The possibility of such preventive civic activity is by far greater in a free society than in fear-ridden and authoritarian ones, so I shall treat it as an aspect of the obligation of citizens of constitutional democracies only., And, indeed, although I shall draw exampĮes from many places and times, this whole book is really about America, not because it łs the most unjust society by any means, but because I know it best and because one might as well point one's finger at one's own country

The most obvious example is pigmentation, which is certainly natural, but nothing else about being dark-skinned in America is. Black in America is a social, not a natural condition. And at various times some have regarded dark skin as a misfortune, some always knew it to be an injustice, and not a few treated it as both. Withthat in mind, it would seem that the line between human and nonhuman causes may not matter very much.