Democracy in America: HOW EQUALITY OF CONDITION CONTRIBUTES TO MAINTAIN GOOD MORALS IN AMERICA 11-4-2010 (Part 2)

 [Continued from Democracy in America: HOW EQUALITY OF CONDITION CONTRIBUTES TO MAINTAIN GOOD MORALS IN AMERICA 11-4-2010 (Part 1) sch 8/22/2023.]

This passage had me thinking how this might apply to a multiracial society.

...When a man and woman are bent upon marriage in spite of the differences of an aristocratic state of society, the difficulties to be overcome are enormous. Having broken or relaxed the bonds of filial obedience, they have then to emancipate themselves by a final effort from the sway of custom and the tyranny of opinion; and when at length they have succeeded in this arduous task, they stand estranged from their natural friends and kinsmen. The prejudice they have crossed separates them from all and places them in a situation that soon breaks their courage and sours their hearts.

If, then, a couple married in this manner are first unhappy and afterwards criminal, it ought not to be attributed to the freedom of their choice, but rather to their living in a community in which this freedom of choice is not admitted.

I dated two African-American women who expressed these same ideas, but in different words. I should have married one of them. 

What does this mean for democracy in America? I perceived during de Tocqueville's time, America was not quite the aristocratic democracy of Athens, nor quite the egalitarian wonder he claimed. We only began to overcome the barriers of race during my lifetime. Many do not like these barriers were removed and are looking to erect new barriers. (Why are so many African-Americans in prison? Why did Congress impose stiffer sentences for crack cocaine than for powder?) Perhaps, American democracy remains in the future.

sch

[Continued in Democracy in America: HOW EQUALITY OF CONDITION CONTRIBUTES TO MAINTAIN GOOD MORALS IN AMERICA 11-4-2010 (Part 3) sch 8/22/2023.]