I recently wrote a post about the growing level of hate and bigotry that is being disseminated and inflamed by those on the far right and their Christofascist political allies. Yes, there is incredible vitriol being thrown at LGBT citizens by those who claim to be "godly Christians" and amoral politicians like Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. But gays are not the only targets of this growing wave of hate. Blacks, Hispanics and other non-whites are likewise targeted, both by the Christofascists and the white supremacists who seem to be more and more prevalent in today's GOP. Jonathan Capehart has a column in the Washington Post that looks at this disturbing rise of hate. Here are some column excerpts:
While folks were obsessing over polls that showed their preferred presidential candidate being up or down, I obsessed over a poll that revealed a troubling rise in hatred among the American people. According to a poll for the Associated Press, anti-African American and anti-Hispanic attitudes have grown since the election of the nation’s first black president.
I’m not one of those people who thought sending Barack Obama to the White House would exorcise the nation’s racial demons, that centuries of strife and tribulation would simply melt away with one historic election. But I did hope that some remnants of the the wave of good feeling that swept over the United States between Election Day 2008 and Inauguration Day two months later would remain. How silly of me.
In 2008, anti-black attitudes were held by 48 percent of Americans surveyed. Today, that number is 51 percent. When implicit racial attitudes are measured, that statistic jumps to 56 percent. The viewpoint is even worse for Hispanics: A poll done last year showed that anti-Latino attitudes were held by 52 percent of non-Hispanic whites. On the implicit racial attitudes test, the negative views of Hispanics goes to 57 percent.
The sad truth is that the far right and the lily white Christianists have never accepted Obama as the legitimate President of the United States. And with their support the Republicans have from day one sought to destroy Obama with no regard to the harm they were doing to the country or millions of Americans who could have benefited from legislation blocked by the GOP controlled House of Representatives. The loss of white privilege and the power to force their religious beliefs on all simply terrifies these people. As my prior post noted, they are like a cornered wounded animal and they will do all in their power to harm, stigmatize and denigrate those who they perceive to be a threat to their power and control.
For myself, I do not understand the fear and hatred of those who are different be the difference be in terms of skin color, national origin or sexual orientation. The good news is that within not too many years the white Christofascists and white supremacists will literally be a minority in America and they'd best hope to Hell that the majority doesn't treat them in the vicious manner in which they have treated others.
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