U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied blacks the same opportunities as whites when the country was founded.But I don't think that quite works.
Abraham Lincoln came closer to the mark when he talked about the Civil War as a "new birth of freedom." The war resulted in the emancipation of the black slaves and also a broader understanding of freedom to include people of African descent as well as whites. Unfortunately, that new birth of freedom was ultimately defeated with the end of Reconstruction.
As a result, another "new birth of freedom" become necessary. In many ways, that was the inner meaning of the Civil Rights Movement of the fifties and sixties.
Over the years, I've gradually come to the conclusion that the efforts of the African-American population to overcome the many legacies of slavery have done much more to define the nature of American democracy than George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the other men who are now known as the Founding Fathers.
The founding generation created a Republic, but it was disabled by slavery and consequently required repeated "new births of freedom" which were carried out more than anyone else by the work of figures like Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, and other African-Americans.
One of the characteristics of the new birth of freedom in the 1960's is that the work of the Civil Rights movement was extended by the later advent of feminism and gay rights. Despite resistance, the forty years since then have been characterized by a constant and broad-based effort to expand the 60's new birth of freedom to include everyone. Because "freedom isn't free," people in general need to generate a continual effort to give birth to a society of broad-based freedom.
It's only then that we'll be able to say that we've overcome the legacy of slavery.
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...the efforts of the African-American population to overcome the many legacies of slavery have done much more to define the nature of American democracy than ... the Founding Fathers.
Another compelling viewpoint, Ric. Extrapolating a bit (because that's what I do), a metaphor emerges: Black Americans are the soul that White America has denied, ignored, left out in the cold. We went astray centuries ago when we embraced slavery and all its repugnant offspring - my wife and I were shocked to discover our Southern ancestors held slaves - and we're still wandering in a moral wilderness. We can never become the nation we claim to be in those eloquent documents until we acknowledge this soul and draw it in to our national consciousness.
And you could extend that metaphor to all the people we've denied and abandoned. When blacks, gays, women, and other groups we've excluded from the national identity protest discrimination and demand equal rights, that's our soul knocking on our door, offering us repeated opportunities to recognize our moral failings and to reconcile.
Montfort
Hello. Thanks for the kind words. By the way, if you ever wanted to post or cross-post here, you'd be more than welcome. Your perspective would be a nice change of pace.
Excellent Post!! I think Ms Rice's problem stems from the fact that she appears to have spent most of her adult life trying to distance herself from her heritage. And the people with whom she has chosen to associate are very enamored of the idea that racial tensions are rooted primarily in the past and have left a kind of perception of racism rather than acknowledge the reality of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.
Dr. Rice ignores the struggle with a level of naive blindness that I find rather painful to contemplate.
In particular her penchant for ignoring the Fredrick Douglas's, the A.P. Randolph's, the Malcolm Xs, the feminist movement, the gay rights movement...you covered it all really. Though I am somewhat more pessimistic than you (I see the movement for equality as constantly taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, hence we move very slowly if at all), but I like your premise and I think you have the framework for a reasonably plausible argument. I suppose that one need not think out every detail for a blog post but still, a fine effort with much merit and promise. Good work to you sir.
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