I suggest that rednecks and elitists alike take a look at the US constitution, especially the preamble, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. This is the LAW of the land--irrespective of "the way we've always done it around here" in either the North or the South

Regarding the previous dozen or so posts, read Ira Berlin's "Many Thousands Gone." Berlin convincingly shows how the idea of race is a social and historical construction, and NOT based on biology. Of course, there are biological variants, but these do not account for what defines a racial identity.

It's time to move beyond the ideas of 19th century social darwinism and examine the actual forces that cause our society to think the way it does...