that's a cool analogy

yeah, i think people do look at it as self advancement and say well, its gotten us as far as we are gonna get. but in line with what you said, that is ignorant. a lot of past reforms are being abandoned and ignored by society, just look at the terrible state of educational segregation which is being effectively repealed by a number of court decisions as well as in practice by white flight phenomenon (just look how hard it is to buy a house in the suburbs and what people are willing to pay from maryland to cali). those are not failures of past efforts, they are failures of a contemporary lack thereof.

"if i dont know where i'm coming from, where will i go?"

but then you got the universal problem that people have talked about beyond race; social problems that exist anywhere. one is the overstratification and complication of society, adding levels of complexity as patchwork solutions to the point of collapse (I can amplify on this if anyone wants, but i'll try to keep this kinda short). also, there is the problem of lack of patience, this is often pointed to when considering the abandonment of liberalism. hayek talked about it in detail in the road to serfdom, and even though I think he ignores key social factors in his work that basically points to free market forces as the best way to shape society (why he is so popular with libertarians) his commentary is prescient at points. He talks about the death of liberalism )and liberals, both still ongoing, a movement towards socialism (compares US and Germany where he also lived) and, most significantly for our discussion about abandonment of principles in favor of short term gains

That is destructive in his and my view. Once we make serious advances, the less significant things that were once pretty much accepted become so annoying that we have to assert a knee jerk reaction to quell them. In doing so, we often forget about the past and fail to continue to attack larger problems which can be only maintained by constant change in progressive goals(things change in order to stay the same). Basically, its like a token hiring, appeases the half concerned but down the road people think, man, hasnt shit changed. Then there is a whole discussion about symbolism but I'll leave that for some awkwardly written parable by Derrick Bell.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.