Exodus

We look up at the high southern sky ... We scan the kind black faces we have looked upon since we first saw the light of day, and, though pain is in our hearts, we are leaving. -Richard Wright

As we have seen Wilkerson strategically places a quote before each chapter.  This quote by Wright is one in particular that stood out to me, because it is able to convey so much in so few lines. The first thing that stands out to me is how Wright utilizes the plural voice, indicating that it is a collective experience, the pain experienced by blacks in the apartheid was collective.  He speaks up of looking up at the "high southern sky", which to me indicates a degree of the unobtainable.  The sky is is representative of the ideal  and it has been rendered unreachable.  "The kind black faces" which have become so familiar speaks to how oppression has served to unify and bring the blacks closer together.  The most compelling part of the passage to me is the underlying sense of hurt.  You would think that a people who have experienced so much pain in a region such as the south would begin to loath it and identify it with all that holds them back.  The blacks of the south truly saw it as their home.  The suffering of a people pales in comparison to their enduring hope and love, and that is truly beautiful.