I agree with you, overall. So why dance around it? In this country (the US), white people by law got to win more often than others. In India and China and other places other rules were in place. Every place has its rules, and in most, as you put it, previous power chooses future power. With our weird "one drop" laws in the US affecting everything from voting to banking access to property rights to mortgage rates to schooling, race and ancestry are inextricably tied to that in the US. Ruby Bridges only had her 65th birthday this Sept 8. She's younger than my parents.

I think it is utterly fascinating to watch the world change and watch morals and mores change, but still see power reconfiguring, like mercury falling into a groove, to maintain power and bend law to its service! And the naive/idealistic among us say oh, we'd never do things like our ignorant and unenlightened ancestors. We don't see race. We don't see color. We're a pure meritocracy, with advancement ruled only by your access to the best schools ;)