Most people don't realize the significance of precedent. (Skip to the end for cliff notes)
There's one main reason we're in this situation today.
The first civil war never ended. It just changed into a cold war of attrition.
White folks were killing white folks over the treatment of Black people. When the group that was overtly mistreating Black people lost, Lincoln was stuck with trying to keep the union together.
His idea to unite the country by adding Andrew Johnson, a southern loyalist to the ticket as his vice president was ill advised.
Suddenly Lincoln was dead before any of the federal protections for Black folks that were planned could be made into law.
Johnson wanted all the southern states to be added back to the union as is, no restrictions, no oversight, no federal guidelines as it referred to race. He got his ass impeached over it and barely escaped removal from office.
The country has been fighting the same internal identity struggle ever since. The southern culture never changed, it got restricted in its open savagery towards us little by little over the past 60 years by those who are okay with simple suppression.
To keep it Colin:
- The US civil war was white folks killing white folks, not white folks killing Black folks.
- The civil war never ended
- Lincoln is responsible for not protecting Black folks after the civil war by adding Johnson to the ticket
- If there was some kind of race war today it would again be white folks against white folks
- It was white folks against white folks during the George Floyd protests
- It was white folks against white folks on January 6th.