If you want to understand race politics a good place to start is with Frederick Douglass and his memoir of his life as a slave. He tells about how he was rented out to a couple in Baltimore. Things went well; the mistress of the house was kind towards him. But her husband was afraid. He insisted on maltreating his rented slave to keep him cowed and subservient. The same sort of attitude obtained in the sugar island of St. Croix where my man Alexander Hamilton grew up in the mid-18th century. Every white man was enrolled in the militia against the risk of a slave revolt. That's how to understand Jim Crow. After its defeat in the Civil War, the white South was terrified that the former slaves would rise up and kill everyone in their beds. Let's generalize on this notion. If you are a ruling class running an exploitative and oppressive regime you naturally fear that the serfs will one day rise up and slaughter you in your beds. So you crank up the exploitation and the...(Read Full Article)