Race, The Enduring Power of an Illusion in a "Color-Blind" Society‪.‬

"We Don't See Things and then Define Them, We Define Them First And Then We See Them "--Walter Lippmann On July 4, 1992 Justice Thurgood Marshall gave a speech that questioned the progress of race relations since the Brown Decision of 1954. Justice Marshall said, "I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories, and that liberty and equality were just around the bend. I wish I could say that America has come to appreciate diversity and to see and accept similarity. But as I look around, I see not a nation of unity, but of division--Afro and white, indigenous and immigrant, rich and poor, educated and illiterate" (Higginbotham 1996, picture caption).