As you point out, most slaves were not captured in Africa by white men but sold by other Africans. Should we make the argument that a race that sells itself deserves what it gets? Whites killed millions in gas chambers because killing them in person sent the guys pulling the triggers into the insane asylum. How do humans get there, black or white?

Are Germans evil? Are blacks criminal? Trying to solve the present by a re-assessment of history never goes well, seems to me. Just another form of an endless ethnic feud. I wasn't there.

I enjoy your essays. But do you want a reader who feels good about themselves for judging the dead with you? Of do you want readers who look at life as being free from the past?

We are never completely free from the past, of course. My 2-cents is slavery added to the value of the U.S., in farming work performed, but that asset was destroyed by the civil war. Net-net, slavery was not a positive.

Racism today has nothing to do with that. Racism is everywhere in the world, in all colors, and always exists between two economically struggling classes of people. Yes, Africans didn't invent pawnship or slavery ;)

I'm 59. Through the efforts of forward thinking whites in 1960s blacks were afforded protection from systematic racism. I can't think of a bigger success story than what I have witnessed first hand. It's sad that people like Clarence Thomas can't enjoy their success unencumbered. We must always struggle against anything that stands in the way of someone's life, liberty and justice (yes, I wanted to comment on that essay of yours too).

I can't fix anyone through a history lesson. I applaud your efforts. But in the end, trying can eat you up. Remember, you're a writer first. And writers have no color or sex except in their own head.

Write on!