I think that when slavery ended, it was immediately replaced by the Black Codes and gave us the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts, and White Councils that were the Chamber of Commerce versions of the others.

When Reconstruction ended after Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to end the protection of federal troops, then came Jim Crow which lasted from 1877 until the mid 1960s. Then after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Jim Crow was allegedly dead but we got mass incarceration in a different form, COINTELPRO, different forms of job discrimination and more voter suppression which in 2021 looks like 47 states attempting to make it harder for minorities to vote.

In a debate I could make the argument how much better things are though Eric Garner and George Floyd might disagree. Unfortunately I could also make the case how little things have changed but the names and are presently getting worse. We just had white nationalists in the White House and maybe still do. How optimistic should I be?