The right to self-defense has been unequal by race since the founding.

Evidence

Stand Your Ground laws are only the latest form of self-defense legislation to be applied unequally. Since the nation’s founding, our legal and political architecture has privileged the safety and self-defense of white people over that of Black people. As a consequence, the right to self-defense, so quintessential to American identity, has been experienced unequally by Black and white people. White people continue to use self-defense laws to protect themselves from perceived harm from African Americans; Black people often cannot use self-defense to protect themselves from actual harm by white people. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 780

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly parallels the reframing thesis behind the 1619 Project — the legal architecture is foundational, not incidental — fitting the reader’s stated goal of distinguishing reframing argument from empirical claims.