Racism is Waning Yet Still Extreme in the US

Racism was rampant throughout southwest Ohio when I was a child. It effected every member of my family. At it's worst I had a relative who used to make me recite "I hate n----r's." I was merely a toddler at the time. At their best my family liked "colored people" as long as they "stayed on their side of town" and didn't marry white people.

That is why news like this comes as such a wonderful surprise to me, something I honestly thought I would never see in my lifetime:

The Washington Post reports "an overwhelming public openness to the idea of electing an African American to the presidency."

In a Post-ABC News poll last month, nearly nine in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president. While fewer whites, about two-thirds, said they would be "entirely comfortable" with it, that was more than double the percentage of all adults who said they would be so at ease with someone entering office for the first time at age 72, which McCain (R-Ariz.) would do should he prevail in November.

That I find it a surprise might be itself a a bit surprising to those who are younger than me, but my sense of how our nation is with respect to race isn't totally off kilter:

But the good news may stop there. "As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice," according to the same poll.

Now for the frightening part:

Moreover, the Post reports in a separate story that Obama's historic primary victory "has also sparked an increase in racist and white supremacist activity, mainly on the Internet, according to leaders of hate groups and the organizations that track them."

Neo-Nazi, skinhead and segregationist groups have reported gains in numbers of visitors to their Web sites and in membership since the senator from Illinois secured the Democratic nomination June 3. His success has aroused a community of racists, experts said, concerned by the possibility of the country's first black president.

"I haven't seen this much anger in a long, long time," said Billy Roper, a 36-year-old who runs a group called White Revolution in Russellville, Ark. "Nothing has awakened normally complacent white Americans more than the prospect of America having an overtly nonwhite president."

Now that is frightening. When the numbers of racist extremism can grow just from the prospect of an African American President, then that is an indication that we haven't yet turned the last significant corner in racism in our nation's history.
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