It felt like it was uncool to have even a touch of racism when Obama got elected and through his presidency. But since the MAGA movement, I feel like subtle and out-right racism has increased. Like a gateway was opened.

Am I trippin?

  • sygnius@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You’re not wrong. Obama was a really good president. The problem is that instead of being far left, he was a very left central president and tried very hard to work with Republicans.

    Part of the problem is that Republicans didn’t want to associate with the opposing factor and started moving further right as Obama positioned himself in the center. The racists in the far right were ready to undo everything Obama helped shaped during his 8 years in office.

  • ℕ𝕖𝕞𝕠@midwest.social
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    6 months ago

    How old were you in 2008? Because I saw some really ugly racism directed at him both when he was running and during that first term. It went up, not down.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The turboracism of the Tea Party Repubs is basically a knee-jerk reaction to seeing a black man in the Oval Office.

      • pete_the_cat@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yeah, that’s probably why. I’m 38 and racism has always been prevalent here. If anything, I’d say it was worse when Obama was president because all the racists/White Supremacists didn’t want a black guy running the country since it has been white guys since the 1700s.

          • GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            6 months ago

            Some live a more sheltered life, and there’s always a varying degree of racism in different areas.

            My experience was of becoming an adult right around that time, which just meant other adults were now suddenly ok being openly racist around me, and boy did they have a lot to say around that time.

              • GrundlButter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                6 months ago

                Holy crap haha. No, I either forgot or dont remember and had to look it up. Man, they didn’t even wait for the man to get in office before selling racist memorabilia.

                • whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  6 months ago

                  YUP it was really bad, and then half the country turned extra racist, the other half pretended racism was solved because we had a black president.

            • Tinidril@midwest.social
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              6 months ago

              My experience as a suburban white kid growing up in the Reagan era was that racism was just something to learn about in history class. Part of me really misses being that naive.

  • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    Nah it was a catalyst for racists to find out how many racists there were all around them which then caused the spineless pick me bitches to think racism was their ticket to having friends.

  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    The prevelance of social media makes many fringe groups seem much more numerous than they really are. I’d be willing to bet that racism is on the decline but now the actual racists have a platform to make their voices heard and there’s also the fact that a ton of people get accused of being a racist who infact aren’t but the masses are willing to take these accusations at face value especially when the target is a person they already don’t like. The term itself has suffered a major inflation in the past decade or so.

  • JakenVeina@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    Lol, no. I have family members that actively called him a n****r while he was in office.

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    Nah. Trump came along and basically said “Hey, you know how we’ve been openly and loudly racist? Let’s do that…but MORE open and LOUDER.”

    That’s what “make America great again” means.

  • criitz@reddthat.com
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    6 months ago

    When a black man was elected president the racism actually ramped up. But it was still quiet. Trump gave them the freedom to be loud about it.

  • pezmaker @sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    I think you’ve got part of it right from my recollection and experiences, but not quite the full thing. I think Obama’s success actually lead shitty people to lash out more, which brought trump to power, which emboldened those shitty people to stop hiding it and actually be proud and display it. I think the racism and shittiness was always there but people kept more of a lid on it. We just aren’t able to pretend it isn’t who we are more broadly anymore.

  • BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    It was more the fact that Trump got elected while being not-so-secretly racist that emboldened them. They saw there would be fewer consequences due to it being more normalized, so they could be more open about it.

  • Alvaro@social.graves.cl
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    6 months ago

    @BadmanDan@lemmy.world I think it is the opposite: lots of people hated to have a black president (remember the nozzles and the tea party?). My hypothesis is they even hated more that this was a classy, well educated guy and not thug-looking dude, which is what they expected.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 months ago

      They wanted President Camacho, but more of a racist trope version of him, and they were angry when they didn’t get their Idiocracy wish.

      Idiocracy came out in 2006.

  • BallShapedMan@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The book Everybody Lies looks at search data and based on that the racism was the same but outwardly admitting it has changed. It went from saying we’re not in polite company to being loud about it.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Did this black-ass president just order fucking DIJON MUSTARD?!?

      Like… They attacked for everything.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Pasty old white dudes are still livid they can’t rock a tan suit and have it looking this good. It’s the contrast, y’all

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Not every suit can be a winner. The point is that tan looked just as bad on every other president. All the recent guys have worn one, too.

            Well, maybe not Donald? He probably wanted more color variety, since he spent the vast majority of his time in chinos for golfing.

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          6 months ago

          Yet not a word when other Presidents wore similar or the same color before and after. It was just something to target.

  • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    I think the other way around. When Obama was elected the racists heads exploded (including in Congress) and instead of being quiet they went absolutely nuts. This is what Maga is about.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      what the Tea Party was about

      The Tea Party was about reducing wealth inequality (with surprisingly similar goals to OWS, just coming at it from the other ideological direction) for a hot minute before the Koch bros etc. infiltrated and co-opted it.

          • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            I did, most people understand that idiom. Frankly it’s amazing he didn’t.

            • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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              5 months ago

              I understand the “cough cough” idiom, but it doesn’t express what they wanted to say.

              • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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                5 months ago

                It expressed what I wanted to say, because it was my reply.

                Notice I’m downvoted, so who’s the one being edgy? Could have said that for your original comment too. Ciao.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              WTF are you even talking about? I didn’t “do” anything, nor was my comment a claim about myself. Did you reply to the wrong comment or something, or is this a general criticism of me unrelated to this particular thread, or what?

              I get that you’re trying to accuse me of some sort of hypocrisy, but it doesn’t make enough sense for me to even be properly mad about it.

              • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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                6 months ago

                Cough cough is an indicator that a person says one thing but wants to do/does another thing.

                “Mom I’m going to the mall cough Stacy’s cough”

                The tea party did not actually care about fiscal responsibility. It was anti Obama.