"Liberalism vs. Inegalitarian Traditions in American Political Culture, With
             Regards to Racial and Ethnic Minorities"
             American political culture is wrought with conflict over the competing traditions of liberalism and it's contradictory inegalitarian ideologies. Liberalism holds most of our political ideals, such as freedom, equality, and individualism, but these ideals often clash with the inegalitarian practices that remain from our troubled political past, for example sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism. Nowhere is this conflict more obvious than in issues relating to the many racial and ethnic minorities that make up America.
             The nation is founded on ideas such as "all men are created equal." However, America has historically been unfair to minorities. A prime example would be slavery. Not only did slavery infringe on the idea of equality, but it also stole away the freedom of the slaves, despite the fact that freedom from a despotic king was one of the reasons the founders enumerated for their departure from allegiance to the British crown ("Declaration of Independence"). Tocqueville feared that American "democracy" would never reach African-American's and that this was "the most formidable evil threatening the nation's future" (Smith, 1993, pg. 552).
             Mistreatment of African-Americans continued even after the 13th Amendment granted them freedom from oppression. According to Smith, "even after constitutional recognition of the humanity of blacks, Americans created new systems of racial inequality" (554). For example, despite having won the right to freedom, African-Americans still were not permitted to vote until the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870, even though the right to vote was seen as a fundamental principle of democracy. Yet even after the passage of the 15th, there was still much lacking in the way of "equality"...