The Plessy v. Ferguson case in the Supreme Court declared segregation constitutional, and set the basis for all racism over the next half century.

I think that Plessy v Ferguson is a classic example of the unfairness and iniquity of American society. Today something such as the Separate Car Act would never come to be, but that does not mean those feelings have disappeared. People are still racist, sexist, and altogether xenophobic. It is with great sadness that I am forced to call the American people racist, sexist xenophobes; and I hope that I will not always have to truthfully refer to them as such. It is my hope that our society will change, but that is unlikely. I sometimes find myself thinking that hope...may not be warranted at this point. The only way to cure the infectious disease that is our society is to destroy it and remake it. Our society is slowly but surely tearing down the light side of our humanity while making the darker depths of our psyche grow and consume us. If we do not destroy our society it will destroy us. But a few of the evils our society had created: envy, greed, war, prejudice, genocide, sexism, racism, hatred, lust...the list goes on. Every evil in human history can be linked to some construct of society.