After I read this short prose, the first thing I did was I looked up the writer to see her race and when exactly she had written the poem. The language and hate at the beginning of the prose is so strong, and is in sharp contrast to the remorse at the end. I wanted to know if the poem was a true story or fiction, and at what point in her life she had written the story. Turns out she wrote it spontaneously, well into her career as a writer. However two facts shocked me. The first was that the ‘partner’ referred in the story was actually her blond German ex-husband. Then why had the truck driver called them both ‘niggers’, even when it was the man who had spoken against the truck driver’s driving? This just showed me that the driver harbored so much hatred for black people that anyone who associated with them deserved to be the recipient of negative emotions. Secondly the story took place in Minnesota, rather than the south where racism is more prominent. As a result, the poem made me conscious (again) of the segregation that still exists in this country and in the world, and of the struggle that not only the writer but all black people had to go through in order to own a rightful place in society. Fortunately, the end of the story gave me some relief- the perpetrators of these hateful acts do repent- (hopefully, for one can choose to interpret that the driver was apologizing only to the German and not the couple). It usually doesn't happen within the space of an afternoon like in the story, but it is a long path that was started decades ago and is still in progress. One day, harmony between races shall be complete.
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