Do you feel that the sociocultural & socio-racial climate has gotten MUCH WORSE

1. 85

   gmwilliamsposted 7 years ago

   Do you feel that the sociocultural & socio-racial climate has gotten MUCH WORSE under
   
   President Trump relating to the LBGT community, Latinos, Muslims, & Blacks?  Why? Why not?
   
   

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2. 81

   chris7800posted 7 years ago

   It hasn't gotten worse since Trump, especially not "much worse." In truth, it's been bad for a while. What has gotten much worse is identity politics, which divides and judges people according to which groups they belong; this used to be called "prejudice" but that word has a stigma so they had to come up with a new term. Identity politics stresses division over unity; as a result many people see those outside of their "identity group" as an "other" or even an enemy. Yes, people have a natural tendency to label themselves and others, but identity politics emphasizes labels over people; therein lies the problem.
   
   It's unlikely to be a coincidence that the rise in identity politics correlates with a rise in tensions between various groups. If Trump's election marks the beginning of the end for identity politics, that could mean a better sociocultural and socio-racial climate in the future.

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   1. 97

      Tim Truzy info4uposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, and why did the flags come out during the Obama administration? Let's not fool ourselves. Bigotry is alive and well. (Here's a challenge: DJT supporters, let's see the common sense expressed by our UN-Ambassador in her state as governor. HMM.)

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3. 71

   Ken Burgessposted 7 years ago

   I think the media has gone to great lengths to propagate this idea.
   
   I don't think the President has done anything untoward since he took office, though his rhetoric during the campaign certainly was inflammatory at times.
   
   The difference is where you stand on issues, President Obama had an anti-colonialist, apologetic for America's past outlook.  His position toward business "you didn't build this, we did", his position towards race "if some white people have to suffer to accomplish this"...
   
   There was a rising tide of anti-police vigilantism under President Obama, he would pardon efforts of BLM individuals for intimidating people at voting sites, for assaulting police, while condemning the police at every turn.
   
   The President often seemed too tied to his former community activist/antagonist past, he could not leave well enough alone at ceremonies to honor fallen (murdered) police.   “…there are real problems and a deep distrust that exists between law enforcement and people of color” - “We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to the broader challenges that we face across the nation…”
   
   Obama’s subtly inflammatory comments were not what the nation needed to hear at those times of extreme emotionality. With two or three sentences within a longer speech, Obama fanned the flames of racial discord. 
   
   While those comments by President Obama were brushed off or quickly buried by the media to minimize the negative backlash as swiftly as possible, the media has done the opposite for President Trump, they have magnified, taken out of context, and brought to hyperbolic climax the levels of racial strife whenever they could.
   
   Trump and Obama are very different... one was a Harvard intellectual that had spent his impressionistic early years in Indonesia studying Islam (age 6 - 10(?)) he spent his formative young adulthood surrounded by the likes of Frank Marshal Davis, Reverend Wright "not God bless America, God damn America!" and "we need to make war against the white people" and Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, etc. etc.
   
   The other was sent to a military school when young, he was indoctrinated into discipline, American ideals, went to Fordham and Wharton Universities, grew up entirely in America, surrounded by business, investing, real estate, etc.  there is nothing radical about him.
   
   One believes in Globalism, and that America isn't that special and needs to be brought down to an equal level amongst all nations, the other the exact opposite.

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