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In reply to the discussion: Silence Makes White People Racist [View all]YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)or at least, angrily pushed backed at, with the right-wing political and social "backlash" of white people (in cities, suburbs, and rural areas both North and South), the Southern Strategy of Nixon and the race-baiting of Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Lee Atwater, the escalation of police violence in the wake of the War on Drugs-a "war" that has created a "New Jim Crow"...the list goes on.
One of the more unfortunate changes in the wake of the Civil Rights Act and other legislation has been the fact that, while most white Americans will now publicly admit that racism is wrong, very few white Americans will admit to being racists or harboring racial prejudice and bias. Few whites are willing to admit that they-as individuals or as a group-have benefited from racism, or that racism is still a very serious issue throughout the country.
The election of Barack Obama, on the one hand, signaled a lot of real hope and optimism about the promise of racial justice in America. Yet, as soon as he was sworn in to the Presidency, much of white America declared that "Racism is Over". All of a sudden, many white racists stopped even pretending to give a damn about being sensitive to the views and feelings and experiences of black people and other people of color. They now had carte blanche to act like the bigoted racist jerks that they were all along.
It's not just silence that makes white people racist-it's silence while witnessing an onslaught of right-wing, racist hate and bigotry the extent of which the United States hasn't seen in a long time. MLK, Jr. had it right: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."