I've been traveling around the country for the past few years studying America's divides — urban/rural, red/blue, rich/poor. There's been a haunting sensation the whole time that is hard to define. It is that the racial divide doesn't feel like the other divides. There is a dimension of depth to it that the other divides don't have. It is more central to the American experience.
One way to capture it is to say that the other divides are born out of separation and inequality, but the racial divide is born out of sin. We don't talk about sin much in the public square any more. But I don't think one can grasp the full amplitude of racial injustice without invoking the darkest impulses of human nature.
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