The Dred Scott decision notoriously decided that African-Americans in general
had never been and could never be citizens of this nation.
Nowadays, since the constitution mandates equal protection of the laws,
everybody who is in fact being denied that equality, by ANY state, can
legitimately claim that that state is treating him/her as less than an American.
Victims of state-sponsored discrimination can claim that they are being
treated as "second-class" citizens. For any AMERICAN citizen, however, to be
"second-class" is, or at least ought to be, A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS, precisely
BECAUSE America's own constitution REQUIRES America (and its constitutent states)
to grant all the citizens equal protection, as opposed to granting some of them
less (and thereby putting them in a second class).
The question, therefore, is how to react to "Americans" who are overt about WANTING
to put some people into second classes. How AMERICAN is it to state explicitly
that we'd be better off granting less than equal protection (and more than equal
pressure to get back or get out) to some of our residents?
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