For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       Each era requires new abolitionists. First, however, let us consider the old. The slave trade was abolished in all British territories exactly 200 years ago this month, due mainly to religious embarrassment and an increasingly literate and informed population, which now knew too much for the holocaust to continue. New-fangled sympathies for other humans emerged. From here on, we would all be nice to each other. There was a great deal of ground to make up, however. Over the previous three centuries, 12 million Africans had been transported to the Americas as slaves; and like the trains which carried Jews to Auschwitz, 3.5 million of these Africans had been carried in British ships between 1662 and 1807. We still live the maelstrom. The ANC government in South Africa, for instance, applauds the repulsive work of Mugabe in Zimbabwe, because although the ANC hate injustice, about which they know much – they apparently hate whites even more. And the current film, Amazing Grace, has sailed into similarly turbulent seas. It is the life story of the abolitionist William Wilberforce, and has opened to much commercial success in America. But as the noble white man saves the poor black people, you can see why it sticks painfully in a few throats. Looks like it's White History month again. Speaking in Zanzibar, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of the terrible possibility of looking at another human being and not seeing their real need and what their suffering is. Certainly people looked at the slaves for a long time and felt nothing. Even John Newton after his conversion did not initially envisage giving up the trade. He was more vexed about his youthful lust and bad language. "I was exceedingly vile indeed," he wrote, referring not to his callous day job, but remembering the day when he took on the ship's crew in a swearing competition – and won. Every generation has its blind spots, of course. So what might be our blind spot today? The answer is simple: labels. Given the sweet mysteries of unity at our finger tips, it is remarkable that like a deranged conference organiser, we continue to stick labels on people. Muslim? Tory? Hindu? Woman? Gay? Child? Christian? Single? Black? Orthodox? American? Middle class? – the sad list of separation is endless. Labels are not just stupid, describing nothing of ultimate significance in a human. They quickly become evil, unleashing formidable horrors, personal and state, that become possible when someone isn't in our club – all bitchy, vindictive and sour. Beyond labels, however, where all are merely human, it's amazingly graceful – all for one and one for all. Amid our global slavery to labels, we are the New Abolitionists. More writings © Simon Parke