Government action can reshape citizens’ racial habits and attitudes.

Evidence

From this perspective, government plays no role in changing our racial habits. Why would we want to make it bigger? … But Goldwater failed to realize that governmental indifference can harden hearts, and government action can create conditions that soften them. People’s attitudes aren’t static or untouchable. They are molded by the quality of interactions with others, and one of the great powers of government involves shaping those interactions—not determining them in any concrete sense, but defining the parameters within which people come to know each other and live together. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 509

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what a ‘racial habit’ is: an attitude molded by the quality of everyday interactions, which government helps structure.
• ADDENDUM: Ties directly to the tree-as-infrastructure piece: government as the ‘soil’ that conditions how people grow and interact.