African American

and it makes me very sad. There is no question that ethnic groups other than African Americans have been persecuted, sometimes unto death, sometimes with the goal of wiping them from the face of the earth, and every instance of such unspeakable bigotry deserves our attention and our resolve to never let this happen again to anyone. That resolve is a large part of what I think it means to be a democrat.

Without disparaging or minimizing the truly ghastly suffering of other groups, I think it's important to remember the unique aspects of slavery--and when discussing other forms of bigotry, to remember the unique aspects of their suffering--particularly that part of slavery which removed people from another land based solely on the fact of skin color. What I'm trying to say is that Africans were treated as such commodity that captives who did not speak the same languages, whose religion and cultural habits were different, were tossed together into the hold of a ship, destroying family unity and tradition from the get-go.

Other ethnic groups--and I'm not sure we should call the Africans kidnapped into slavery an ethnic group because of the diversity of people stolen--have managed, over time, to preserve their heritage, their unique family relationships, their cultural traditions. Mistreatment of the most disgusting kind sometimes even strengthened these ties, as brave people fought hard to preserve what they treasured. African slaves never had this chance.

Once here, slave families--if they were "lucky" enough to have been taken together--were further disrupted in unspeakable ways, and we all are aware of the hell they were thrust into. I think the shattering of cultural groups when Africans were taken, right from the start, may be the greatest impediment of all for African Americans sold into slavery. It probably was not an intentional act; I believe nothing mattered to their kidnappers more than simply taking as many people as possible, and the fact that they were all thrown together was simply a by-product of the profit motive.

There is an exceptionalism to slavery, and we all know comparisons are invidious. There is an exceptionalism to the experience of all abused groups, and when we discuss them I would hope we could focus on what is being discussed, rather than creating distractions that tend to run to feelings that no one cares about someone else's suffering.