ABSTRACT
Thomas Sowell and other No free lunchers emphasize the historic volatility, or unreliability, of United States (US) state policy with respect to race. There has been a great deal of evidence to support state volatility, especially in the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the Civil War, blacks were denied entry when they attempted to join the Union Army since President Abe Lincoln feared the loss of border states if blacks were allowed to serve. During World War I, US military forces remained segregated, although there were about four hundred thousand black troops in France commanded by white French officers. The US Constitution, which originally counted the black male as being equivalent to three-fifths of a man, was amended three times. Even US left-of-center and socialist political parties have either had considerable racism in their histories or have simply neglected the black population.
