America's original sin: Floyd death prompts historical soul-searchingA decapitated statue of Christopher Columbus in Boston, MassachusettsWASHINGTON - Confederate monuments are coming down and statues of Christopher Columbus are being toppled as Americans grapple with the ghosts of the country's racial history in the wake of George Floyd's death. But the death of the 46-year-old has also triggered a national soul-searching of the country's checkered past. Laura Edwards, a Duke University history professor, said "it's sinking in to people that these symbols have political meaning and are problematic in ways they had not fully appreciated. That was followed by the importation of slaves from Africa -- what Alan Kraut, a history professor at American University, called "the original sin that we've never been able to get beyond." "I think for a growing number of white Americans you are seeing more attention paid to the longer-term reasons that racial inequality persists in America," he said.

Source: Bangkok Post June 13, 2020 01:52 UTC