A real-life American Horror Story is taking place this Halloween week in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Neighborhood resident, artist, and entrepreneur Dany Rose made several brown kraft paper Halloween decorations, some of which were children hanging from a noose with exaggerated cartoon-like expressions, inspired by the 2014 horror film “Annabelle”, to display outside the window of her home.

When she was told by a neighbor the imagery could be offensive, especially for people of color who lack the necessary “Annabelle” context and for whom any lynching imagery — however contextually benign — understandably evokes historically painful memories of cruel racial violence, Ms. Rose apologized sincerely and profusely for her ignorance and insensitivity, and immediately took the decorations down.

In any civilized society or well-functioning community, this should have been the end of the story. Lesson learned, apology given.

But if you’ve been watching 2019’s cancel cultural revolution, neither mistakes nor forgiveness is allowed. It’s one strike, and you’re out.

The self-appointed community spokespersons and activists began to stage demonstrations and protests, demanding her business, Artshack Brooklyn, close down, and Ms. Rose herself leave her job and move out of the community.

Reverend Kirsten John Foy joins a long list of charlatans who scour the city for incidents and accidents that can be exploited for maximum racial divisiveness. Has self-righteous indignation replaced righteous justice?

“ArtShack has got to go. You have no place in our community espousing racism and demeaning, and demagoguing and violently treating our children,” said Reverend Kirsten John Foy, founder of the Arc of Justice.

City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo also saw a chance to fan the flames. “We are not accepting apologies, we’re not accepting ‘I’m sorrys,’ we’re not accepting ‘I didn’t know any better,’” Cumbo said. “You’re not going to continue to disrespect my community with stories of ‘I didn’t know any better’ — you better learn to know better.”

The Halloween decorations in question were not intended to be racist. And intent matters. The response to injustice must be proportional to the harm threatened or suffered. The characters are not, nor are they intended to depict brown or black children; they are imaginary characters cut out of brown construction paper. The decorations were at worst thoughtless, and thoughtlessness demands education, not excommunication.

There was a time when religious and community leaders emulating Jesus, Gandhi, and Dr. King found value in forgiveness.

Now, forgiveness is seen as a weakness.

While I do not know Dany Rose personally, nor am I intimately familiar with Artshack Brooklyn, her actions, before, during, or after this incident does not bear the marks of racism or discrimination. She has been grossly, unfairly misrepresented by others, and her friends and colleagues have been silenced by the vitriolic mob.

Artshack Brooklyn is a non-profit ceramics and art studio offering ceramics, sewing, felting, screen printing, summer camp, workshops and parties for local children and adults. The organization’s Website, Facebook and Instagram pages are models of diversity, with people of every color and ethnicity represented. It is The Dream writ large. We want businesses exactly like this to move into underprivileged and underserved neighborhoods.

If Ms. Rose was an unrepentant racist she would have defiantly asserted her right to express herself in whatever manner, however offensive she deemed appropriate or simply called it “fake news” and blamed the media.

Instead, by all accounts, she removed the decorations immediately and apologized to everyone. Ignorance or thoughtlessness is not a symptom of white privilege, as some have suggested, it is a contagion we all fall victim to at one time or another in our lives, so it’s probably best to save our outrage for the outrageous.

Dany Rose chose to move to a racially diverse community, she started a non-profit business in a racially diverse community. In an area long-plagued by crime, and middle-class flight, Bed-Stuy is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance. It is not only because of gentrification that things are improving, but because the character of the Bed-Stuy community wants, and demands, a better, brighter future for their children.

When we open our hearts to good people with good intentions and welcome these people into our community, good things happen for everyone. And when our new neighbors fall short of our expectations, as clearly happened here, we lift them up and dust them off, we don’t kick them when they are already down — that is for thugs and cowards.

Co-founder of Artshack Brooklyn, McKendree Key, only added to the perversion of reasonableness by vowing to “address the systemic racism that inherently pervades white-owned businesses in historically black neighborhoods.”

Et tu, McKendree?

If this is what “systemic” and “pervasive” racism by white-owned businesses looks like, we are doing pretty well in 2019, or any other time.

An unforgiving disposition cedes to the most extreme and fringe elements in society the power to ruin lives, businesses, and communities. Hardening the heart divides blacks and whites, men and women, and Democrats and Republicans more than any Halloween display ever can.

What makes the actions of the community leaders and protestors in this case so insidious and so destructive to the goal of racial equality is that finding racism where it isn’t, inhibits our ability to identify and combat racism where it really is.

We can and must demand more from ourselves and our leaders.