I wonder if your two points are intertwined.
The white man's control of America in the 1950s had some very dark sides to it.
Yet it was 7 slaves freed for every white soldier's death.
Yet it was a white man's Congress that pushed the13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments.
Yet it was a white man's SCOTUS that opined in Brown.
Yet it was a white man's Congress that passed the Civil Rights and Voting acts of 1964 and 1965.
And, finally, it took white marshals and feebs pointing their weapons in the face of the KKK etc and saying "stand down or die."
Let's have some balance here.
The improvements in American culture were noted.
It is true that slavery was common everywhere until European enlightenment renounced it and the world followed. Unfortunately, in this country the small egos of the slave owners in the south forced action on a large scale by the central government and that has echoed down US history, reinforced by the great conflagrations of the twentieth century.
Common rights under the constitution have been protected by the federal government, but it has turned in other ways against freedom.
Today, with the almost dictatorial powers the two major parties have allocated themselves, we have undeclared illegal wars, abusive corporate interference, excessive spending on the wrong things and not enough on the proper.
The term used ("white man's") upsets me. I prefer to think of these advancements that did take place being the result of a spirit, an attitude, a use of human intelligence common to all who think.
