Having consumed hundreds of conservative tweets in the past 24 hours, I've identified an interesting phenomenon. "Omaha" is used as a dogwhistle in two different ways.
1. Conservatives outside of Nebraska hold up Omaha as a shining beacon of a sensible, conservative midwestern city. They are perpetually SHOCKED that Omaha even has BLM protests, let alone the occasional "riot"
(Obviously unaware of the extreme segregation that exists in Omaha, history of protests and actions against racial injustice. But hey, I don't expect conservatives to do the reading.)
2. People inside Nebraska, but outside Omaha, love to think Omaha is a warzone torn apart by gang violence. So they evoke Omaha to represent lawlessness caused by racial strife.
I've heard this from relatives in Central Nebraska claiming I'm dodging bullets when I get home from work, and people from Millard (lol) telling me they roll their windows up when they take the expressway through North Omaha to get to the airport.
You can follow @b0ithorn.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: