JONNY STEINBERG: Nelson Mandela understood the subversive power of forgiveness
Our former president worked on his anger and turned it into something productive
We are forgetting Nelson Mandela in the very process of remembering him. Across the political spectrum we have begun to misrepresent who and what he was. For many young black people, he humbled himself before whites like an old Uncle Tom. For many middle-aged whites, he forgave and forgot everything, giving them a free pass.
The actual Mandela did neither of these; he was an angry man who forgot little, a racially proud man acutely aware that he was black. And the forgiveness he offered was a much trickier business than appeared at first sight. This is best illustrated, I think, by a story spanning a long stretch of time...
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