Racist faith, that belief system which invests ultimate meaning in the biology of white skin color, has permeated American history from its beginning. Thus, while this nation has experienced times when the dream of racial equality and human solidarity seemed close to realization--such as the years following the American Revolution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s--the specter of racism has persisted. And despite past and contemporary assertions that race is a declining factor in American life, racism's resurgence, whether following the World War I crusade to "save the world for democracy" or the World War II effort to preserve "the four freedoms" or during the Reagan administration's attempts to "make America strong again," is blatantly clear. From whence does this persistence come and how can its tenacity be explained?
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