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> (...) what makes you think that any and all animosity toward President Obama existed specifically, solely because of the color of his skin? You picked an awf

> (...) what makes you think that any and all animosity toward President Obama existed specifically, solely because of the color of his skin? You picked an awfully disingenuous way of framing your question. Just because you can find someone who dislikes Obama because of some random reason that does not reject or refute the pervasiveness of racism as a factor in the vitriolic hatred directed at him. https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/28/politics/carl-paladino-remarks-about-obamas-mistake/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/28/politics/carl-paladino-re... https://time.com/4573554/michelle-obama-racism-first-lady/ https://time.com/4573554/michelle-obama-racism-first-lady/

adamrezich 3y ago
your source is one guy apologizing for racist remarks, and you're extrapolating that out to concur with the previous replier's assertion that this is an example of "the horrific hatred directed at Obama that's only really explained as racism"? to paraphrase you: just because you can find someone who dislikes Obama because of some racial reason, that does not prove the pervasiveness of racism as a factor in the vitriolic hatred directed at him. I thought by 2023 we could all be mature about this and agree that, sure, there was a nonzero amount of racist hate for President Obama during his presidency, yet the idea that, in general, negative sentiment toward him can be exclusively attributed to racism, is absurd. do you really believe that anything other than a tiny, statistically-insignificant minority of Americans in 2008–16 disapproved of their President based upon the color of his skin? do you really believe that anything other than a tiny, statistically-insignificant minority of Americans today, in 2023, are overtly racist toward black people based upon the color of their skin? (I also note that you chose to not respond to my assertion that Obama did not really do anything for black Americans specifically, during his two-term presidency. he was elected on the promise of Hope and Change, and while he gave plenty of the former, he utterly failed in executing on the latter. ditto for my assertion about Obama's successor.)
- comfypotato 3y ago
  Can’t help but point out that the minority you pointed out twice is definitely not statistically insignificant. Blatant racism is rampant in the poorer areas of where I’m from. I’m in recovery, AA that is (known for a majority of lower-income folks) and I’ve been at hangouts where the majority of men non-ironically use the n word. It’s sad. Very much agree with you though that saying any/all dislike for Obama was because of race is absurd. Conspiracy-theory, flat-earth, not-worth-arguing absurd.
  - Glawen 3y ago
    > I’m in recovery, AA that is (known for a majority of lower-income folks) and I’ve been at hangouts where the majority of men non-ironically use the n word. It’s sad. That's how it is in lower income areas, whatever country. I grew up in a small village with lower income folks and that's how it was, you need to learn not being vehement about this. You cannot benchmark a policy based on stuff like this. I believe it is the exact same thing with folks "victims" of racism: they can say hideous stuff too, e.g antisemitism within Muslim community.
    - dsfyu404ed 3y ago
      >That's how it is in lower income areas, whatever country This. If you really wanna overhear some casual racism in the US learn to speak Spanish. And for the most part the people of all races that say these things aren't racist in that they believe in inherent superiority or anything. They're more critiquing culture that just so happens to follow (loosely, obviously we're using a broad brush here) race but in a way that isn't articulate and narrowly scoped enough to pass muster with the white collar crowd. They're basically shitting on other race groups in the same way that all the trades on a job site shit on each other. This kind of bring us full circle to the whole classism thing...
    - cwillu 3y ago
      “I spoke only as do all men in my land, and I would gladly learn better.”
  - adamrezich 3y ago
    in the 2008 election, Obama got ~69.5 million votes, McCain got ~59.5 million, out of ~129 million votes total (excluding votes for other parties' nominees for simplicity). of McCain's ~59.9M, some small number `x` is racists, who voted against Obama, because they didn't want a black President. after the end of Obama's first term (again, for simplicity), some number `y` is people who voted for McCain who were vocally displeased with Obama's presidency (presumably this number includes most if not all of `x`), and some number `z` is people who voted for Obama who were vocally displeased with Obama's presidency. everyone (racists, Obama-likers, Obama-dislikers) who did not exercise their Constitutional right to vote are irrelevant. `x` is a much smaller number than `y` plus `z`, so as to be insignificant.
- simplotek 3y ago
  > your source is one guy apologizing for racist remarks I'm not sure you read any of the links I posted, or that you had any intention of informing yourself before trying to dismiss facts you find inconvenient. The fact that Obama was repeatedly subjected to racist attacks, even from high-ranking members of the republican party in very public statements , can't be brushed under the rug. This was not "one guy", or even an isolated incident. The two links I posted correspond to remarks from multiple high ranking people in separate incidents. These racist attacks were made repeatedly throughout Obama's tenure, and were never criticised or stopped by the republican party, which clearly were leveraging those to mobilize their base. How can you even start to attempt to hide that fact? In what world do you live where blatant, real-world, and very public racism doesn't exist.

adamrezich 3y ago

your source is one guy apologizing for racist remarks, and you're extrapolating that out to concur with the previous replier's assertion that this is an example of "the horrific hatred directed at Obama that's only really explained as racism"? to paraphrase you: just because you can find someone who dislikes Obama because of some racial reason, that does not prove the pervasiveness of racism as a factor in the vitriolic hatred directed at him. I thought by 2023 we could all be mature about this and agree that, sure, there was a nonzero amount of racist hate for President Obama during his presidency, yet the idea that, in general, negative sentiment toward him can be exclusively attributed to racism, is absurd. do you really believe that anything other than a tiny, statistically-insignificant minority of Americans in 2008–16 disapproved of their President based upon the color of his skin? do you really believe that anything other than a tiny, statistically-insignificant minority of Americans today, in 2023, are overtly racist toward black people based upon the color of their skin? (I also note that you chose to not respond to my assertion that Obama did not really do anything for black Americans specifically, during his two-term presidency. he was elected on the promise of Hope and Change, and while he gave plenty of the former, he utterly failed in executing on the latter. ditto for my assertion about Obama's successor.)

comfypotato 3y ago
Can’t help but point out that the minority you pointed out twice is definitely not statistically insignificant. Blatant racism is rampant in the poorer areas of where I’m from. I’m in recovery, AA that is (known for a majority of lower-income folks) and I’ve been at hangouts where the majority of men non-ironically use the n word. It’s sad. Very much agree with you though that saying any/all dislike for Obama was because of race is absurd. Conspiracy-theory, flat-earth, not-worth-arguing absurd.
- Glawen 3y ago
  > I’m in recovery, AA that is (known for a majority of lower-income folks) and I’ve been at hangouts where the majority of men non-ironically use the n word. It’s sad. That's how it is in lower income areas, whatever country. I grew up in a small village with lower income folks and that's how it was, you need to learn not being vehement about this. You cannot benchmark a policy based on stuff like this. I believe it is the exact same thing with folks "victims" of racism: they can say hideous stuff too, e.g antisemitism within Muslim community.
  - dsfyu404ed 3y ago
    >That's how it is in lower income areas, whatever country This. If you really wanna overhear some casual racism in the US learn to speak Spanish. And for the most part the people of all races that say these things aren't racist in that they believe in inherent superiority or anything. They're more critiquing culture that just so happens to follow (loosely, obviously we're using a broad brush here) race but in a way that isn't articulate and narrowly scoped enough to pass muster with the white collar crowd. They're basically shitting on other race groups in the same way that all the trades on a job site shit on each other. This kind of bring us full circle to the whole classism thing...
  - cwillu 3y ago
    “I spoke only as do all men in my land, and I would gladly learn better.”
- adamrezich 3y ago
  in the 2008 election, Obama got ~69.5 million votes, McCain got ~59.5 million, out of ~129 million votes total (excluding votes for other parties' nominees for simplicity). of McCain's ~59.9M, some small number `x` is racists, who voted against Obama, because they didn't want a black President. after the end of Obama's first term (again, for simplicity), some number `y` is people who voted for McCain who were vocally displeased with Obama's presidency (presumably this number includes most if not all of `x`), and some number `z` is people who voted for Obama who were vocally displeased with Obama's presidency. everyone (racists, Obama-likers, Obama-dislikers) who did not exercise their Constitutional right to vote are irrelevant. `x` is a much smaller number than `y` plus `z`, so as to be insignificant.
simplotek 3y ago
> your source is one guy apologizing for racist remarks I'm not sure you read any of the links I posted, or that you had any intention of informing yourself before trying to dismiss facts you find inconvenient. The fact that Obama was repeatedly subjected to racist attacks, even from high-ranking members of the republican party in very public statements , can't be brushed under the rug. This was not "one guy", or even an isolated incident. The two links I posted correspond to remarks from multiple high ranking people in separate incidents. These racist attacks were made repeatedly throughout Obama's tenure, and were never criticised or stopped by the republican party, which clearly were leveraging those to mobilize their base. How can you even start to attempt to hide that fact? In what world do you live where blatant, real-world, and very public racism doesn't exist.