Rising Out of Hatred

by

Eli Saslow

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Barack Obama Character Analysis

Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. His election in 2008 is a turning point for white nationalists, as they leverage his election to incite anger among white people who feel like their culture is being taken away from them. They paint him as a “radical black activist,” and Donald Trump asserts that Obama isn’t American, beginning the racist “birther” movement. Obama wins reelection in 2012, but he loses the white vote by a 20-point margin (the largest disparity in 30 years), which Rising Out of Hatred suggests signals the growth of white nationalist influence on the white vote. His reelection energizes opposition, and Tea Party Republicans stall his attempts at immigration reform. During Donald Trump’s candidacy for president, Don Black discusses how white people want to “take the country back” from Obama.

Barack Obama Quotes in Rising Out of Hatred

The Rising Out of Hatred quotes below are all either spoken by Barack Obama or refer to Barack Obama. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ostracism vs. Open Dialogue Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

And then there was Derek, the white nationalist prodigy living anonymously in his dorm room, helping to moderate the world’s largest white pride website and calling in to his own political radio show five mornings each week. On the air, he repeatedly theorized about “the criminal nature of blacks” and the “inferior natural intelligence of blacks and Hispanics.” He said President Obama was “anti-white culture,” “a radical black activist,” and “inherently un-American.” There was nothing micro about Derek’s aggressions. He knew that if his views were discovered at New College, he would be vilified on the forum and ostracized on campus. So he decided that semester to be a white activist on the radio and an anonymous college student in Sarasota.

Related Characters: Derek Black (speaker), Don Black, Barack Obama
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

What Trump said during those next months was that he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. He said he was the “law and order candidate” in the age of Black Lives Matter. He said he was qualified to be president in large part because of his “beautiful, terrific genes—a wonderful inheritance.” He said his primary goal was to erase the legacy of Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, who Trump continued to insinuate was a foreign-born Muslim. He said America’s inner cities were overrun by “gangs and thugs,” and “right now, if you walk down the street, you get shot”—and then to prove that point he re-tweeted a crime statistic suggesting that 81 percent of white murder victims were killed by blacks. A few days later, after criminologists told Trump that his number was wildly off base—that in fact it was only 14 percent—Trump said, “What? Am I gonna check every statistic?”

Related Characters: Donald Trump (speaker), Barack Obama
Page Number: 250
Explanation and Analysis:
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Rising Out of Hatred PDF

Barack Obama Quotes in Rising Out of Hatred

The Rising Out of Hatred quotes below are all either spoken by Barack Obama or refer to Barack Obama. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Ostracism vs. Open Dialogue Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

And then there was Derek, the white nationalist prodigy living anonymously in his dorm room, helping to moderate the world’s largest white pride website and calling in to his own political radio show five mornings each week. On the air, he repeatedly theorized about “the criminal nature of blacks” and the “inferior natural intelligence of blacks and Hispanics.” He said President Obama was “anti-white culture,” “a radical black activist,” and “inherently un-American.” There was nothing micro about Derek’s aggressions. He knew that if his views were discovered at New College, he would be vilified on the forum and ostracized on campus. So he decided that semester to be a white activist on the radio and an anonymous college student in Sarasota.

Related Characters: Derek Black (speaker), Don Black, Barack Obama
Page Number: 29
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

What Trump said during those next months was that he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States. He said he was the “law and order candidate” in the age of Black Lives Matter. He said he was qualified to be president in large part because of his “beautiful, terrific genes—a wonderful inheritance.” He said his primary goal was to erase the legacy of Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, who Trump continued to insinuate was a foreign-born Muslim. He said America’s inner cities were overrun by “gangs and thugs,” and “right now, if you walk down the street, you get shot”—and then to prove that point he re-tweeted a crime statistic suggesting that 81 percent of white murder victims were killed by blacks. A few days later, after criminologists told Trump that his number was wildly off base—that in fact it was only 14 percent—Trump said, “What? Am I gonna check every statistic?”

Related Characters: Donald Trump (speaker), Barack Obama
Page Number: 250
Explanation and Analysis: