"Quitting the Slave Trade Now Is the Best Chance of Preventing Tyranny, Ethnic Strife, and Low Economic Performance"

I recently heard that National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice refers to slavery as America's "birth defect". I find that an apt metaphor. A birth defect is something that a child must learn to overcome if it ever expects to grow. Strains of that particular birth defect persist in America today, alas, but the person of Ms. Rice, herself a descendant of slaves, is itself a sign for reasoned hope.


The other reason I like that description is because it breeds an interesting analogy: What is the cause of most birth defects? Trauma in the womb. So who can we blame for our birth defect, if not our parent nations, especially the ones who most loudly denigrate our racism, as though the discovery of the North American Continent compelled Europeans to the trade in West Africans. It's easy to have wonderful race relations when your nation is homogenous. 'Course, Europe isn't so homogenous anymore. I haven't seen that they're dealing with it any better, have you?


Yes, it's passing the buck. I only offer it as a tonic to certain preachiness.