Is There a Direct Link Between the Past and Today?

Some people think there's no direct link between the colonial past and nowadays racism. Historians can show how laws, for example, in law departments, were put in place to segue to certain populations at certain point in time. So there are ways for us to trace these back, and these are very important. It's hard not to be dragged into discussions that are drawing a direct line between past and present because then we miss certain steps that help us understand how we get from A to B.