America’s race laws laid foundations for antidemocracy within the world’s first democracy. Democracy is inherently about equity and fairness – one person, one vote. Since 1662, thumbs were placed on the legal scales of this land. From that point forward we lived in a jerry-rigged democracy – held together with duct tape and Elmer’s glue. Black people lost more and more freedoms over time until we were dangling from trees and being dredged from rivers. Why? To protect the 1662 supremacy of Whiteness.
We wonder how our nation has come to its present moment. We watch as today’s courtier class – legislators, Fortune 500 businessmen, and celebrities – break every law with impunity. They bilk the system. They pay no taxes. They openly lie and cheat and steal. They even wage war on democracy itself through voter suppression and insurrection. These attacks on the core of American identity are swept under the proverbial rug. This 1662 law broke our nation – even before it began. That is our genesis.
From “Fortune: How Race Broke My Family and the World–and How to Repair It All” by Lisa Sharon Harper