[dude1394]

Other than forcing ourselves to finally live up to our constitution, I'm not sure what impact african-americans had. We certainly went through a very viscious power stuggle during the civil-war and then later a little less bloody civil rights movement. I don't have much insight into what impact that has had in our culture. We certainly were at a tension in that we declared that all men are created equal and yet didn't live up to that. But that may have been the times as much as anything. So I don't have much comment on that.

As for our current time, no I don't think race is that relevant in our society. There are no legislative barriers to anyone of any race from achieving whatever their talents allow. There are issues of whether a certain race is propsering in comparison to others. But no outright racism is being practised in our governement(s). On the contrary, there is probably more destructive anti-discrimination going on imo. And the unexpected consequences of those policies are having a bigger impact than racist ones.

It seems that most races in the US have the same opportunity as others, what they do with that opportunity doesn't constitute racism imo. Probalby again more cultural issues than political.