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Counter Stories: On hate and forgiveness

Leaving a sidewalk memorial
Gary and Aurelia Washington, center left and right, the son and granddaughter of Ethel Lance who died in a June 18, 2015, shooting, leave a sidewalk memorial in front of Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C.
David Goldman | AP

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American race relations are going through an incredibly challenging and turbulent period.

Repeated incidents of extreme police brutality have brought protesters into the streets in cities across the country.

And now, the killing of nine people inside an African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina has forced people once again to confront how racial hate is ingrained in the American character and identity.

The Counter Stories crew met with the Rev. Nazim B. Fakir, pastor at St. Peter's AME Church in Minneapolis.

They had an in depth conversation about the nature of racial hate and whether it can be uprooted, the ugly symbolism of the Confederate flag, how gun violence and racism are often intertwined, and the essence of forgiveness.