African American
In reply to the discussion: Cornel West Surrogacy highlights a major problem with the Sanders' campaign's outreach strategy [View all]wildeyed
(11,243 posts)"Though I would say - America has been doing everything it can to punish black Americans since he won at the NON Federal level. The chips on the shoulder have been astounding."
There has been furious backlash in NC. Remember how Obama squeaked out an electoral vote victory here in 2008? But I want to emphasize that much of the backlash comes from the elites who have been running NC for generations. They were so freaked out by that loss, they began throwing tens of millions of dollars at us, aided a abetted by Citizens United and the rolled back sections of Voting Rights. They spent a million dollars on a state level judicial race alone. http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/05/5-players-behind-the-big-money-attacks-in-nc-supre.html
Obama was a very visible win in NC, but it was powered by a systematic organization of grassroots groups, representing a full spectrum of color and class, who focused on expanding voting rights as the primary path to electoral victory. We had been working on that problem for YEARS before Obama came along. And OMG, he was the perfect fusion politics candidate. Could not ask for better.... But his victory was predicated on the fact that we had been expanding the electorate and turning out more poor and young voters than ever in the states history for years.
Sure, there are racist individuals who were threatened by Obama's victory. But the RW power people spent MILLIONS fanning that flame, using the oldest play in the political book, divide and conquer. Without their influence, I doubt it would have added up to anything like we are seeing, at least in my state.
That was a long and circuitous explanation of why I agree that yes, this is a racist piece of shit country but also, a few very powerful individuals spend a ton to make sure we stay that way anytime they see we might be making progress in the other direction.