I wasn't facilitating an anti-racist (-ism) group, or did I have this webpage when I originally shared this scene from the HTGAWM/Scandal crossover that unfortunately still applies. It is what the discussion of last week's chapter in A People's History of the United States was about (Chapter 9 - Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom). As I recently discussed with a friend who is a federal civil rights lawyer, any laws that address structural racism that were passed in the history of this country:
> were never implemented in good faith,
> had an expiration date that made them all but null or
> always had a loophole.
Also, and I feel most important, the nature and existence of systemic racism has never been socialized to the average citizen. The majority of targets of this system don't know the mechanisms of its existence. The beneficiaries don't know of the system either and it benefits them. Bob, it really is just like organized crime, because it is organized crime and the beneficiaries are the mob wife reaping benefits thinking her husband is a good and upstanding man of business. What's really changed? A once heard a close friend refer to Jim Crow in modern times as "James Crow, Esquire", probably pointing to its sophistication and ongoing legal certification. > Lynching is still legal. > Police immunity from prosecution still hinders justice. > Our voting rights are still open for debate... What would you add to this list?
On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger Taney issued what is widely regarded as the worst Supreme Court opinion ever. He noted that the question before the Court was whether African Americans are citizens of the United States and thus able to file suit in federal court. His analysis of that issue is couched in abjectly racist language:
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