Slavery has been with the world from almost the beginning, most likely as long as prostitution. First of all Slavery is and was wrong however usually when slavery is mentioned it's the What American Man that gets most of the blame for it existing. Slaves were sold originally by other Blacks in Africa and made their way to America. Racism unfortunately is alive and well today just as it has for many years. Racism also is not just of white American men but rather you will find just as many Black men or Mexican men or Asian men racist. The best we can do to fight racism is to attempt to look at every other person as God does which is as another created spirit (spirit within) in a human body that happens to be different than ours but that inner spirit is the same in all of us for there is no sex, race, or nationality of that inner spirit. Only then will we look at our fellow brother or neighbor as an equal and without prejudice.
My father lived in a time, different than today and I heard him use the "n-word" many times in life but never did he ever think twice about it and never did he ever use it in a negative manner. I doubt he ever thought twice about it being offensive to anyone but I dare say and truly believe he would have stopped saying it had he known how it was received by his fellow man. I do know my father was a very religious man, a Christian man, and I honestly believe he was never a racist man based upon his talks with me or everything I ever saw yet anyone that heard him speak the word would have assumed differently.
Even though I am white I do know racism for I have been on the receiving end of being treated differently just because I was white and was in an environment where my race was a minority. I guess the best cure for racism is "forgiveness" and understanding.