History Doesn't Happen in a Vacuum
- William Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past" (77).
- In other words, that old cliché about history repeating itself is a cliché for a reason.
- So many of the racial inequalities still in existence today can be traced back to Jim Crow laws and the legacy of slavery.
- It's all so brutal, this lack of equality, the fact that the problems have persisted in such a way. Black people still tend to attend inferior schools, face horrific wage gaps, and are subjected to other forms of legalized discrimination.
- Where does it end, this "cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us?" (84). Black men are disillusioned, and the absence of opportunity leaves a gaping wound where other, less-productive sources infect and overwhelm, until an entire family is brought to its knees.
- Then, the cycle continues, until a "legacy of defeat [is] passed on to future generations" and we see "those young men and increasingly young women languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future" (89).
- It's not pleasant to remember that the things we're dealing with today were directly caused by the discrimination and prejudice that taints our past. African-Americans are angry, and that anger is not necessarily misplaced.
- Until we accept it, that our past is rather current and seriously informing our way of life, this "chasm of misunderstanding" will only grow wider, until it becomes impossible to cross (98).