In taking a more inclusive approach, Lyons reveals connections between the racist treatment of various racialized groups. In doing this, he shows how racism in the United States began-not with enslavement of Black persons-but with attacks on indigeneity. He provides due coverage of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the subordination of mestizos. Lyons aptly starts the book with an exploration of conquest and the discovery doctrine. Lyons carefully avoids the confines of what Juan Perea and Richard Delgado term the “Black-White binary paradigm” of race by integrating the racialized history of Indigenous Americans, Latinxs, Asian Americans, and others-instead of merely focusing on Black-White race relations, as traditionally done in history books.
He provides a history of how White settlers stole the land of Indigenous Americans and Chicanos through occupation, the legal process-such as the land grant cases -and violence. Specifically, he details how the method of colonization was white settler colonialism. Lyons wisely orients the history of race in the United States as a story of colonialism. However, laws were intentionally imposed to racially define and divide groups for the purpose of entrenching power in white elites. For these indentured White people and enslaved Black people, common interests outweighed differences. A powerful example is the account of how slave codes and anti-fraternization laws in the South were implemented to defeat powerful alliances between enslaved Black people and indentured White people who joined forces to rebel. This counters the traditional narrative that racism stems from a natural dislike of others who look different. Lyons succinctly sets forth a history of how people in power used law and policy to activate racism.
Lyons effectively outlines how race and racism were developed through these mechanisms in an effort to facilitate and maintain white supremacy. In The Color Line: A Short Introduction, David Lyons provides a valuable service to students and academics in law, social sciences, and humanities by providing a concise history of the development and maintenance of race and racial order through law, policy, and discrimination in the United States. The Color Line: A Review and Reflection for Antiracist Scholars