You're absolutely right. Intent is in no way, shape, or manner magical. In a very real sense, it doesn't matter why a policy with racist outcomes exists. It nee

You're absolutely right. Intent is in no way, shape, or manner magical. In a very real sense, it doesn't matter why a policy with racist outcomes exists. It needs to not exist. It was at no point OK. I believe jerf's point is that motivations do matter, at least a bit, in understanding how a state of affairs came to be. If it's racism, then we might be able to dismantle it and let it be. If it's about keeping out competition, then taking away barriers is very likely to provoke a backlash as the people whose incomes drop look for a way to avoid that. Again, you're 100% correct. Intent is not magical. It's just that motivations matter at least a little bit for predicting human behavior.