Chapter Six, A Victim Hearing Summary and Analysis

The TRC is charged with providing a complete picture of human rights violations. South African has been a "pigmentocracy," rule based on the pigment of skin, which is a totally arbitrary feature of human biology on which to base racial superiority. Apartheid supporters could not plead ignorance. They went to church, read the Bible, and pretended to be Christians. They deliberately missed those parts of the New Testament where the infinite worth of human beings are endorsed.

Tutu always sees the struggle for racial equality and freedom as a religious struggle. He and others act on the imperatives of their faith. As a child, however, Tutu grew up accepting apartheid. He saw blacks often arrested for not holding the appropriate passes. The most dehumanized aspects of racism arose through the "daily pinpricks" of...