Absalom, Absalom Lesson Plan

What does the story about Sutpen delivering a message to the plantation owner's house imply about how and why racism spreads?

Sutpen is humiliated when a Black man tells him that he has to go to the back entrance in order to deliver the message. At this point, he know that "he would have to do something about it in order to live with himself for the rest of his life." His anger is at first directed at the white owner, imagining how the man must have seen Sutpen's family "as cattle, creatures heavy without grace..." But soon he begins to focus on the fact that the Black man "never even [gave] me a chance to say it. Not even to tell it, say it." That is, he sees the Black...