contrasting two tail ends of a continuous spectrum still points to a shift, and the availability to place a wide threshold between them does imply a certain level of robustness when used as a binary classification

Really bad, but the difference is the volume and scale. US government oppressing ethnic minorities is a horrible act, but not a new one. US government deliberately oppressing a large fraction of the majority is.

Doesn’t make it better or worse, but it is a marked shift

Laughs in literalist:
“There was a point in recent history that a significant portion of the population, with enough sampling from ethnic subgroups, had decent opportunity to eke out a comfortable living. Those days that burn fresh in memory, are seemingly gone.”