Formal civil rights gains can mask persistent structural racial disadvantage.

Evidence

A reporter once told Malcolm X that the passage of key pieces of civil right legislation was clear proof that things were getting better for blacks. In response, Malcolm countered that it did not show improvement to stick a knife nine inches into someone, pull it out six inches, and call it progress. “But some people,” Malcolm observed, “don’t even want to admit the knife is there” (Malcolm X, quoted in Lipsitz 1998, 46). The “knife,” the weapon and wound of racial disadvantage and dispossession, continues to be ignored today. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 14

Categorization

• CANDY: The Malcolm X knife metaphor is a compact, quotable line that lands without any context.
• XREF: connects to: Everyday teacher bias and structural school resourcing interact to accumulate racial disadvantage. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 423; Civil rights victories secured legal gains that coexist with deepened material inequality — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 106