Much better, thanks!
As for responding to that, the Democrats definitely have a lot of work to do. I'm still a registered Republican, but I'm pretty disgusted with that party right now. I'm only marginally feeling more favorable about the Democrats at this point. What I found is that most people I know personally who voted for Trump are either not racist (not exactly anyway, though they did put other issues above the racism they perceived in Trump, and I have a major problem with that) or they are blind to their biases (as we all tend to be until they get pointed out to us) and didn't recognize any serious problems with Trump and were more concerned with other issues. I don't think I know anyone personally who supported Trump openly because of their own racism.
Regarding racism. An interesting perspective I found on
Cracked.
But what I can say, from personal experience, is that the racism of my youth was always one step removed. I never saw a family member, friend, or classmate be mean to the actual black people we had in town. We worked with them, played video games with them, waved to them when they passed. What I did hear was several million comments about how if you ever ventured into the city, winding up in the "wrong neighborhood" meant you'd get dragged from your car, raped, and burned alive. Looking back, I think the idea was that the local minorities were fine ... as long as they acted exactly like us.
If you'd asked me at the time, I'd have said the fear and hatred wasn't of people with brown skin, but of that specific tribe they have in Chicago -- you know, the guys with the weird slang, music and clothes, the dope fiends who murder everyone they see. It was all part of the bizarro nature of the cities, as perceived from afar -- a combination of hyper-aggressive savages and frivolous white elites. Their ways are strange. And it wasn't like pop culture was trying to talk me out of it:
It's not just perception, either -- the stats back up the fact that these are parallel universes. People living in the countryside are twice as likely to own a gun and will probably get married younger. People in the urban "blue" areas talk faster and walk faster. They are more likely to be drug abusers but less likely to be alcoholics. The blues are less likely to own land and, most importantly, they're less likely to be Evangelical Christians.
In the small towns, this often gets expressed as "They don't share our values!" and my progressive friends love to scoff at that. "What, like illiteracy and homophobia?!?!"
Nope. Everything.
The "racism" isn't about skin color, but about the difference between city and country. People of various skin colors in the country get along fine, even though that is where all the racism is supposed to be. It's the city folk they fear.
"When you go visit the big city, stay out of the bad neighborhoods."
"That's racist."