No matter how we look at it, racism hurts us all. In this country, racism stems from slavery and its aftermath. While slavery has been abolished here for many years, the pain, the shame, and the blame of it haven’t. The feelings linger, and we don’t know what to do with them, except inflict them on each other and ourselves—at times.
People of both races—black and white—have tried talking about these feelings among themselves and with people of another race, but these discussions too often still lead to even more unresolved feelings and increased frustration and hostility.
The fact of the matter is there are no intellectual words that can express the pain of slavery, and there is no apology that can take that pain away. As awful as it was, nothing can change the fact that slavery is a part of our history. The question now is what do we do today?
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