While I don't disagree with a lot of what you're saying in the above post... I want you to reread and reconsider that final sentence... Really? Seriously? 50-100 years ago the burning cross was still not that uncommon, and people were getting run out of town based on skin. Actual live fire race riots were happening. We were separated from actual slavery by barely a generation.
Fortunately, we are nowhere near back at that point. Yes, there are tensions. Yes, there are still problems. But part of progress is identifying problems to address. While I don't think Obama progressed race relations to any significant degree, saying he set them back to that time is truly absurd.
I'm glad you aren't dismissing my comment outright. See below to understand my line of thinking.
50 years ago was 1966, 6 years before I was born. The Klan was well into their death spiral losing members. Most black people just wanted equality and followed Martin Luther King's message of judging a person my the content of their character and not the color of their skin. While there were certainly still pockets of racism among white people, I don't believe it was a systemic hate of a group of people based on their skin color. Pop culture and society in general were very strongly trying to promote equality. 100 years ago? Yes that gets more shaky, but that's why I said 50
if not 100.
What do we have today? We have systemic racism and discrimination against white people, specifically because they are white. This goes to the highest levels of government, to the very president of the United States. You have pop culture, the mainstream media, academia and such openly marginalizing, humiliating, shaming and discriminating against white people not because of anything they did, but because of the color of the skin they were born with. There are literal hordes roaming the streets and assaulting or killing people based on their skin color being white, all of which is not reported on by the media and largely unpunished by law enforcement despite video evidence. With social media and video sharing such as Youtube we can see what is actually going on and only scratch our heads as to the motives of the coverup.
Then take into account the straight up propaganda we have witnessed the last few years and you can only wonder the motives. The narrative being pushed is that white cops and white people are hunting blacks down in the street for sport, but when you examine the details of each case you find out this is not true, and usually the details show a hugely different story. What is really going on is quite the opposite, whites ARE indeed being hunted for sport based on their skin color (see news I've posted, look up "The knockout game"). There *ARE* race riots going on in recent years and it is getting worse and worse.
If you took a crapload of time to search the alternative media to compile numbers of violent attacks on whites, then couple it with the media onslaught promoting this behavior and you can understand why I make this point. Then take into account of openly institutional discriminatory practices and everything else, you really see the picture i am painting.
Just think way back to 2006, just 10 years ago. Would we even be having this conversation? What caused the car to slam on the brakes, slapped into reverse and gas pedal floored?