Watching the interview conducted with Barbara and Karen Fields, the two sisters discuss how racism has affected us as a people. While most non-black Americans like to perpetuate the idea that America is a land of equal opportunity and treatment, African Americans as a whole have experienced the opposite. Barbara Fields sums up these conflicting mentalities very well by stating that "black has been the virtual equivalent of 'poor' and 'lower class' since the dawn of the country's history." He then goes on to discuss how these preconceived notions have made the many obstacles facing African Americans, such as Jim Crow, slavery, and segregation, invisible causes of why many African Americans find themselves in a position where they cannot.