Government policy enacted through black demands the racial habits of a society

Evidence

We have to change our view of government, especially when it comes to racial matters. Government policy ensured the vote for African Americans and dismantled legal segregation. Policy established a social safety net for the poor and elderly; it put in place the conditions for the growth of our cities. All of this didn’t happen simply because of individual will or thanks to some abstract idea of America. It was tied up with our demands and expectations. Goldwater was wrong. So was Reagan. And, in many ways, so is Obama. Our racial habits are shaped by the kind of society in which we live, and our government plays a big role in shaping that society. As young children, our community offers us a way of seeing the world; it lets us know what is valuable and sacred, and what stands as virtuous behavior and what does not. When Michael Brown’s body was left in the street for more than four hours, it sent a clear message about the value of black lives. When everything in our society says that we should be less concerned about black folk, that they are dangerous, that no specific policies can address their misery, we say to our children and to everyone else that these people are “less than”—that they fall outside of our moral concern. We say, without using the word, that they are niggers. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 511

Categorization

• DEFINE: Spells out that racial habits are shaped by the type of society and government policy, not merely individual prejudice—racial habits are institutionalized through what government does or fails to do.
• XREF: Links to the reader’s core question about distinguishing racial habits from prejudice; Glaude roots habits in social arrangements rather than individual psychologies.