Even before Barack Obama took the stage in celebration in Chicago's Grant Park on election night in 2008, the ugly racists in conservative leadership had already spent months stirring racial resentment and fear based on Obama's "otherness." References to the Reverend Wright sermon, the claimed Michelle Obama "whitey tape," the birth certificate, the coded racism of Sarah Palin, and the non-stop, breathless, racist fear-pandering by anyone and everyone associated with Fox News set the stage for what was to come: nearly seven years of unending racist attacks, both overt and subtle.
The United States has never been "post-racial" as some would claim while citing the election of a black president, and certainly most African-Americans would scoff at the notion of a "post-racial" America. That said, prior to the emergence of Obama, outward expressions of virulent racism had been increasingly muted and forced underground by decades of hard work. The most vicious racists had crawled under rocks, spewing their loathings in private or secret among others who shared their views.
What has happened in the intervening years of the Obama presidency has been nothing less than a great unleashing -- the legitimization of racism and racist expression. The stewards at Fox News will always deny racism, as will others in conservative leadership including a number of conservative members of Congress, but their steady demonization of the president has allowed racists to emerge from their dank holes and voice their hatred openly and without shame.
The rise of the Tea Party during the health care debate, no matter how contrived or staged, was simply the organizing by right wing power brokers of those holding racial resentments. The Tea Party provided racists with a sheepskin, euphemistically labeled "dissent," as a way to publicly espouse their virulent racial hatred. Of course, the Republican Party has long stirred the racial resentment pot as part of their electoral strategy, but never before could they stoke and organize a movement with a primary objective of coalescing the fearful, the bigoted and the blatantly racist. Conservatives exploited the election of Barack Obama to organize their hardcore base.
Reading the message boards of many major media outlets in any part of the country during the Michael Brown/Ferguson coverage shows just how far we have receded as a society. Open expressions of virulent racism are prevalent, with many such comments not even subject to removal by moderators. Virulent racists feel free to express their hatred openly without fear of sanction.
Reports of Republican Party officials making openly racist or subtly racist comments are now so common that we are nonplussed when we read the latest crazed utterances. Over the course of Obama's tenure, the "freedom" to express such thoughts has expanded greatly, and attempts to call out these comments are often met with 1) a denial of racism, and 2) shouts of "Freedom of speech!" and "First Amendment!"
Racism never went away, but thanks to the hard work of dedicated people, including many who gave their lives for the cause, racists and racism were forced into the shadows, limiting racists' ability to openly proselytize their perverse beliefs. Our world was a better place. We have gone backwards as a nation.
Conservatives have fostered this retreat to gain power. It's a cynical strategy laced with abhorrent consequences for us all. It may take a long time to put that genie back in the bottle.
