Thoughts on Song of Solomon

I read Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon this past week for a class, and have come out of it feeling very depressed. The book is excellent in both its craft and its page-turning nature. What depressed me about it is that left me thinking there is no full solution to the problem of racial strife. The only character in the book that tries to fight against racism rather than trying to assimilate to the point of becoming white (Macon) or simply ignoring the issue (Pilate, Milkman) is Guitar, but he uses violent means to do so by attempting to avenge the killing of blacks with the killing of whites. This of course is not a helpful response to racism. But it raises the question, what is? In the fifty or so years since the modern Civil Rights movement began, legislation has improved the situation somewhat, but has still come nowhere near close to fixing the problem. Maybe it will take a full 300 years to completely heal the wounds of 300 years of slavery.