For at least 350 years Virginia's leaders systematically maintained a system of economic discrimination based on race. We are accustomed to thinking of race as an issue of personal acceptance and personal prejudice. It is that, of course. Racism includes enmity, spiritual warfare, psychological damage, hatred, rage, depression, and indifference to the lot of other human beings.
Racism makes people so blind that their normal consciences and sensitivities no longer function.
It is one of the primary factors in most of the world's oldest and most awful conflicts. It unbalances every conversation. It flares from the deep injured consciousness of every human being. But it is the economic aspects of racism that are the most enduring. The economic aspects of racism perpetuate racist injury, even when a large number of our citizens have repented of its social and spiritual aspects.