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In the United States history, as a society we have been unable to accept being classified under one label. For instance, the financial network of the United States is not based solely on capitalism. Communism also exists in the United States economy. Like the economy, it is hard to classify the United States under one category when it pertains to race. Our place as a racial state has changed throughout history, but still remains a mix of two ideas, racial dictatorship and racial hegemony, working to becoming a racial democracy. In the beginning, and for most of its history, the United States was a racial dictatorship. Form 1607 to 1865, most non-whites were firmly eliminated from the sphere of politics (Omi 65). The consequences of the dictatorship still exist in the modern United States. First, ‘‘American” identity was defined as white, as the negation of racialized « otherness » (Omi 66). This was accomplished through laws and customs set forth by the majority. They were created to maintain power in the elite and separate the white from the colored in all aspects of socialization. Second, the racial dictatorship organized the “color line” rendering it the fundamental division in United States society (Omi 66). These “color lines” seem to be most prevalent in institutions where the color of your skin determined where you lived, what school you attended, and where you sat in restaurants and public transportation. Finally, the racial dictatorship consolidated the oppositional racial consciousness and organization originally framed by marronage and slave revolts, by indigenous resistance, and by nationalism of various sorts (Omi 66).
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