Author: Mary-Frances Winters

The impending U.S. presidential election looms large in the minds of many around the world as a fight for democracy. We are being reminded once again of just how fragile this experiment is: to be a democratic society that purportedly stands for freedom, equity, and justice. At the heart of the struggle is race. The fight for a multiracial democracy in the U.S. has been marked by violent clashes and systemic attempts to maintain white male domination, most notably since Reconstruction, a period after the Civil War when the U.S. government tried to address both the destruction of slavery and the preservation of the nation. Sadly, history continues to repeat itself.