From the arrival of the first twenty slaves in Jamestown to the Howard Beach Incident of 1986, Yusef Hawkins, and Rodney King, federal law enforcement has pleaded lack of authority against white violence while endorsing surveillance of black rebels and using "constitutional" military force against them. In this groundbreaking study, constitutional scholar Mark Frances Berry analyzes the reasons why millions of African Americans whose lives have improved enormously, both socially and economically, are still at risk of police abuse and largely unprotected from bias crimes.

从詹姆斯敦第一批20名奴隶的到来到1986年霍华德海滩事件、尤瑟夫·霍金斯和罗德尼·金，联邦执法部门一直在为反对白人暴力缺乏权威辩护，同时支持对黑人叛军的监视，并对他们使用“宪法”军事力量。在这项开创性的研究中，宪法学者马克·弗朗西斯·贝里（Mark Frances Berry）分析了为什么数百万生活在社会和经济上都有了巨大改善的非裔美国人仍然面临警察虐待的风险，而且基本上没有受到偏见犯罪的保护。