“It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshippers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.

Mrs. Turner, like all other believers had built an altar to the unattainable—Caucasian characteristics for all. Her god would smite her, would hurl her from pinnacles and lose her in deserts, but she would not forsake his altars” (p. 145).

In her book, White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo describes the impact that prejudice and discrimination have within communities of color: “People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against their own and other groups of color, but this bias ultimately holds them down and, in this way, reinforces the system of racism that still benefits whites. Racism is a society-wide dynamic that occurs at the group level.”

Put this passage from the novel into conversation with DiAngelo’s quote (and, perhaps, also with the image above – William Blake’s painting “Cain Fleeing from the Wrath of God”). Find a way to express your ideas using words, images, or sound.