The implication is that such eloquence as Nulty has is dependent on the
preservation of the racial status quo; that for him to treat the races
equally would be not only to deprive him of overt power but to
impoverish his power of speech, to subtract permanently from that
essential part of himself that consists of racism; that it is impossible
for black people to gain dignity without their white oppressors losing
self. It may be that those Americans who emigrated joyfully and
hopefully from the old America of the 1940s into the new America of
civil rights were outnumbered by those who came as refugees from the
past. 'When we left the old country, we were forced to leave everything
behind. They even took our racist vocabulary.'
-- James
Meek. "
Refugees from the Past" a review of
Raymond
Chandler: The Detections of Totality by Fredric Jameson.
London
Review of Books Vol. 39 No. 1 (5 January 2017) pages 31-34.