When I first saw the term "woke," black people were using it to express dissatisfaction with their lives not improving under Obama. There was an opportunity there. To say, "that party thinks if we just put some people who look like you in the elite circles, things will change for you. But our party is looking at the content of character, and we will work to remove barriers for you even if we don't look like you." It's a shame few on the right took it. A lot of white people on the right are still basically scared of black people who speak up for themselves, so the response was aggression rather than understanding. Another problem is racial issues really are getting more localized and not even regional anymore. There's less racial strife in Jax or Atlanta today than there is Baltimore or Philadelphia or Detroit. So if people my age who know Jacksonville well start hearing about a problem black people in St Louis have, we might say, "what are they complaining about?" Not realizing that some places have made less progress than others.

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