Congrats, not sure if that was recent or not, but my wife got her's in 2009. It was a great day for her, and all of us.
She came from a small town in Mexico. Your other post(s) really speak volumes on why people come here to the USA for freedom, and that although there is 'some' racism here, it does not compare to other countries from which they are fleeing from. When people come into the country through merit and hard work, they respect the country a lot more...they value what the country offers, more than when they just get stuff handed over to them. It's like the rich kid who gets a Corvette or BMW from his parents...they will not understand the value of that car, 1) Like a kid that works and saves for it (a little help is fine imo),and 2) Until they lose it and have to start buying it on their own. It's the same with coming here to the States....if you get everything without working for it, when you get it for free, you get greedy and expect more and don't learn how to, or value, the country. I blame the politicians for this, as it is handed over like candy for political gain and power. Then you have the next generation not knowing how to teach and instill hard work into their own kids and then the rotten cycle repeats itself until 'stuff' is taken away and they have to work for it.
Anyway, got a little off topic. I've been to Mexico probably like 1000 times. There are great people there, but people are blind if they think racism doesn't exist there, or other countries. I can tell you that a lot of people in Mexico frown on or dislike darker skinned or black people....Not all, but a great deal do. It may be different geographically in the country, i',m not sure. However, I can tell you that they dislike getting dark from the sun because they do not want to be associated or look like a black person. It can be extreme down there to the point that they cover themselves in the middle of summer, or even while driving in the car. I've seen it first hand on how they talk, and it surprised me to be honest. The last time I was in her town, I had people drive by calling me racist names. She didn't even recognize it until I told her to pay attention to it.
The whole slavery thing i'm not an expert on, but I do know that not all slaves were treated bad in the USA, even through my own genealogy research. Now whether people consider black people as slaves from whites (also Latino and other blacks) who treated them good, as being bad, I have no idea. I have not found anybody in my own family genealogy who owned slaves themselves, but maybe as i go back further they did. They all lived in the south. I know doing research, I see a lot of slave owners who wrote in their wills to not have any mistreatment or cruelty placed upon their slaves, and they even go so far as to note how good of people they were, and some/many were gifted possessions from the wills. In a perfect world it would have been better to not have any slavery at all, but I think a lot of these slaves who were treated well and not mistreated, really should not be lumped in with the scumbags who did mistreat them. Just so it's said, I don't condone any form of slavery, but times are different now than hundreds of years prior, and like BT stated, it was a part of every single country, so it's wrong to keep a blind eye to everybody but our country. It should be noted that other races like the Irish, Portuguese, Italians and people of all colors were not always treated with respect depending on where they lived.
I know that when my mom's family came to America from Portugal in the late 1890's, my GG-grandfather and great-grandfather loved and respected the country so much, that they made sure their kids spoke English. They still celebrated their Portuguese heritage and ways and holidays, but they never viewed this country as racist, nor did they talk bad about it, nor disrespect the flag and not celebrate American holidays. In fact, if you look back at many immigrants who came to the country during times of war, they loved the flag and country so much, and the freedom it stood for, that they were proud to fight and die as Americans....it's one of the greatest stories told. This newer generation(s) have no clue how much America has stood for Freedom, despite not always being perfect. No other country is better than America.
Haha....I don't even know where I was going with all my post....just speaking out loud.