Law

As Carol Anderson starkly demonstrates in this book, white Americans often use their dominance in politics to enact laws and governmental initiatives that directly harm and suppress non-white people. This practice dates back to the initial arrival of white settlers on the continent, and it manifests in many ways, such as slavery. Even after slavery was supposedly abolished in the 1860s, legal backing of racial suppression continued. Anderson notes that, in the wake of the Civil War, “the white South was so devastated and demoralized it would have accepted almost any of the North’s terms” (17). However, president Andrew Johnson was directly complicit in restoring former Confederate leaders to positions of power. These politicians then passed many laws that directly limited Black Americans’ freedoms. The North enacted similar practices, such as redlining and housing segregation. As a result of this history and culture, law-based racial oppression continues to...