Justin, do you really agree with James's statement that, "Rather, the history of race and racism is more discontinuous that continuous, and the white/black counterposition that seems today to be the exemplar of race, did not feature prominently in the politics of race in the Northern states in the early part of the century." This does not seem "brilliant" to me. It rather seems a falsification. The Ku Klux Klan was active throughout the North, including Indiana. When I visited Portland, Oregon a couple of years ago, I discovered why there were so few blacks living in the city. During the early part of the century, the Klan took hold in the city and there is a famous picture of the Mayor in his office with a robed klansman. The Northern cities were becoming more and more polarized as Southern blacks emigrated to cities like Detroit and Chicago in search of employment. Immediately after WWI, there was a huge riot in Detroit as returned black veterans refused to accept racial attacks from white thugs peacefully. Marcus Garvey articulated the nationalist rage of northern blacks in his Back to Africa movement. He claimed 6 million adherents in 1919. Jesus fucking christ, don't people know the first thing about American history.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)