Whiteness was always social and economic currency in America, and the myth of a “postracial” society after Obama’s win was as illusory as the myth of a post-2008 economic recovery. These twin myths enabled a crisis that liberal power brokers did not seem to recognize, even though it is the classic path to demagoguery. They did not see the danger of a rise in bigotry coinciding with an explosion of economic pain—or how savvy political operatives could play the two off each other if the law did not constrain their malicious intent.
