“People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It’s THAT hard. If God said in plain language, “I’m giving you a choice, forgive or die,” a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”
What an honest view of humanity. Although the book ends while we only see a glimmer of hope that racism will one day die, this really relates to what we discussed in class about the residing effects of slavery and racism. Although as a people, African Americans were declared “free,” they had been in a type of bondage that transcends the physical realm for so long that simply being declared free did not make them free. I think this view on forgiveness relates to that.
It was a two-way streak. African-Americans were not forgiving towards the white man that had kept them in bondage and abused their humanity for so long (and I mean really, can you blame them?) And the majority of the white man still viewed himself as “master” over this race. Since this was how things had been going on for so long, one cannot expect forgiveness to just happen overnight, but it is really sad to see the toll that un-forgiveness took, and the role it played in slaves truly being “freed.”
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