Segregationists abandoned despising extraordinary Black achievers and instead praised Obama as proof racism ended

Evidence

Since Wheatley, segregationists had despised these extraordinary-Negro exhibits of Black capability and had done everything to take them down. But Obama—or rather Obama’s era—was different. Segregationists turned their backs on their predecessors and adored the Obama exhibit as a proclamation of the end of racism. They wanted to end the discourse on discrimination. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1196

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the earlier ‘extraordinary Negro’ pattern from Phillis Wheatley — connects to Kendi’s argument that segregationist strategy adapts to vindicate itself.