Now Its Time to Emancipate Minds

On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution became law. The Amendment abolished slavery as well as involuntary servitude. With the passing of the law, the "peculiar institution"of slavery became a thing of the past.

At least, it became a thing of the past in a legal sense. I am not entirely sure that it has become a thing of the past in a psychological sense.

I am reading a business book on organizations and their values. It is written by an American-born consultant who has lived in Canada for years. I know the author. He is intelligent, articulate, and genuinely interested in people. He is liberal enough to pass as a Canadian. He also refers to "race" in his book, even though race as a biological concept does not exist. (He uses it in the sense that people should be judged according to merit, not gender, age, or other characteristics, including race.)

The case of Michael Richards is an indication of how deeply ingrained the divide between white and black is in the American psyche. I have no idea how heckling can lead to racist, violent imagery, but that is exactly what happened. I somehow doubt Richards would have responded with comments about invading small countries and marching in unison if the hecklers had been of German stock. The fact that Richards used the "N" word is bad; the manner in which he came to use it is even worse.

A final bit of evidence of the deep psychological wound that still exists can be found in the December 4th issue of Macleans magazine, which profiled Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. The article addressed whether or not Obama, who has a white mother and an African father, is "black enough" to be considered black.

Apparently America cannot get beyond the "one-drop rule" (which states that if a person has even one drop of non-white blood, he or she is to be considered coloured). I think this is a shame -- and a danger. As someone who likes Americans and wishes them well, I think it is time that they emancipated their minds from this artificial construct of race. It is time to fully accept that all men and women are created equal.