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Friday 11 September 2009

Once upon a time in Wilson’s native South Carolina, the 1950s through the 1970s, whites fled public spaces en masse — pools, parks, schools, cafeterias — rather than share those public resources with blacks. This is déjà vu all over again: Latino immigrants are the new blacks. A truculent white minority wants to re-segregate their communities; more, it bashes the publish sphere and aims to sabotage public spending on the common good, including the president’s healthcare plans. Put bluntly, it is not a coincidence that America’s love affair with all-things private — gated communities, private roads, private parks, private schools, private playgrounds, private hospitals — heated up during the 1950s as the federal government sought to integrate the nation. Inside the mind of Joe Wilson

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