Racist ideas flip to serve whatever the discriminator’s current policy demands

Evidence

Racist ideas were easy to revise, especially as the demands of discriminators changed. Democrats changed their racist ideas to properly attack Black soldiers. While before the war they had justified slavery by stressing Black male physical superiority, during the war they promoted White soldiers and stressed White male physical superiority. While before the war they had justified slavery by deeming Blacks naturally docile and well equipped to take orders, during the war they stressed that Blacks were uncontrollable brutes, arguing against the Republicans, who said that naturally docile Blacks made great soldiers. Republicans often credited superb Black performances on the battlefield to their superb submissiveness and to their excellent White commanders. Both sides used the same language, the same racist ideas at different points, to make their case, reinforcing the language and ideas with plausible examples on the battlefield. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 600

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates the book’s opening thesis that racist ideas follow from and are adjusted to racist policy/self-interest, not vice versa.
• DEEPTHINKING: The same racist language (docility vs. brutishness) deployed in opposite directions by both parties shows the ideas are infinitely adjustable rationalizations — they carry no fixed content, only service to power.