I’m amazed at the argument people are using to support recent gaffes by presidential candidate Nikki Haley. First, she failed to admit that the Civil War was about slavery, and then she said that America was not racist.

Let’s recall a few historical facts. Europeans came to this hemisphere and wiped out the indigenous population, which consisted of “people of color.” Before America gained independence, Europeans built a racist “slave trade,” an economic engine that created wealth for white owners of black human beings. The founders of this “democracy” owned black people. The Constitution counted black slaves as only three-fifths of a human.

Jim Crow laws, black codes, convict labor, federal government-mandated redlining, poll taxes, and I could go on, but suffice it to say that racism is part of America’s foundation and its factual history. Racism is as American as apple pie.

So, it doesn’t matter what parents tell you, how far you think you’ve come, or whether it makes you feel bad, people; all people need to know the truth: the truth equals freedom.

 

I’m convinced that only when America is honest with itself and admits its past and present shortcomings will we start to approach those idyllic words in our founding document. Only then will we begin to become a “more perfect union.”