Google has some disturbing things to tell you about white supremacy in America

WHITE SUPREMACY AS AN IDEA should never have happened, and at the very least, should have been consigned to the waste bin of history long ago. But recently, it’s been on the rise once again, in part because of American demographic shifts, in part because of racist backlash against the first black president, and in part because of the vile, cynical rhetoric of certain political candidates who have brought racist speech back into the mainstream.

As one white supremacist told Politico, “Demoralization has been the biggest enemy and [Republican frontrunner Donald] Trump is changing all that.”

It now looks like he might be right: the website Think Progress used Google’s Trends tool to see how frequently certain racist code words have been searched for over the past couple of years, and while they’ve all been on the rise during the Obama Presidency, they’ve spiked considerably over the past year as Donald Trump has come onto the scene.

Here’s the graph for searches of the phrase “pro white”:

It hit its peak in December of 2014, shortly after the Paris attacks, and the month of Trump’s comments about banning Muslims from the US.

Here’s the chart for the phrase “white genocide”:

Here’s the chart for “Black on white crime,” which spiked in July 2013, the month George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

All of this comes with reports that American right-wing militias are getting stronger in many parts of the country and are, indeed, a greater threat to national security than Islamic extremists, and indeed have killed more people than Islamic extremists since September 11th.

This rise of the racist crazies is no small matter, and deserves our attention. So the next time someone tells you Donald Trump’s (or anyone else’s) racially charged speech is harmless, gently explain to them that it’s extremely harmful, and shouldn’t be entertained by a diverse, civilized modern society.

Via ThinkProgress