Conservatives in Charge

America is still struggling with how to integrate Blacks, and other minority populations, into mainstream life. The passage of the Civil Rights Act back in 1964 failed to deliver on its promise to put Blacks on an equal footing.

All over America, but especially in the South, local police forces continue to single out Blacks for decidedly unequal treatment. Blacks are arrested for crack at nine times the rate for Whites, who snort cocaine in corporate bathrooms.

Worse yet, there are continual news reports of unarmed Blacks being gunned down for trivial behavior. A new movement springs up around a Twitter hashtag called #BlackLivesMatter, beginning in 2014.
#BlackLivesMatter, Rodney King protests, 2015

  Pushing for Change
When a harmless black man is suffocated on a sidewalk by police, the event is caught on a cell-phone video, sparking a huge outcry. Protests instantly erupt all over America, and police departments are pressured to make changes in training, to dial back on the number of deaths of unarmed black suspects. The protests eventually subside, however, with little result.

#MeToo and Roe v Wade, 2017-2022

  Turning Back the Clock
America is further polarized by what seems to be a blatantly political decision by a newly-conservative Supreme Court, packed with appointees by President Trump. Despite previous talk of 'settled law,' the justices find a way to overturn the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling protecting the right to an abortion, which had stood for 50 years. Women protest in huge numbers, but are unable to change the result. Similarly, the #MeToo movement, exposing widespread sexual assault by men, comes to little.


Biden election (stolen?), 2020 map

  Hey, That's MINE!
The 2020 election is a watershed event. Democrats seem unsure how to defeat a sitting president who seems to have an iron grip on his supporters. But Joe Biden gains overwhelming support from Blacks, and manages to eke out a victory. So-called 'swing states' that swing to Trump unexpectedly in 2016 now swing back the other way, four years later. 'Stolen election!' cries Trump. In reality, swing states are so evenly divided that tiny changes in voting patterns make all the difference.