Inclusive Policies are Necessary to Honor the Contributions and Interdependence of America’s Diverse Populations

Abraham Lincoln once said that he was “in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” This and so many biased statements from America’s presidents and Founding Fathers in early history, reveal their primitive prejudices and the subjective nature of their thinking — in other words, they were human. Just like the nation’s primary means of transportation has evolved from horse-drawn carriages to fancy cars with engines, our combined social, psychological and emotional evolution is due for a serious tune up — on individual and collective levels.

We need to put into perspective the intellectual and personal blindspots of people who were placed on a pedestal as ultimate visionaries. We can now see their very real limitations — and how these impacted political decisions — in hindsight. That means recognizing the idiocy of ideas like suggesting that whole human beings (who clearly have autonomous bodies, minds and souls) can be realistically labeled as 3/5-ths human. All American leaders past and present were flawed — just like diverse human beings today. Imperfection does not require discounting all the positive things people have done even when we must assess accountability for historical wrongs.