Neither Reconstruction era dismantled white supremacy’s basic patterns

Evidence

We have argued that the declining phase of the political trajectory of racial politics started around 1970. History continued, not to repeat itself, but to rhyme (to quote, probably spuriously, Mark Twain). Despite the partial reforms accomplished at a tremendous human cost, the basic patterns of racial despotism remained unchanged. The First Reconstruction (after the Civil War) had not been able to undo white supremacy; the Second Reconstruction (after World War II) was not able to do so either. From about 1970, a racial reaction set in—a long, declining phase of the post-World War II political trajectory of race. — Michael Omi, Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 198

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the vault’s existing racial-formation/CRT claims about race as a political trajectory and white supremacy’s persistence through reform eras.