istory.
Zinn states that there is no country in the world outside of America where racism has been more important for so long a period of time. Racism became institutionalized in the American system over a period of time, and Zinn looks to the institution of slavery for clues as to how this process took place. Zinn finds that the institutionalization of racism was in some ways a deliberate decision on the part of government to impose restrictions based on race as a way of controlling the workforce. Zinn asks whether the antipathy toward blacks was natural and finds that it was not, that it was in fact imposed and codified in society precisely because it was not natural. He examines the evidence that has been offered that racism was a natural development given the general view of blackness and darkness as signifying evil. He also notes the impossibility of looking back to a time when blacks and whites coexisted without unequal treatment and under favorable conditions because there are no such instances in history. Relations have long been colored b
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