@PapaBirdJake, I butted in on a conversation to pick a nit, but it’s a thing that matters a lot to me, so here’s my point: The text of the Constitution is not racist. The United States is, from its founding, a racist country. And far more racist than many other countries.

The Constitution was enacted to govern a nation with racism baked in. Even abolitionists, even anti-slavery activists, were frequently wildly racist by any reasonable standard. And you can pick an era, and find wildly racist behavior by every level of government.

My point is that you can have a document that supports a racist society and is not, itself, racist. The text is was it is. There are racist laws; the Confederate Constitution says, essentially, “Article IV: Fuck you, we’re bigots.” And the Constitution didn’t need to be racist:

There were plenty of state laws that were. Check the state of Illinois in the 1840’s. Until the 14th Amendment and the cases that extended the rights to the states, lots of racist laws were on the books.

So why am I splitting this hair: because the text of the Constitution makes it clear that such laws violate it. We used the tools in the Constitution to clarify what it means, not to change the underlying text. We did what should have been done: the rights apply to everyone.