Everyone says it could never happen here

[HopeAgain]

9. But Americans want to white wash our history

Which doesn't help. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves. Jackson and others committed genocide against Native Americans. The South sent an entire generation to kill, and die, to preserve the most inhumane of institutions. Many of our turn of the century industrialists like Rockefeller were Nazi sympathizers.

You are right, we have quietly lived with, and accepted, racism and race based oppression since our inception; our need to feel national pride and patriotism (which is useful to convince young men to go to war) allows racism to be a fact of American life.