The word "backlash" gained popularity in the summer of 1963. This was when President John F. Kennedy propposed new civil-rights legistlations. The word then was coined as a response to white people's opposition to the increased prominence of the Civil Rights Movement.
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The use of "backlash" quickly became a synonym for a new type of conservative party which counteracted all civil rights efforts. It's also been referred to as "Southern backlash," "male backlash," "heterosexual backlash," "property tax backlash," and "backlash against environmentalists."
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Many campaigns have reacted against "backlash" and imposed "politics of white fragility and frustrations onto racial-equlity struggles." This is something seen far too frequently in our current society as well with groups that oppose initiatives like Black Lives Matter. "As during Reconstruction and the civil-rights era, we face once again the danger that a politics of freedom and equality may be eclipsed by the psychology of white resentment."