I don’t think such things were so rarely said out loud. Uncommon, yes, but this shit happens every day long before Trump was running for president.
It appears to be happening more with the empowerment, but it was always there.
I prefer to not just blame Trump as a knee jerk reaction, however. 1) As much as he stirred the pot, racism was always here. 2) It politicizes the issue. People will dismiss any criticism of her because, “Oh you just hate Trump, that’s why you’re saying this.” The political tribal split is so severe and contributes to so much cognitive dissonance that we need to wake people up and shake them saying, “It doesn’t matter if the other political party is awful or not, this isn’t ok.” IMO, this is best accomplished focusing on the specific bad things, saying such things are bad, and not blaming Trump or what ever else. This isn’t to say that Trumps rise ISN’T partly responsible. But attacking that beast together with racism is a losing battle.
Don’t believe me? I have heard 8 years of how awful Obama was in some circles. I am numb to it. There are people who would hold their breath and pass out if Obama told everyone to take good, deep breaths. Look around and analyze yourself. Any issue even half way politicized people start splitting off into camps. They don’t think about what is right or wrong, it degenerates into us vs them.
And note - this is coming from the angle of wanting people to be better to each other. So while you may feel this is letting some people off lightly, it is my feeling this is the best approach to confront people that won’t be instantly filtered out.
