re: Why did racism suddenly flare up in the past few years?

In large part it was a result of Obama's election and subsequent actions as president. Once he was elected, many blacks felt it was a turning point where the country would magically be solved of all its ills. Once Obamas extremely liberal platform started getting pushed with disregard for the process of government, and people fought back against it, he and his ilk began using his race as an excuse to vilify the opposition.

The media grabbed onto this and since Obama being elected magically didn't change the black populace to be socioeconomically equal to whites and others overnight, they pushed he racism card.

The problem is that moderate and non-racist people started getting fed up and vocalizing their displeasure with he bullshite. The democracts then pushed the agenda further linking all the minorities as victims from race, to gender, to sexual orientation. All this led to the election of Trump in reaction and made nuclear because the Dems tried to force Hilary into the White House despite the fact she is a cancer and is part of the reason their party is dying.