The thing I didn't understand as a child was that all the mechanism for abuse, injustice, & fucking genocide were already built into the power structures of our society. I didn't yet know that the fascism was already here: quiet, bureaucratic, & largely hidden from the eyes of the middle class whites.
I certainly didn't have context for previous times, such as the Civil Rights movement, when much of the country WAS engulfed in turmoil.
Some things have gotten clearer in recent years.
