These two stories are about hatred and finding a way out of that feeling of racial inferiority, on the part of Nathan McCall, and his feeling about the inevitability of always being judged on the basis of his race; and a story about coping with the sureness of approaching death and learning to live with the inevitability of it.
"God, Nate, you think about race all the time. Give it a rest, man. It ain't healthy." (McCall 346) When McCall replies that he is not angry but "fuckin' furious (346) he is venting, and releasing that anger. McCall then finally realizes that he DOES care what people, especially white people think. But, at the same time, "I learned something from Danny that hadn't been clear to me before. I learned how little even the most educated white folks really know about blacks" (347).
Morrie, in remembering some of the people that are no longer around, and the opportunities he himself missed tells Mitch: "Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Do not waita. The tension of oppositesa. Things pulling in different directions" (Albom 167)
Here are two very different people- an old, dying white man, and a young black man, trying to distance himself from both his criminal past and his feeling of racial prejudice. Morrie would have explained that continuing hatred doesn't solve anything. The worth of an individual is all that matters. It is a rather unpleasant yet human trait that too many people generalize- about race, about religion, even about appearance, about health and disease. Surely, Morrie can understand that there are people in his life who now avoid him because they know he is dying. And yet, Nathan is alive and healthy and bright and ambitious. Make the most of one's individuality and abilities. Be creative, is something Morrie would have said. The old clichT about "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me" is certainly applicable here.
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