I grew up learning about racism, but much of what I learned was quite generic. There were stories of heroes and evil-doers in the struggle for civil rights, but the history of the struggle remained a bit of a mystery. Obviously I knew that slavery had led to a kind of superiority in white Americans because they had never been enslaved. However, I did not realize the extent to which the Jim Crow era had played in solidifying the idea that blacks were inferior to whites. I recently read an article where all of these laws are laid out and discussed in painful detail, shedding light on this nation's history of white supremacy. The laws I read about are mostly from the south, where Jim Crow really took off. However, it is important to note that this mentality was shared by Northerners and Westerners, who, instead of making segregation legal, relied heavily on government and financial institutions to keep blacks from moving to their states. Northerners and Westerners knew damn well what was going on in the South, that blacks were being lynched and persecuted, yet they chose to do nothing for years. Western and Northern members of the union could have offered more jobs to black people from other states if they wanted to. There were plenty of low skill jobs available all over the nation during the Jim Crow era, yet liberal whites specifically went out of their way to not hire blacks, and to not allow them to move into their neighborhoods because they wanted money from powerful southern business interests, the same backroom deals continue to this day, which is why progressive laws on civil rights never make it past the powerless "squad's" desk. Since blacks were stuck, and had no other place to go, they had to deal with Jim Crow as a part of their life. Jim Crow etiquette plainly stated that blacks were inferior to whites. In order to demonstrate this, a series of laws were initiated instructing blacks on how to behave around white people. I cannot stress enough that this was written into our law system, and respected by every white person in America as the way to deal with the burden of the black race. White people during Jim Crow did were still very upset that they could not own slaves. Business owners specifically, believed that freeing slaves was one of the worst mistakes the nation had ever made, forcing them to pay a living wage to people who they felt did not even deserve of job. Whites of the day thought, as most of their relatives still do today, that making them behave in a civil manner around black people was an infringement on their rights. Generally, in America, when a white person starts going on about their rights being infringed upon it is because they are asked to treat blacks with respect. This is unthinkable to the white psyche. I have only met a few white people who actually practice what they preach, and treat blacks equally. Could one of those white people be you, the person listening to this show? It could be. I don't know you personally, so I have no way to make the judgement. But is it really an insult for me to assume a white person is racist in a nation that has racists laws respected by the vast majority of white citizens up until the present day? The war on drugs is nothing more than a war on minorities and those who associate with them. Also, black protesters were ritualistically brutalized by white police officers, and the various white supremacists who showed up to "help". Also, just as one brute was sentenced for the killing of George Flyod, another white cop was exonerated and allowed back on the force after executing a black man. So please, spare me the "things have changed" argument. Nothing has changed. You still think I'm inferior when I listen to music, or if I don't use your grandiose and quite pretentious form of English. I'm still inferior when I don't smile and dance for you if you send me a paltry 1400 check for years of abuse and neglect. It's all still exactly the same.