America is a land of liberty and opportunity, and has admirably served as “a city upon a hill” in the words of Puritan John Winthrop, who led the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the New World. The U.S. continues to attract freedom-seekers from around the world.
Yet America’s greatness has come at a cost. Indeed, the nation founded on the principle of individual liberty enshrined slavery in its founding document. Although the U.S. has come far in the 150 years since the great civil war which destroyed that system, racism lives on.
It is a legacy which white Americans like me can never truly understand.
The point is not that America is pervasively racist or uniquely flawed. Nor does the existence of racism justify creating a political spoils system which creates new injustices. However, those who love America the most, and who are most determined to preserve a free society which protects individual liberty, must address America’s flaws.
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