We like to think of racism and racial progress as a one-way street of goodness and love.
That things used to be really bad, and then they were a little less bad, but now they're not really that bad.
That there used to be a lot of racism, then there was a little less racism, and now there's not much racism, and soon there will be no racism.
That White people used to be really mean, then they were a little less mean, and now they're not really that mean anymore.
That there used to be slavery and lynching and disenfranchisement and blackface and Jim Crow, then we had MLK and things got better, and then we had a Black president and racism was basically over.
That we used to have blatantly racist politicians writing and passing blatantly racist laws, but now we. . .
. . . still have blatantly racist politicians writing and passing blatantly racist laws.
Which doesn't fit the "there used to be a lot racism, but now there's not much racism" narrative.
Because it's a false narrative.
Because every single time in history there has been racial progress, it's been followed by an aggressive, angry, coordinated White supremacist reaction to that racial progress.
Racism used to be smugly overt. It used to be malicious and harmful.
Now it's smugly covert. And malicious and harmful.