Prometheus 6

There's a pattern to everything, but EVERYTHING is in the pattern. The human failing is to make patterns from parts, and call it the whole.

from some book in my library, by Michael Moorcock

Let's look at some unequal transactions.

It's some holiday. There are three schools and an enormous pile of toys, one random toy for each kid in each school (numerically speaking). The rules are the kids in school A get to pick first, the kids in school B choose next, and the kids in school C get what's left. Ask the kids in school A and they'll tell you everyone gets to pick a toy. Ask the kids in school and they may tell you it's the day they're given a picked-over toy that most of the kids didn't want. "Every kid gets a toy" would be a true but inadequate description.

Okay. Now let's look at race relations, pre-1964.