Slavery was and remains a potent signifier of American freedom. With the emancipation and then suffrage of male former slaves, otherness that defined community bifurcated into resentment of African-American freedom on the one hand and resistance to female emancipation on the other. Recently, these definitions of the other have been joined by a visibly active hatred of gender difference and variant sexualities. Black men and homosexuals are subject to beatings and murder, women of all colors and sexual orientation are subject to rape. This has not changed since slavery was abolished, though the laws are in place to deny it and every once in awhile some particularly ugly murder or rape will generate a flurry of outrage.
Freedom is the American religion.
If we are to keep the faith, we need to acknowledge freedom's historical limits and appreciate its contemporary subtleties, opportunities, and hypocrisies. Let's keep the conversation going.