Coincidentally, they also like to make sure black people are poor.

I seriously don’t understand the folks who don’t get this.

First we had slaves.

Well, they say, US slavery ended with the civil war.

Even IF it were reasonable to say that slavery ended, and therefore the ripples it sent forward in time aren’t still being felt, there are two things that are true - One: We didn’t root out those who most staunchly refused to relinquish it and enact power structures to encourage equity going forward.

Well, they say, the confederate states were physically and economically destroyed by the end of the war.

And to that I say, “Andrew Johnson.”

Two: We as a nation enacted laws and social norms that turned black folks into a permanent underclass, and have been dogwhistling about it for a century.

Well, they say, No we didn’t.

Yes, we did. Jim Crow, separate but equal, the origin of most controversial confederate monuments and statues, the very existence of Sundown Towns, and The Negro Motorist’s Green Book, the foundation of the State of Oregon, and events such as the Tulsa race massacre, are all factual details about our country.

These inflection points on our nation’s psyche persisted at least through the passage of the civil rights act, and some feel Sundown Towns exist even today. These laws and social norms influenced legislative policy, police and justice department culture, and generations of Americans both white and black people.

How one can acknowledge all that and not be impressed at the degree to which African-Americans have succeeded, and also humbled by how they have been wronged, held back, and live to this day in a system founded on excluding them is beyond me. But more importantly than that, to deny that there is still an impact seems willfully ignorant.

Sorry for the rant. I didn’t set out to write it, but there it is.