Well, if you mean African-Americans, the Slave trade to the Americas began about then and continued for a good 200+ years so yes, they're not slaves anymore so that's an improvement. But they still haven't achieved parity with whites so that would indicate to me we're not really all that civilized. True enough though that if ownership and traffic of humans is your measure, we are more civilized.

Just an aside, my first introduction to Islam (not that I have had much exposure) I got from reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X – as told to Alex Haley. As an ignorant white boy from redneck country, it was an eye opener. Malcolm had a lot of good thoughts and many of the Islamic values he believed in probably really could’ve benefited the black communities. I finished that book thinking that Malcolm could have been a great man, leader, role model if he’d been better understood…and if white Christian America was more tolerant and less xenophobic.