In answer to the question of whether or not these historical events, rules, and laws are still impacting our society today; I say absolutely.
Our entire society is built on the oppression of People of Color and you don’t even have to look that hard to see it. It exists in the very foundation of our country, in official government documents that list people as property or 3/5ths of a person. We have to ask ourselves how can we dismantle the system, because it will need to be dismantled, in order to create a society that is no longer founded on certain groups of people being seen as less than. There are countless examples I could give of how racism affects every aspect of American life. It is rampant in everything from voting rights to shopping for cosmetics. And it all ties in to this reinforcement by the passage of these laws in the not so olden and golden days that whites are somehow superior.
