Bad Legacies

One of the biggest surprises of recent days was Al Sharpton finding out that his great-grandfather was owned by an ancestor of the late segregationist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Sharpton has publicly stated that he couldn't possibly think of anything that would trouble him more. So, he'd rather have thought that his ancestor was owned by, say, Jefferson Davis, who was known for being a benevolent master? Dude, it's still slavery! It's bad no matter who owned Sharpton's great-grandfather!

Slavery is treated as ancient history in this country, and by our standards, it is; we're such a young country, anything that happened before 1865 is ancient. But when you consider that we're still only three generations removed from it after 142 years, and when you realize that the racism, intolerance, and mistrust that slavery promoted still affects this country, you have to understand that it is still an issue that Americans have to deal with. Black Americans are criticized for complaining about the present and blaming it on the past, but what happened long ago can and does still affect our behavior and our attitudes today. Ask the Germans, who still have to deal with the legacy of the Holocaust.