re: Before all this woke stuff started several years ago, didn’t race relations seem good?

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What did Obama do specifically to make race relations worse? Honest question

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Not necessarily directly related to Obama but I think many white people do feel there's been a dramatic change in race relations in so far as the movement is no longer about equal opportunities and equality but about disproportionate power and outcomes. Whether they're right or wrong that's a perception that's been created.

Another thing is that the new black rights/BLM movements are largely based on the idea that there is an unbridgeable gap between races, however they offer no opportunity for reconciliation. They want revenge for past wrongs, not to move past them going forward. You're telling people their tribal identity is of the utmost importance, telling them they are partly responsible for the past sins of that tribe and simultaneously telling them there is no chance for atonement outside of political subjugation like reparations and potentially even land reform (see the atlantic article months ago about black farms being stolen in the south in the early 1900s and black farmers being dispossessed). Emphasizing past grievances and division while offering no chance for atonement is a very, very bad idea in a multi racial society.

There are also more right wing whites who notice that the power dynamic has shifted. BLM acts and talks like a subversive revolutionary movement fighting for the underdog but they can bring to bear on an individual white person the backing and power of the entire media and corporate world. Right wing whites have noticed that and are acting more defensive and hostile as a result.