Ah--that's very illuminating! It still leaves a lot of apparent patterns unanswered for me, but it explains a lot that I had observed and not had a good answer for. I wouldn't have thought that so long after slave-manned plantations formally ended that the cultural consequences would still be so apparent, but it does explain the patterns fairly well, and culture can be very persistent.

Anyway, it's a well-argued thesis and I'm glad you're publishing it as an article.

I still disagree that people should keep their mouths shut--rather, when they open them but say something dumb, that should be a cue to tell them what they're missing, so hopefully everyone ends up better informed.

It's more work, but you don't get the benefits of democracy if you don't do the work.