I'm over 60 and I have never seen such racism

... lesser televised portions of the country.

What we're seeing is simply the racism that was already there being let out in the open.

In 08 I thought the next president would be a white woman or black man and knew the lunatic fringe would go nuts if either Obama or Hillary was elected but Obama sure bought the racists out from the swamp.

I was really shocked when I started seeing and hearing things I
hadn't heard since I was a kid in the early Sixties.

The way I see it, the racism was festering beneath the surface. Obama's election exposed it, and now we are experiencing the pain of lancing the wound.

It had/has a very nasty sore underneath it.

Even on hate radio (which I wound up listening to because its popular here, and my job involves test-driving a lot of other people's cars) there wasn't much race-based commentary. Starting in 2008 it became constant. Even when it wasn't explicitly negative people were always identified by their race, and it became front and center in the conversations. At work I'd hope the day would go by without some racist joke, whether from my boss or co-workers or customers, but every day it wormed its way in one way or another. I wound up quitting my job for a better one, and that was definitely part of the reason.

The worst was when older customers would start conversations, and so often as soon as they were a bit comfortable they'd start in on the n-word jokes...I'm so glad I haven't heard one in 4 months now at my new place.

I do think the racists are getting a little more bold lately but they still get to it indirectly for the most part. The code words are always out there.

so it is just back to the bad old days. Yes, it was legal to discriminate on jobs and housing in NYC in the late 60's.

The GOPNRAteahadists are domestic terrorists.

what is astonishing, is that the racists can't decide who they hate more - the black folks or the brown folks.

Until Obama was elected, we had made it inappropriate to be overtly racist and they found it necessary to recast the overt racism against Hispanics, at least overtly.

Now, they truly believe they can openly and vehemently display their racism against both.

I was a child in the late 60s, lived in an all white town where the cops sent home the protestors and then burned down the home sold to a black couple.

This is much, much worse that that.

And frightening.

Now, the dark skinned people think they are equal. How quaint.

against the black people. But don't get it twisted; they'll always hate black people the most!

on the people in this country. sigh.

The racism has always been here. It is just more overt now.

because the young generation does not seem to have that much trouble with different races. Btw, I think we would have found an equal amount of hatred had Obama been of Asian descent.

It will also be ugly. Apparently it is now politically correct in some circles to show what an outrageous, ignorant asshole you really are.
I do wonder who was keeping them quiet before. The Republican party no longer has any control over it's dark underbelly of hate and repression. Of course, it is now acceptable in some churches too and not just those Westboro....I cannot think of a word bad enough to describe them.

The same sorts of people will be spreading the same sort of bullshit and fearmongering except with gender stereotypes instead of racial. They'll probably say she's having affairs with minority women, and cover it all including the lesbian angle.

It will be nasty but this country needs to go through it sooner than later. Islamic and developing countries have had women leaders already, even with their finger on the bomb, and even had them shot dead, and the world didn't end yet. Hillary (or Warren) can handle it like a boss.

(running for gov in TX). All kinds of comments about being a gold digger, dumb blond, a slut...all kinds of horrible things.

then was that it was trending in a more positive direction and now it is getting so overblown for the worse.
But then again, I grew up in a place called "America" and it was NOT a code word for "Land of small minded ignorance in the name of patriotism".

I've been on discussion forums for a long time and gravitate towards ones where I can butt heads against people with views that oppose my own.


It's always been out there and the anonymity of the internet makes it that much more blatant so I knew how the flood gates would be opened with the slightest nudge.

if we can keep electing non-white or women presidents.

Against the working poor. Against gay American citizens. Against freedom from religion. Against a living wage. Against sensible gun laws. Against clean water. Against safe food. Against non-polluted air. Against healthy living. Against health insurance for the most needy. Against good sense. Against logic. Against thought. Against reason. Everything in their Party Plank is "Against" something. And militantly proud of their backwardishness. That's today's GOP.

Unfortunately, they mostly either go passive or, more often, they end up voting GOP tickets anyway. Both ways work to elect reactionary right candidates, so those who won't take a stand against extremism might as well not have left at all.

following the civil rights movement and the legislation that came out of the '60s it became less socially and politically acceptable to be overtly racist - at least, for awhile. But the Internet has enabled the racists to come out of their caves and communicate with each other - and the fact that they were able to find support for their views from other like-minded people has supported and, to them, validated their racism. Throw in the grave insult of a black president and their nasty stew pot has started to bubble over again. So-called "mainstream" GOPers are afraid to repudiate the racism of the teabagger fringe because the true believers are the ones who get out the vote. So now the GOPers are stuck with the monster they didn't exactly create - it was always hiding in the cellar - but have allowed to run amok in public because they are too afraid to nail it with a tranquilizer dart and shove it back under the floorboards.

draw out the fringe to help generate the ragae that sends the GOPers to the polls. He failed in 2008, so he fanned the flames and succeeded in 2010 with the congress, BUT lost the Presidency. Rove was devastated...you could see it buy his reaction ON TV when FOX finally announced that Obama had won a second term. After he sort of recovered, he decided the "Tea Baggers" were destroying his PArty, but now he's helpless to put them back in their cage.

Personally, I'm thrilled. It helps the Dems put the whole Pub Party in a hole they will never be able to rawl out of.

its sensible conservatives, condensing into mostly a passionate group of white supremacist and social/religious extremist voters. Certainly those diehard hangerson have no interest in integrating.

Charles Krauthammer's analysis of the 2012 presidential loss, and its promise of a future of the same, was so telling. The GOP did not need to expand to include Hispanic conservatives but just to throw them a bone on immigration -- i.e., be less mean to undocumented immigrants. Maybe he confuses American citizens who are Hispanic with undocumenteds, as many in today's GOP so determinedly do, maybe not. It was totally clear he felt they should kept outside, with a little pat on the head now and then as needed to keep them from actually flocking to the polls in protest.

Embrace black conservatives? 100% dismissed with, "America doesn't need two Democratic Parties."

The funny thing to me isn't how much bigotry is expressed on line these days -- that always happened after the second or third drink anyway, but that they are so unwilling to admit to it. Their limiting their attacks on Obama to not being born here (because they are not bigots!) was a rather terrific joke, when they felt they could get away with murder, drug trafficking, theft, vandalism, rape (of a white woman, no less), and every other Black Menace cliche for Clinton.

Now, if they only realized that being Republican is no longer considered respectable.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Donald

You don't consider that worse than the racism directed at President Obama?

Versus a single murder by a small group of radical terrorists.


I will go with the former as worse. There will always be murderers among us. That will not destroy the fabric of society. The former is trying like hell to do just that.

It's as though President Obama's election in 2008 lanced a boil, and the hatred just spewed everywhere!

Her husband is Navy and they are being reassigned to Maryland and decided to rent their house in Jacksonville FL to a couple instead of trying to sell it. The lady of the couple spoke to my cousin yesterday and said that the first house they were going to rent was really nice. They submitted the application and got approved so she sent her son over to get a good look at it because she was out of town for a couple of weeks. The son told her that she needed to find another house to rent because this previous owners did not rent to BLACK people.

My cousin who grew up in northern Alabama was left speechless. She couldn't believe in 2014 that racism was that bad. She was so shocked that discrimination was still happening and so openly. I told her it was illegal but those owners were selecting the renters and would not hire a management company to manage it. I guess they can get away with it until they get reported.

I don't know if the renters will report those people or not.

Edit: This couple is retired with grown children and grandchildren.

Really, I am. This has been a great 6 years and I look forward to two more. I like watching racist cry babies make asses out of themselves. It's all perspective. They were always there, they just came out of the woodwork under the guise of the Tea Party whose entire platform is based on a fear of shit that is NOT actually happening. The only thing that did happen is a black person became president. They are a dying breed though. We will win.

It will just get worse.

they were throwing the 'n' word out like they were getting paid per use. I was appalled, I knew they were that way but, WOW!!!!
"That's your 'n' President for you"

I'm 58, yeah It's gotten worse, I'm sad to say (Pittsburgh, Pa btw)

…the northernmost southern city, that is, if you consider "Pittsburgh" to include all the counties surrounding Allegheny. The city proper is not all that racist, but the outlying areas, wow, they have been and probably always will be racist. Even when southwestern Pennsylvania had most of its counties voting blue a generation ago, whites and blacks never got along. The decline of unions here coupled with the influence of talk radio, Fox News, and the rise of the Tea Party brought out the true colors (heh) of many people. And, yes, I know of many people (and in my family, no less) who must be paid by the racist slur, too.

I was amazed...

Racism was the norm then, and accepted. Didn't make it right, but there it is. Now, you don't say certain things in polite society, racism is officially frowned on, even by many Republicans. There is NO EXCUSE for anyone to say the things you hear.

We have a black President. And some people are in a rage about that.

It became shameful for a long time to openly exhibit hateful behavior or engage in hate speech. It has become permissible again and we need to turn it into shameful again.

The KKK attitudes out there need to be marginalized and locked back into a closet until they behave. Obviously, they have to be forced to do this. Those on this thread that think it's funny or enjoy the weirdness don't understand how much it is hurting people. It has to be shamed and stopped, again!!

In the meantime, the way we live our lives is the only example we can give to fellow Americans.

but all racists are republican.

on a daily basis. It is overwhelming to me. He is a brave and courageous man and I am so grateful that he continues to serve as President of our country after all of the assaults he is subjected to on a daily basis. I don't agree with everything he does. He is not as progressive as I had hoped he would be, but I am so grateful that he is where he is at this time.

I'm 61. I've never seen it this bad, either. I don't remember it ever being this bad.

His worst crime is presidentin' while black. His second-worst crime is presidentin' while not a republi-CON. And that's the long and the short of it. (See "World's Biggest Entitlement Program" - as in the GOP's presumption that it is the GOP ALONE that is entitled to rule.)

Embarrassing, isn't it?

just because of the systemic and institutionalized nature of that hate. Yet as long as a white male held the top spot, the fear of brown and darker skinned males was held in abeyance. Once white privilege was threatened by a brown skin man in the top spot the cover was off and the bundy's and his sympathizers in the hinterlands and elsewhere, on hate radio and television news, have had a fucking field day demonizing blacks from Obama all the way down to Trayvon Martin. The "haters" were/are surreptitiously enabled by the racist RW clowns running rampant in the halls of power at local and national levels with little or no push back from our Party.......call me a liar? America has always been right on the edge of all the hate we've seen for the last 6 years. The racist really had not had a focus for that hate until Obama moved into the the POTUS position and put white supremacy in question. The systemic hate based on race will always be with us. And yes I agree, your perceptions are correct. The racist hate is much more in the open and embraced even as a merit badge of........whatever... by the......bundy, o'reilly, issa, cruz, palin, brewer and rushieboy bunch of creeps. I'm not at all surprised and expected this ignorance and stupidity on the assumption of power by Barack Obama.

it was pretty homogenous and you would more commonly hear slurs against Poles, Germans or Jews - depending upon who was speaking. I sort of had this view that slavery was over and we were all treated equally. But I also didn't really know many Americans who happened to be black. Electing Obama and watching him try to govern has been very eye-opening. As a socialist I view him as pretty conservative, and you'd think that would make him more appealing to repugs. But they are clearly blinded by their racism - he constantly makes overtures to them in terms of policy (in my view) and they still reject them. I am embarrassed for them because it is so painfully obvious that they cannot accept a non-white as president.

also over 60

The guy deserves mad props.

Obama is the Jackie Robinson of politics

We are the new MINORITY!!!!!! Get use to it,it is not going to change.

been stunned at how many racists, haters and bigots there are in this country. When Obama was elected I said to myself, the country has really come together ... but then the racists, haters and bigots started rearing their ugly hateful heads, and then IMO hate radio, hate TV and hate Internet emboldened them and egged them on for more and more ... and often IMO for $$$$$.

A lot of people in this country make big bucks off of racism, hatred and bigotry. It's disgusting ... and they are always looking for new targets too. They always have LGBT to kick around, and now they have the children they love to kick around. Elements of this country are so damn disgusting.

I break down the history of why that is in this piece I called A long story about the Southern Strategy.
Your answers are in there.
You should not be surprised.
This is at the core of the American system.

John Lucas

shined a light on the subject, suddenly we can see that America is crawling with racist scumbags.
It's good to have them out in the open, even if the sight and sound of them is disgusting.

have shown themselves as big time racists. Some I have known for years, one couple we asked to leave our house after using the n word to describe the President. We had been friends since college.