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Originally Posted by wil318466
Thanks, also an interesting read.
Not to excuse any of these obviously terrible laws, but since I know you're a frequent poster on the subject of "Asians and Jews rose out of similar circumstances, why can't black people", I would point out two important differences related to that argument as I suspect that's why you posted it:
1. This law was more limited in scope, as it applied only to non-citizens; black people victimized by redlining did not have any relief or benefit as a result of their citizen status
2. As Serwer points out in the Atlantic article re: Jim Crow policies:
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Black Americans in Bed-Stuy (as elsewhere) organized to fight these policies, but as Woodsworth described, fighting segregation in the North could be as daunting as fighting it in the South: “The problem for New York activists was that segregation was illegal, even if it persisted on the ground. They could not hope to deal a fatal blow to the Jim Crow system, since the Jim Crow system did not officially exist.”
This, on the other hand,
was a law, official in nature and capable of being attacked through official channels, ultimately being struck down by courts in the 50s.