on Super Bowl Sunday. Was it true? No, it wasn’t. But newspapers and TV stations didn’t bother to check. An interest group gave them a handout saying it was true, and that was good enough.

I’ll believe that racist assaults and vandalism are soaring when I see some real numbers from legitimate sources.

The report that astorian mentioned is on what I consider The Dope’s sister site: Snopes.com. I hope to see this one there, too.

Well, here’s the story that I was referring to about a greater number of threats.

I would have to fall more on the side of already existing racists have seen a major portion of the wall they have built around themselves crumble and are making alot of noise right now coupled with the fact that we are really looking at them at the same time. Some things that would have happened anyway would before been dismissed as a prank or ignored as ignorance, are now been examined and reported on. Ergo, we have an increase in visibility on these actions that gives the impression that they are something new.

What do you mean increase in visibility? From the msm or from other groups?

I don’t think racist notions have increased but it is apparent that people are being more vocal about it i.e. their more out of the closet with it since the election. One must always remember that this country was built on the notion that everything is inferior to “white”. There are a susbstantial number of people that still cling to this notion and when times get tough and change happens people get uncomfortable.