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[pramod]

It's funny to think of the early late 90's to early 2000's as a relatively harmonious period of race relations...but it just seemed like things got worse in the last 10 years. I remember back then Hollywood was dominated by black actors like Will Smith, Denzel, and Chris Tucker. The media wasn't talking about race all the time and politicians weren't as obsessed over race issues. It almost felt at times that America has truly achieved a post-racial society. Then things just all fell apart. I think it began with Hurricane Katrina and the awful FEMA response to it and Kanye calling Bush a racist. Then Obama was elected and anyone who criticized him was called a racist. In fact Obama seemed to revel in this and used it to his advantage. Then there was the shooting of Trayvon Martin...followed by even more police shootings...with Obama putting blame on the police officers which I felt did not help at all and just made people angrier...then there were the Baltimore riots and finally the 5 cops getting gunned down in Texas...at that point I was thinking that a race war was inevitable....

And the election of Trump just made everything worse. His tough stance of immigration drew accusations of racism. And the Democrats continue to pander to the "social justice" wing of their party...now we are at a point where white supremacists rally in the streets while people on social media call for the eradication of white people.....how the heck did things get so bad? And how the hell do we fix it? Or is it a hopeless situation? My feeling is that a lot of blame rests with social media and now that it's such a big part of society...we may never be able to restore things to what it was before.

 

[Mohonky]

I think a lot of it was already there, its just more prominent now thanks to social media.

Personally dont recall Obama ever saying criticism of himself was because of racism (even though you'd be extremely naive to believe some of the negativity was most certainly because of racism), he was always very articulate from what I saw in any presentation. I'm in Australia so we obviously dont hear everything US politics and I'm sure he discussed racism as an issue, but didnt palm off legitimate criticism as 'well they're just racist obviously.'

 

[Sinfamy]

This is just a theory.
I think our current polarized climate in regards to everything, be it race, gender, immigration, etc...
Is artificially created to divide, distract and pit us against each other.
While we fight constantly about the things we can't change like race and sex, there's a massive rise in income inequality, creating the one true divide, one that can be changed, the class divide.

I think there is a vested corporate interest, as well as one for many billionaires to keep things this way. These are the people and corporations that fund most political campaigns, regardless of party, and as such when class is off limits as part of the political discourse, social issues are put on a megaphone.

TL;DR:
Social divide is beneficial to maintain a class divide.

 

[David___]

Then Obama was elected and anyone who criticized him was called a racist. In fact Obama seemed to revel in this and used it to his advantage.

Citation needed

 

[The Mule]

Then Obama was elected and anyone who criticized him was called a racist. In fact Obama seemed to revel in this and used it to his advantage.

Not-so-stealth troll...

 

[llien]

I agree about raising tensions, but, as the other posters, don't recall this:

Then Obama was elected and anyone who criticized him was called a racist.

 

[Vicetrailia]

The hatred and institutional stuff has always been around, but the visibility has changed. Just by becoming more aware (TV being a great factor), the left became more pessimistic, and the right became more concerned. Trump took it to another level.

Remember about Obama:

Hope was infectious. Most whites voted against Obama, but on the eve of his inauguration, 55 percent of whites, as well as 75 percent of blacks, thought his presidency would improve race relations. The profound symbolism of a black man in the nation's highest office could hardly be overstated.

 

[Gun Animal]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I think the period of "racial harmony" (excluding muslims, at least) was between 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. We were too busy with the war on terror to think about anything else. I unironically believe that Kanye West saying "George Bush doesn't care about black people" Will be remembered by historians as the catalyst of the collapse of the United States (in a good way)

 

[120v]

it was never "harmonious", divisions are just more pronounced.

but how'd we get here? lot of reasons obviously but long story short: we elected a black president. contrary to predictions there were never any mass riots, domestic terror attacks or a civil war but "traditional america" never really accepted it and that began the slow boil into the landscape we see today

 

[FStubbs]

I think while the election of Obama exacerbated it in the eyes of red state America which led to the Tea Party and the election of Trump, it's always been there.

What you're seeing now is how things have always been, just more out in the open. For example, I'd bet police brutality is no worse than it's always been, but more attention is being brought to it now through social media, since now it can actually be proved. Race relations were always terrible, but we drifted through periods of what Martin Luther King called "negative peace".

 

[Musky_Cheese]

I’d think that the ability for the masses to be heard has a big part.

CNN didn’t cover many of the issues. But they were happening. Many of the issues that the black community face in America (for example) didn’t get coverage on local news, let alone national.

Now with social media and the ability for anyone with common devices to share videos, those issues are getting seen by the nation.

The injustice has been there, the exposure wasn’t.

 

[krazen]

The quote is that ‘Its as American as apple pie’. While America is in some ways ahead of the curve compared to other countries in the west because its a conversation we will actually have, good lord we continuously fuck up in spectacular ways.

We’ve got cartoonishly racist figures as sports team mascots, a large amount of the majority population not only feels racism isn’t a problem but minorities are the true racists (lol), and it just helps the experiment ot America run because having a pre-destined lower class ensures that whatever available resources don’t have to be evenly distributed and can prop up the fascade of a ‘middle class’ and bootstrap exceptionalism where its becoming more like a birth lottery for poors and non-poors alike.

Its a place where someone can look at him/herself and think, “Hey, I got here on my own” not realizing the neighborhood they grew up in, the schools they went to, the people they got to socialize with, play a huge part in what they eventually become. But they look at a 13 year old growing up in three generations of social neglect and poverty and expect him to already have his/her path to harvard plan out while dodging living next to a wide variety of criminals.

On top of the US itself had a shocking indifference to minority suffering and thats because they are the face of the problem of a group of people they see as worthless, the poors. Ponder this guys, FLINT STILL DOESNT HAVE CLEAN WATER, lol. And while its a primarily black city there’s still plenty of poor whites.

But hell, maybe thats the solution to racism; when the monopolies, corruption, crony capitalism continues to creep and decimate working and middle class whites and they can’t blame it on foreign workers or lazy blacks, then maybe everyone would take a deep look at themselves and see whats really fucked up in the world. Put up real social nets (and lose the idea that mostly minorities are on them, and while we wre at it lets stop making fun of poor white trash as if its a joke when they have similae poverty problems).

Until then, back to the police brutality video of the week and foxnews complaining that the poors actually have refrigerators

 

[Super Mario]

With the mainstream usage of the internet now, it has become very easy to put any narrative out there. It's all for politics. How do you truly get someone passionate enough to vote for you? What is important to them?

We're still here debating police violence like it's some epidemic (sigh, here goes). Many of these high-profile cases, are a case of criminal activity, and some level of violence towards the officer. Michael Brown is probably my favorite example. It was immediately violently protested and the city was destroyed because of "racism" before the facts were known. Really think about that for a minute. Even when the facts came out, it was as if it didn't matter. Somehow, he is some civil rights figure.

Do you honestly believe there have ZERO questionable police kills on a white person? That just wouldn't fit the narrative. No matter what your views are on police, or equality, you can't deny that the media is controlling this narrative deceptively. I'm not going to deny that it is harder to be black vs being white. Things WERE definitely getting better without the huge media involvement. I was a strong Obama supporter in both elections. I remember being thrilled in 2008 because Obama was going to come in and help boost the black community is ways we've never seen before. The complete opposite happened during his presidency.

 

[mckmas8808]

With the mainstream usage of the internet now, it has become very easy to put any narrative out there. It's all for politics. How do you truly get someone passionate enough to vote for you? What is important to them?

We're still here debating police violence like it's some epidemic (sigh, here goes). Many of these high-profile cases, are a case of criminal activity, and some level of violence towards the officer. Michael Brown is probably my favorite example. It was immediately violently protested and the city was destroyed because of "racism" before the facts were known. Really think about that for a minute. Even when the facts came out, it was as if it didn't matter. Somehow, he is some civil rights figure.

Do you honestly believe there have ZERO questionable police kills on a white person? That just wouldn't fit the narrative. No matter what your views are on police, or equality, you can't deny that the media is controlling this narrative deceptively. I'm not going to deny that it is harder to be black vs being white. Things WERE definitely getting better without the huge media involvement. I was a strong Obama supporter in both elections. I remember being thrilled in 2008 because Obama was going to come in and help boost the black community is ways we've never seen before. The complete opposite happened during his presidency.

Of course there's questionable police that kill white people. The real truth is white people don't seem to care as much about police brutality in general so the news doesn't really pick up on it at all. Black people generate alot of attention on social media when it happens to us, therefore the news jumps on it later and talks about it knowing that people are interested.

You seem to be confused by somethings.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

The left decided to make everything racism, and as such everyone gets super defensive on either end. The left is it’s own worst enemy.

 

[TheGraykid]

People have felt this way for forever, you're just hearing it now.

 

[krazen]

With the mainstream usage of the internet now, it has become very easy to put any narrative out there. It's all for politics. How do you truly get someone passionate enough to vote for you? What is important to them?

We're still here debating police violence like it's some epidemic (sigh, here goes). Many of these high-profile cases, are a case of criminal activity, and some level of violence towards the officer. Michael Brown is probably my favorite example. It was immediately violently protested and the city was destroyed because of "racism" before the facts were known. Really think about that for a minute. Even when the facts came out, it was as if it didn't matter. Somehow, he is some civil rights figure.

Do you honestly believe there have ZERO questionable police kills on a white person? That just wouldn't fit the narrative. No matter what your views are on police, or equality, you can't deny that the media is controlling this narrative deceptively. I'm not going to deny that it is harder to be black vs being white. Things WERE definitely getting better without the huge media involvement. I was a strong Obama supporter in both elections. I remember being thrilled in 2008 because Obama was going to come in and help boost the black community is ways we've never seen before. The complete opposite happened during his presidency.

How were they getting better tho? The problem with your post is that it mixes up cause and effect. Michael Brown may have been a thug, but in a law and order society the goal should be to take criminals in, not Judge Dredd them. (In fact, America has a huge problem with this besides race on some adult cops and robbers stuff. Anyone ‘bad’ had it coming including murder, anyone ‘good’ deserves the best.)

While the media loves focusing on the racial aspect of police brutality because it gets ratings, it doesn’t mean that its NOT a problem...we could whip out the stats. Now while death by cop is relatively low there’s plenty of statistical evidence showing policing steeped in inequality: were those people protesting because they were Brown’s BFF or because they felt the cops were routinely unfair to them which ended up having the Justice Department step in with a report proving just that.

And while we are at it, police brutality against white people is an issue too. There have been some horrible cases that you figure would have lead to a bigger push for police reform on all sides but we circle back to my previous point where police are “good” and accussed criminals are “bad” even tho a cop shoots up a car full of white teens for selling weed, lol.

People don’t riot out of boredom, lol

 

[hiphopcr]

It's cuz the country had a lot of closet racists and they started mobilizing when a black president took office, then were empowered by our current overtly racist president.

 

[Soltype]

It's not just race relations, all relations are deteriorating.People are becoming more insular and narcissistic.

 

[BANGS]

Then things just all fell apart. I think it began with Hurricane Katrina and the awful FEMA response to it and Kanye calling Bush a racist. Then Obama was elected and anyone who criticized him was called a racist. In fact Obama seemed to revel in this and used it to his advantage. Then there was the shooting of Trayvon Martin...followed by even more police shootings...with Obama putting blame on the police officers which I felt did not help at all and just made people angrier...then there were the Baltimore riots and finally the 5 cops getting gunned down in Texas...at that point I was thinking that a race war was inevitable....

[I think] You are 100% correct. Obama was truly the catalyst [in my opinion], the spark that ignited the flame that burned down common sense in this great nation... Any time something bad happened to a black man, [I felt that] he implied that America was so racist that it could happen to him and/or his imaginary son. That [Obama] really [messed] it all up...

Edit: small additions in bracket by moderator Dienekes. Note: I do not want to step on your right to free speech/opinion here, but at the same time in this case, for this post, I felt it needed these minor additions. The last sentence only removed two words replaced by mine, but the same intent is delivered without using such offensive words and were the only two words removed. BANGS, feel free to PM me to discuss if you like.

 

[Zog]

Has constantly talking about it helped race relations or hurt them?

 

[BANGS]

Has constantly talking about it helped race relations or hurt them?

Definitely hurt them. Morgan Freeman knew this...

 

[Vicetrailia]

You are 100% correct. Obama was truly the catalyst, the spark that ignited the flame that burned down common sense in this great nation... Any time something bad happened to a black man, he implied that America was so racist that it could happen to him and/or his imaginary son. That scumbag really fucked it all up...

So Trayvon Martin made you angry? Becoming aware of some of the things black pepole face in part of their skin color made you angry? And how is Obama a scumbag? Is Trump a scumbag?

 

[hiphopcr]

It's not just race relations, all relations are deteriorating.People are becoming more insular and narcissistic.

Can we blame this on people interacting online more than personally?

 

[BANGS]

So Trayvon Martin made you angry? Becoming aware of some of the things black pepole face in part of their skin color made you angry? And how is Obama a scumbag? Is Trump a scumbag?

How are you accusing me of being angry while asking loaded questions completely devoid of syntax and grammar? #triggered, as they say?

My problem was with how Obama handled these trial by media situations. He implied that if his imaginary son of a president were walking the streets, he's be killed by racist people. This is not only statistically untrue and ridiculous in every way, but it's race baiting 101. Make the blacks feel like victims, and the whites feel guilty. Yeah, that'll work out just great...

 

[finowns]

I think 'race relations' has gotten very politicized and our politics are so polarized it's natural people will take sides for example, a person who is very pro police versus a person who is very critical of police, you can guess with high accuracy each persons political leanings and both persons will selectively choose information to bolster their political belief.

As to how to fix it, I think a lot of it is cyclical in nature so it will work itself out but what would be helpful is less emotion and more facts.

 

[Grinchy]

Can we blame this on people interacting online more than personally?

That, and tabloid journalism like Huffington Post taking random tweets and creating outrage articles for free clicks. Taking random tweets and making a news story is like writing a newspaper article about a guy on the street yelling something. It's not something that real journalists do.

Stupid people have been taught to believe that tweets are important, so they start believing that the idiotic things they say on their own twitter account are important as well. And now we have a world where everyone thinks that you're supposed to pay attention to every aspect of their special little identity.

 

[Zog]

Definitely hurt them. Morgan Freeman knew this...

Yes he did but now people say that treating people the same regardless of race is racism.

 

[BANGS]

Yes he did but now people say that treating people the same regardless of race is racism.

I've literally heard people right here on gaf call others racist for quoting Martin Luther King Jr... that's for real like not even a joke...
People are just looking for trouble at this point. They can't call themselves victims via facts so they straight up make up bullshit like that...

 

[Vicetrailia]

How are you accusing me of being angry while asking loaded questions completely devoid of syntax and grammar? #triggered, as they say?

My problem was with how Obama handled these trial by media situations. He implied that if his imaginary son of a president were walking the streets, he's be killed by racist people. This is not only statistically untrue and ridiculous in every way, but it's race baiting 101. Make the blacks feel like victims, and the whites feel guilty. Yeah, that'll work out just great...

I did not understand a single line from this paragraph. What was actually said, what are the instances?

 

[krazen]

I've literally heard people right here on gaf call others racist for quoting Martin Luther King Jr... that's for real like not even a joke...
People are just looking for trouble at this point. They can't call themselves victims via facts so they straight up make up bullshit like that...

Because people were using it in a Rep. Steven King way where he proudly says “Cant restore our civilization with someone else’s babies” and “Diversity is not a strength” but then put up Halllmark MLK quotes and pics.

Basically using him as the racial Jesus strawman, “No racism because magical MLK showed up and everybody, white black, alien, embraced him. He waved his hands, cured us of racism and floated away into heaven where all evangelicals go” (Forget the part that he was killed y a racist white guy, those are liberal lies, lol)

 

[TheGraykid]

How are you accusing me of being angry while asking loaded questions completely devoid of syntax and grammar? #triggered, as they say?

My problem was with how Obama handled these trial by media situations. He implied that if his imaginary son of a president were walking the streets, he's be killed by racist people. This is not only statistically untrue and ridiculous in every way, but it's race baiting 101. Make the blacks feel like victims, and the whites feel guilty. Yeah, that'll work out just great...

I think you're being unreasonable in the way you talk about what Obama said. Implying that in another life if he was a private citizen that this could have happened to his son is not a crazy thing to say.

Also I disagree with the charge of race baiting. This was an incident that had race at the center of it, that isn't something he brought up. And talking about race isn't a method to make white people feel guilty, it's about affecting change.

 

[BANGS]

Because people were using it in a Rep. Steven King way where he proudly says “Cant restore our civilization with someone else’s babies” and “Diversity is not a strength” but then put up Halllmark MLK quotes and pics.

I was referring to people being called racists because they quoted "Judge people by the content of their character, not color of their skin". Those other example you mentioned at least make some sense to me, but that one was mindblowing...

This was an incident that had race at the center of it, that isn't something he brought up.

Impressive, every word in that sentence was wrong...

 

[Vicetrailia]

Impressive, every word in that sentence was wrong...

Why is it wrong?

 

[BANGS]

Because it was an incident that had nothing to do with race or racism, but the media and Obama acted like it did...

Even CNN was editing the 911 call to make the Neighborhood Watch guy seem racist. I was even fooled by it myself the first time I watched coverage on it...

 

[TheGraykid]

Because it was an incident that had nothing to do with race or racism, but the media and Obama acted like it did...

Even CNN was editing the 911 call to make the Neighborhood Watch guy seem racist. I was even fooled by it myself the first time I watched coverage on it...

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think it's very difficult to escape race as a component to this. Especially when the shooter has since that time referred to Obama as an "Ignorant Baboon" and sold prints of his confederate flag painting exclusively at a gun store declared to be a " Muslim-free” zone ".

 

[BANGS]

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree. I think it's very difficult to escape race as a component to this. Especially when the shooter has since that time referred to Obama as an "Ignorant Baboon" and sold prints of his confederate flag painting exclusively at a gun store declared to be a "Muslim-free” zone ".

Yes, we're all well aware of the liberal smear campaign that came in the wake of this. Can't have a hispanic shooting blacks in self defense without pretending he's a white supremacist...

 

[TheGraykid]

Yes, we're all well aware of the liberal smear campaign that came in the wake of this. Can't have a hispanic shooting blacks in self defense without pretending he's a white supremacist...

How is this a liberal smear campaign? Please do tell me what I said that was false. These are all things he did of his own volition.

 

[BANGS]

How is this a liberal smear campaign? Please do tell me what I said that was false. These are all things he did of his own volition.

I never claimed anything you said was false. But we are all aware of the aftermath of this. The media went nuts digging to find anything they could to discredit this guy. It's gotten to the point where I don't know, or even care, what's true or false about him. Either way it's completely irrelevant as it had nothing to do with the actual issue of what happened that night, we have documented witness testimony and a 911 call that pretty much paint the clear story... and none of it had to do with race...

 

[lifa-cobex]

This is just a theory.
I think our current polarized climate in regards to everything, be it race, gender, immigration, etc...
Is artificially created to divide, distract and pit us against each other.
While we fight constantly about the things we can't change like race and sex, there's a massive rise in income inequality, creating the one true divide, one that can be changed, the class divide.

I think there is a vested corporate interest, as well as one for many billionaires to keep things this way. These are the people and corporations that fund most political campaigns, regardless of party, and as such when class is off limits as part of the political discourse, social issues are put on a megaphone.

TL;DR:
Social divide is beneficial to maintain a class divide.

It's very tinfoil hat but yea. I've had similar thoughts.

 

[Vicetrailia]

I never claimed anything you said was false. But we are all aware of the aftermath of this. The media went nuts digging to find anything they could to discredit this guy. It's gotten to the point where I don't know, or even care, what's true or false about him. Either way it's completely irrelevant as it had nothing to do with the actual issue of what happened that night, we have documented witness testimony and a 911 call that pretty much paint the clear story... and none of it had to do with race...

Do you think there's a chance that you just don't wanna hear about race, rather than it actually not being about race?

 

[BANGS]

Do you think there's a chance that you just don't wanna hear about race, rather than it actually not being about race?

I certainly would be open to believing there was a race issue involved if there was even a shred of evidence suggesting as such. And even if there was, that doesn't excuse Obama's actions...

 

[Soltype]

Can we blame this on people interacting online more than personally?

That's part of the problem, but the internet only exacerbated an underlying problem.America has always had a very thin culture, we have tons of people from every corner of the Earth, so the only thing that truly binds everyone is money.Beyond that there's no real bond.Everyone is American, yet no one is.

 

[mckmas8808]

Has constantly talking about it helped race relations or hurt them?

It's done neither.

Definitely hurt them. Morgan Freeman knew this...

Only socially blind people think talking less about race would make it go away. If Morgan really said that his whole family should be ashamed.

 

[krazen]

I certainly would be open to believing there was a race issue involved if there was even a shred of evidence suggesting as such. And even if there was, that doesn't excuse Obama's actions...

Remember much of the backlash was less about the actual murder but the percieved law enforcement indifference (how he got released the same day). Obviously it was due to the shitty stand your ground law, but Its not too much of a stretch of an imagination to imagine large outrage even if it was white on white where you’ve got a dead teen, a grown man, and nobody arrested

 

[mckmas8808]

It looks like half the people in this thread have ZERO clue what America was like before the internet or social media was around and got popular. You guys do realize that we fought a civil war with the foundations of that war being based on race right?

Like 600,000 died in a war in America because of race relations.

 

[Moneal]

It looks like half the people in this thread have ZERO clue what America was like before the internet or social media was around and got popular. You guys do realize that we fought a civil war with the foundations of that war being based on race right?

Like 600,000 died in a war in America because of race relations.

that was over 100 years before the internet. 50 years before it people of all colors marched and voted for civil rights.

 

[finowns]

That's part of the problem, but the internet only exacerbated an underlying problem.America has always had a very thin culture, we have tons of people from every corner of the Earth, so the only thing that truly binds everyone is money.Beyond that there's no real bond.Everyone is American, yet no one is.

A thin culture? What does that even mean? Are there examples of even thinner culture or are we the thinness?

 

[mckmas8808]

that was over 100 years before the internet. 50 years before it people of all colors marched and voted for civil rights.

Exactly! And we have people of all colors marching in Black Lives Matter protest too. So why are half the people here thinking this is new or got worse?

 

[krazen]

that was over 100 years before the internet. 50 years before it people of all colors marched and voted for civil rights.

Ehh, those marchers were hated by a large amount of the population along with civil rights activists of all colors getting killed along the way. We won’t touch desegregation fights continuing into subsequent decades. We still had segregated proms in the ‘90’s, lol