We have to be careful with that, though. De-jure, you're quite correct; it's no longer in the law. De-facto, however, we see, and you yourself have (correctly) pointed out in other threads, that law enforcement action against racial minorities happens at a considerably higher rate than against the White population. Furthermore, I personally have seen in more than one case a lack of enthusiasm by law enforcement for going after White supremacists who commit hate crimes (this was in Portland, Oregon). And of course the time difference in law enforcement answering calls in predominately Black neighborhoods vs. predominately White neighborhoods is...disgusting. In the former, e. g. East Palo Alto, you were lucky if you called the police and they'd show up in an hour. You therefore don't have that hour to wait for the police when someone's trying to find a way into your home; you need to defend yourself *now*. Contrast that with the latter, say, Portola Valley or Woodside; you called the cops, they made a 10-minute trip in 5 minutes to help you, and they didn't see you as the suspect.
Here's another reason we need to be careful with the "it's not in the law" argument. Again, de-jure, you're quite correct; we have abolished Jim Crow from the law books, thank goodness. As Nichelle Nichols put it, "we've come a long way, baby." She then went on to say, though, "we've still got a long way to go."
Here's what I mean. I hear that same basic argument from many of our White Conservative brothers and sisters on a regular basis, especially when I go to the gun shows. "Those Jim Crow laws aren't the law anymore," they tell me, and they're right. Those laws *are* gone.
But then we have this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_8E3ENrKrQ&t=20s
But those laws targing those immutable properties are gone! That's not in the law anymore!
That's why I think we need to be very careful with that argument.
I'm not seeing where Professor Cole's argument isn't holding water here.