Why don't Americans celebrate Civil Rights success more?

[Reaganfan]

When you think about the history of slavery and how we abolished it and came so far, and just a couple decades after the Civil Rights era we had a twice elected African American President, how come Americans don't seem to celebrate our successes but rather focus on negatives and work that hasn't been done yet?

It's like a kid going from having all "F" grades on his report card to all but one "A" grades and getting yelled at because one subject is still an "F". It doesn't make sense to me.

[Kamala]

Because it's still insufficient?
It's not going from all Fs to As and one F on a report card, it's like going from 6 Fs to like 3 Cs and 3 Ds. Sure, it's progress, but there's still work to be done.

[7,052,770]

We do celebrate it a lot.

[Indy Texas]

The fact that people like you hated our first black president as much as you did and then nominated and elected Donald Trump was proof enough that the Civil Rights movement was not as successful as we thought it was.

[Maxwell]

Well then maybe people like you shouldn't have pouted and fought any time a state wanted to celebrate Martin Luther King day, a day pretty much dedicated to recognizing him and the accomplishments of the civil rights movement.

As others have said, we have not gone far enough for the civil rights of people.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

The same reason why we don't celebrate at the 18th mile of a marathon.

[Santander]

I don't think you're making an appropriate analogy. While my views on this subject obviously diverge in some ways from most Atlas posters, liberty has never been expanded by resting on laurels and celebrating the past. In fact, that sounds like a recipe for the rise of tyranny.

[HisGrace]

Funny that a Republican would post this when they always bitch about MLK day and Black History Month.

A lot of people genuinely aren't happy that we've made the progress we have, so naturally they don't want to celebrate it. Not really a hard argument to make after this weekend and the president and much of the right wing's response.

[Badger]

When you think about the history of slavery and how we abolished it and came so far, and just a couple decades after the Civil Rights era we had a twice elected African American President, how come Americans don't seem to celebrate our successes but rather focus on negatives and work that hasn't been done yet?

It's like a kid going from having all "F" grades on his report card to all but one "A" grades and getting yelled at because one subject is still an "F". It doesn't make sense to me.

Because, Naso, every other post you ever make indicates there's so so much more to be done.

Ask 100 black people (scary, I know) if they think prejudice or the lack thereof in America gets an A grade. See how many agree.

I realize your response will be something along the lines of "black leaders" "liberals" "race card" "appreciate America" rather than "Gee, maybe I can learn something from people different from me with different life experiences and discover things I thought were true might not be". But hey, it's a shot.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

well it would be great to talk about civil rights successes without being told that the CRA never should've been passed because it infringes upon the free market's god-given right to deny service to black people because reasons

[Beet]

When you think about the history of slavery and how we abolished it and came so far, and just a couple decades after the Civil Rights era we had a twice elected African American President, how come Americans don't seem to celebrate our successes but rather focus on negatives and work that hasn't been done yet?

It's like a kid going from having all "F" grades on his report card to all but one "A" grades and getting yelled at because one subject is still an "F". It doesn't make sense to me.

The left exists to criticize, not to celebrate.