Systemic racisms can be seen in the words black and white themselves. Black being associated with evil, wickedness, darkness, ugly, filthy, Devil, lost, and so on. Its counterpart, white, suggests purity, light, cleanliness, God, beauty and so on. Land grants were given to any European immigrant who had the means to get to the New World. The Irish, Polish, European Jews, all came to America and benefited from slavery. The Constitution still counts blacks as three-fifths of a human being because when referring to "all men are created equal" therein lied a problem. The solution was to count blacks as subhuman when beneficial and human when convenient. Whites used many deceptive methods to ease around racism by implementing certain programs with no real intention of eradicating racism. As Feagin states, "repainting and remodeling the edifice of racism has not eliminated this system of oppression.".
In Chapter two, "Slavery Unwilling to Die", Feagin argues that the "United States was originally built as a white-racist republic". Through colonialism and imperialism, America was fundamentally built for the prosperity of other European nations. Also, in aid to the demise of what Europeans would classify as the "other", the other being everybody else who was not categorized in this elusive category of whiteness. Feagin also states that while some minute changes have been made, the system of institutionalized and systemic racism still remain untouched. He argues that this racist reality is seldom recognized, and this recognition is only perceived on the "highest levels of the U.S. justice". Essentially, Feagin argues that whites still embody racist ideology, they have internalized this racism stemming back to transatlantic slavery and are "unwilling" to let racist ideology die. .
I would have to agree with Feagin again. Colonialism, expansionism, and imperialism have all been characteristics of Europeans.