Segregation theory replaced slavery theory as the mechanism blamed for Black disparities

Evidence

With the slavery-deforming-Black-people theory no longer sustainable in the early 1950s, assimilationists conjured up the segregation-deforming-Black-people theory. They cited the famous doll tests of psychologists Kenneth Clark and Mamie Clark, as well as popular books on the subject, such as The Mark of Oppression (1951) by two psychoanalysts. Discrimination and the separation of the races, the assimilationists argued, had been having a horrible effect on Black personalities and self-esteem. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 926

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates Kendi’s core inversion: a racist policy (segregation) being reframed by assimilationists — who accept integration requires proof of harm — rather than the policy being challenged as unjust per se. — connects to: Desegregation replaced liberatory Black schooling with obedience-based knowledge transmission
• SEED: Article angle: how progressive legal victories can rest on scientifically shaky psychological theorizing about Black deficiency rather than on a principled rejection of discrimination.