EP 701 Whitelash in the Wake of Obama Presidency Part of Historical Tug of War

As a diverse group of people in America celebrated the progress represented by the ascension of Barack Obama to the presidency, others, predominantly white, used it as a pretense to produce a new and fearsome wave of white backlash–a whitelash.  Emerging in the moment, coupled with news that America would be a majority-minority country in a few decades, were two diametrically opposed racial movements.  The first was the longstanding nativist movement of white Americans that questioned the validity of the president’s citizenship, his Christian faith, and his fidelity to America.  The second was Black Lives Matter, the latest incarnation of a century-long movement for black humanity, which arose from the frustration with the limitations of a black president and the “black faces in high places” politics that took hold in the decades after the civil rights movement.  Meanwhile, the post-Obama era prompted the resurgence of a third movement: white supremacy enforced by any means necessary–the number one threat today according to the FBI.  It’s all part of pulling on the rope which has gone on throughout American history.  Some progress is made in making America a multi-racial democracy and this is followed by resistance to it.  Joining us to give context to what we are seeing is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Wesley Lowery, author of “American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress.”

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