"... While the motivations behind these shootings may not yet be fully known, there are indications that the El Paso shooting follows a dangerous trend: troubled individuals who embrace racist ideologies and see themselves obligated to act violently to preserve white supremacy. … they've been radicalized by white nationalist websites that proliferate on the internet. … But just as important … We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don't look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people."

— Obama, B. (Aug 6, 2019). Tweet.

"That is what Barack and I think about every day," Obama said, "as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight. How we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith. How we insist that the hateful language that they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. How we explain that when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is, when they go low, we go high.""

— Abcarian, R. (July 25, 2016). Michelle Obama’s stunning convention speech: ‘When they go low, we go high.’ Los Angeles Times.

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""Michelle [Obama] always says ‘when they go low, we go high.’ No. When they go low, we kick them. That’s what this new Democratic party’s about. We’re proud as hell to be democrats. We’re going to fight for the ideals of the Democratic Party.""

— McDaniel, R. (Oct 11, 2018). Tweet. (Original quotes from Eric Holder)

"In the flourishing city, civility is part of the air we breathe. We no more trouble to analyse it than we take a chemical sample of the atmosphere when we lean out of the window on a summer morning. The mere presence of a debate on civility is therefore a sign that the city is in danger—or at least that people fear so."

⁠— Mount, F. (July, 1973). The recovery of civility. Encounter, p. 31.

"Linda Zerrilli (2014) presents a forceful version of this argument, noting that ‘throughout American history, disenfranchised minorities, such as women and African-Americans, have been regularly accused of incivility just by virtue of daring to show up in public and press their rights claims’ (p. 108). As she puts it, ‘the charge of incivility was a way of masking and managing disruptive demands to inclusion in the public realm’ (p. 116). Historically, civility norms have invariably been coded by race, gender and class, and have therefore seriously undermined the democratic commitment to political equality (see also Harcourt, 2012; Mongoven, 2009, p. 29)"

⁠— Edyvane, D. (2017). The passion for civility. Political Studies Review, 15(3), 344-354. doi: 10.1177/1478929915611919

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"The premiere of "Watchmen" [HBO TV Series] opened with a re-creation of the 1921 massacre in Tulsa's prosperous black community. ... The series revealed that the first superhero, Hooded Justice, who was long assumed to be white, is actually a black man who survived that slaughter. ... After Will starts making headlines, he inspires a team of white superheroes, whose leader, Captain Metropolis recruits Will with a promise to fight the racists — only to break that pledge and belittle Will.

These betrayals don't make Will a saintly figure. ... Instead, they deform his character. In a spasm of despair, Will murders the racist conspiracists and takes their wicked technology for his own. Hooded Justice's story is a shattering reminder that we don't always rise above bigotry to become better people, and that giving a black man the same impunity as a white man can turn him into the same kind of monster."

— Rosenberg, A. (Dec 1, 2019). 2019 was a rocky year for superheroes — until 'Watchmen' raised the bar for the genre. The Washington Post.

"If societies are to become more equal, it is critical to identify strategies that allow high-status groups to perceive social progress in a nonthreatening way."

— Wilkins, C. L., & Kaiser, C. R. (2014). Racial progress as threat to the status hierarchy: Implications for perceptions of anti-White bias. Psychological Science, 25(2), 439-446. doi: 10.1177/0956797613508412