rucial to> shaping our knowledge on the nature and
             character of these> relationships. As the "conversation" focuses on African Americans, in
             > particular, we need to understand that the history of those> relationships has been
             determined by what Charles W. Mills (1997) refers>> to as The Racial Contract. This
             "racial contract," Mills points out, is>> akin to the "social contract" that establishes civil
             society. But> whereas the social contract is an agreement among all parties as to what>>
             the nature of society should be, the racial contract is a contract of> the European world
             that determines how the non- Western or non-white> world is to be regarded.> A major
             feature of this racial contract for the United States is> and has been characterized by the
             assumption of 300 years of black> inferiority. From 1650 to the 1950s this imposed
             inferiority had the> sanction of the Pope, the King of England and ultimately the United>
             States Constitution. That is, a universal European "law" determined the>> subordinated
             status of blacks in America. This inferiority was, and> remains, deeply rooted in the
             American ethos. There was no clearer> expression of this ethos than that of Thomas
             Jefferson when he argued:> [A]s a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a>
             distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior> to whites in the
             endowments of both of body and mind.> He went on to say that he doubted that blacks
             could be fully> incorporated into "white society."> Likewise, Alexis de Tocqueville
             (1969) in his observations on Democracy> in America considered blacks in America to be
             the greatest "danger" to> the United States. (Parenthetically, we might add that this
             assumption> in current times provided the rationale for the extensive F.B.I.> surveillance
             of both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, raising> the suspic
             ...