Reagan was the most racist President of the twentieth century?

Though Regan is definately in the ballpark on this one.

The word Racist like Hero is beginning to lose its importance because its overused.

Does he know what that symbol means? Wow.

His policies ultimately make an argument for that distinction. But that loooooong week preceding his funeral, when the media anointed him King of America for All Time, LOL, there was a short piece aired on CNN, amongst all the other propagandist pieces, about a poor black family in D.C. (I think they lived in D.C.) that was virtually adopted by the Reagans. Not adopted as in, "pets," which could easily be construed... but literally taken in as sort of extended family. Does anyone remember this? It sort of shocked me, actually. An African-American boy wrote a letter to Reagan, one that inspired Reagan to write him back, and they struck up a big brother-type friendship that lasted right through to Reagan's death. The Reagans took a limo to their very humble apartment, and ate dinner with the family on dinner trays, and so won over this family that the son - now a successful adult - agreed to be interviewed about it for the first time that week. He helped the kid get to college, the whole mile.

Now, it'd be easy to say that this was for votes... but Reagan never courted the black vote, and never publicized this relationship. So why? I can only believe it was probably curiosity at first, then a genuine rapport that endured.

I'm not sure I can reconcile that story with his heartless policies.

Having said all that, I also don't think the Bushes are racist... they're fuckin' xenophobes is what they are. There's a void in their souls where normal people may feel empathy; they have utter disdain for anyone below a certain economic level, including poor whites who would never fathom their unimportance to the Bushes in a million years. Maybe even calling them xenophobes is too good for them.

How many of us really know the racism of presidents much before Reagan. Yes, Reagan was very racist, but Wilson, Hoover, Coolidge etc. How many people really remember?

It was Wilson.

He may have been the most racist of the *late* 20th century; but I suspect that virtually any president before FDR was more racist than Reagan.