When Dylann Roof was arraigned in Charleston on murder charges, members of his victims' families stated that they forgave him. Their words clearly gratified many white Americans, like GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, because they offered an escape from more controversial subjects. Asked what the country should do to prevent similar incidents in the future, Santorum refused to mention gun control, anti-racism education or efforts to reduce systemic racial inequality. What gave him "more hope than anything," he said in an ABC interview, was the way the family members showed "true forgiveness." Black people offering forgiveness to a white racist killer, he believed, revealed that "the way to overcome all of this horrible violence is through reconciliation.
Forgiveness won't atone for 400 years of racial violence in America
