A qualitative investigation of narratives of Black forgiveness through the lens of critical race theory

Abstract

Through a Critical Race Theory perspective, we investigated how racial ideology, in particular colorblind ideology, was present in Black forgiveness narratives for racial violence. We collected United States news articles from two high profile cases of Black forgiveness (N = 122), the shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the killing of Botham Jean. We used a thematic analysis to address an overarching research question of: In what ways are these Black forgiveness narratives reflective of racial ideologies that may pressure or misrepresent Black forgiveness? Our results suggested that colorblind ideologies were present in representations of Black forgiveness. Colorblind representations of Black forgiveness ignored and diminished the racial context of the cases, reinforced false equivalencies through Christian messaging, perpetuated Black forgiveness as a palatable path to peace, and maintained a perception of White virtue and morality despite racial violence.