ABSTRACT
The New York Times publishes an advice column called “The Ethicist.” People write in with ethical quandaries and the columnist gives them advice. The ethicist on call happens to be Kwame Anthony Appiah, a famed and influential philosopher who is currently a professor at New York University. From the 1880s to the 1960s, much of the United States enforced Jim Crow laws against blacks, Hispanics, and other groups, although these laws were concentrated in the South. Jim Crow laws segregated whites from racial and ethnic minorities in public facilities. Most famously, states required black and white students to attend different public schools. Dozens of local municipalities have passed housing ordinances that forbid people from renting to unauthorized migrants and require landlords to report undocumented residents. Courts have struck down some of these ordinances, but local governments are still trying to punish landlords for sheltering unauthorized residents.
