Racist ideas function mainly to suppress resistance to racist policies

Evidence

When we look back on our history, we often wonder why so many Americans did not resist slave trading, enslaving, segregating, or now, mass incarcerating. The reason is, again, racist ideas. The principal function of racist ideas in American history has been the suppression of resistance to racial discrimination and its resulting racial disparities. The beneficiaries of slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration have produced racist ideas of Black people being best suited for or deserving of the confines of slavery, segregation, or the jail cell. Consumers of these racist ideas have been led to believe there is something wrong with Black people, and not the policies that have enslaved, oppressed, and confined so many Black people. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 27

Categorization

• XREF: This answers the reader’s stated question about why Americans did not resist—and connects to the ‘social capital’ idea that beliefs serve the interests of beneficiaries. — connects to: Ideas matter only as they strengthen the race and subjugate others