Probably the most amazing thing that has come from me working on my book is how researching and writing it has proven so revelatory for *me.* I’ve come to understand in such a profound way how racism is at its heart and above all else a capitalist endeavor.
THIS is why our schools are unequal. Black children, black people, from the beginning, were never intended to be able to compete with white labor and white success. Our schools were and are designed to ensure that on scale, this will never happen, that we will serve not rule.
I’ve my whole life been trying to understand the why of racism. Why this hatred? Why couldn’t block people simply be left alone to thrive? Why the intentional destruction and neglect t of our businesses, schools, our neighborhoods, our *dreams*...
And, my God, tracing the denial of literacy,education from slavery until now, it has become starkly clear to me in a way that it never had been before. I knew, but I did not know. One can look at Detroit, NYC, Newark, LA and see nothing is broken. It is all operating as designed.
As famous abolitionist once said: That which is illegitimate from its beginning cannot be made so simply by the passage of time.
