"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Our discussion of the past and memory in Beloved reminded me of a pretty famous William Faulkner quote that I think conveys a similar idea to what Morrison explores: "The past is never dead. It's not even past." This quote comes from his novel Requiem for a Nun, and as in Beloved, argues that the past continues to affect us and even exists in some tangible way, so we cannot escape it. The quote was famously used by Obama in a speech in 2008 that addressed the issue of racism. It's perhaps unsurprising that Faulkner would have a similar conception of the past and history as one of the leading figures of the early 20th century Southern Renaissance movement of literature, which often dealt with the burden of history, particularly in the context of the South and its very recent memories of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In dealing with these historical institutions and events that left an immense impact on Southern society, Faulkner apparently came to view the past in a similar way to Morrison. I think this quote is really important to consider in how it applies to our own time. Looking back to the 20th century, I think everyone would agree that the past of slavery was not at all past, given the rigid structure of segregated society put in place by Jim Crow Laws. Since we are currently living in the present, it might be less obvious, but I think the racism that still exists in American society today acts in much the same way. Even if the most blatant Jim Crow-type forms of institutionalized racism are gone, their impact has not gone away and they continue to shape our society. Whenever we think about issues in our own society, it's important to consider the historical context because that historical context is still an active force in the present.