3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets
Imagine waking up one day and just wanting to hang out with your best friends. You go out, you’re laughing, listening to music and just having a good time. The innocence of driving around with your friends is a thing that we all experience as young adults. During that time we are not worried about being in danger or dying. A young man named Jordan Davis thought he was doing just that when his life was robbed from him at the age of 17. Jordan Davis was hanging out with three of his best friends when an argument with Michael Dunn, 45 year-old white man, over a distaste for the “thug” music Davis and his friends were playing cost him his life.
Racial bias is a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual’s understanding, actions, and decision. Racial bias, especially toward young black men, is unfortunately very prevalent in today’s society. 3/1 Minutes, Ten Bullets, Marc Silver’s documentary about the murder of Jordan Davis and the ensuing trial of Michael Dunn, showcases the dangers of racial bias and its effects on the African American community.
It is a widely accepted concept that people have the right to defend themselves if they feel that they are in danger in their homes or on personal property. The traditional self-defense laws included the duty to retreat, which is a duty that if a person is under attack, they should first seek retreat as a preferred alternative to using force to act in self-defense. In Florida, along with 21 other states as of 2011, there is the Stand Your Ground Law. (Everytown Shoot First) This law states that a person may use deadly force in self-defense without the duty to retreat when faced with a reasonable perceived threat.
Many agree that there is a right to defend yourself if there is an immediate threat to your safety. That is not the argument of the film. Instead the film focuses solely on the Stand Your Ground Law that permits individuals to act as judge, jury and executioner on any perceived threat, not accounting for an implicit or racial bias that so often clouds one’s judgement. There are many opportunities for someone to perceive that they are in danger when they actually aren’t. This could lead to an innocent person’s death as it has done before.
Stand Your Ground laws also expand self-defense to not only protecting your home but to the public arena. This means that a petty argument in a restaurant, bar or parking lot can turn deadly. This is what happened to Jordan Davis. Michael Dunn had the perception that he was in danger and shot at a car of unarmed teenagers and killing one. The Judge of the case told the jury to not consider race as a factor in the trial because Dunn never said anything racist during the confrontation leading up to Davis’ murder. The underlying issues that lead to the shooting, including rap music which is affiliated with black culture, represents the systematic issue of race that is ingrained in American history. As we have seen recently with the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and countless other like Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin, African Americans, especially males, are continuously targeted as perceived threats. This is dangerous perception that we need to combat.
In the film Ron Davis, Jordan’s father, is having lunch with some people including two of Jordan’s friends that were in the car the night of the murder. He explains that if someone has never come into contact with a black person before, the only perception people have of black people is what they see in the media and when they eventually do, their thoughts are based on what they see on the TV. In a 2011 study, Media Representations & Impact on the Lives of Black Men and Boys, conducted by The Opportunity Agenda, negative mass media portrayals that are constantly reinforced in print media, on television and the internet shape public views of and attitudes toward men of color. also shows that these media distortions are multi-faceted, especially relative to real-world facts. For example, there is an overall underrepresentation of black men as experts or as reliable and relatable characters with fully developed backgrounds in fiction shows and films. In addition, “overwhelming evidence exists of exaggerated associations of African-American men to drug-related crime, unemployment and poverty.” (Guardian)
During the protest in Ferguson the news stations and papers described the scene as riots, before they actually were, and police unnecessarily used military grade riot gear. News has to show dramatic events to gain ratings. Rarely do you see the peaceful protesters on the news because peace is not newsworthy.
If a young white man is arrested for committing the same, or more serious crime, as a black man, news stations often show what is called “the yearbook photo.” Dressed in a nice suit and tie smiling, portraying the image of a nice person who made a mistake. When a young black man is arrested, or killed, news stations often show mugshots or photos with hoodies and their pants falling off. Young black men are prejudged by what people perceive them to be. The media needs to change how they portray black people on the television and newspaper. If people see that being black in America is not they will inherently have different impression of black people.
In a scene showing one of Dunn’s police interviews, he claims that he saw Jordan pull up a shotgun which in turn made him grab his gun out of the glove compartment. When the detectives tell Dunn that there was no gun in the vehicle, Dunn says that it looked like a barrel and it could have been just a stick. When the detective asked if it was just his imagination Dunn flusters a little and says, “anything is possible I guess.”
Jordan Davis did not have a weapon.
A year after the enactment of Stand Your Ground, justifiable homicides increased by 53 percent. In 2013 a year after the murders of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Dunn, justifiable homicides increased by 200 percent. There is also racial disparity. When an older white man shoots a younger black man with whom he had no prior relationship, the shooting is determined justifiable 49% of the time. Yet when the situation is reversed, and an older black man shoots a younger white man with whom he had no previous relationship, the homicide is only judged justifiable 8% of the time.
In his first trial Michael Dunn was charged with three counts of attempted murder. The jury couldn’t decide about the most important charge of first-degree murder. It was declared a mistrial and a couple months later the second jury found Dunn guilty of first-degree murder which holds a minimum of life in prison without parole. Jordan Davis eventually saw justice but he is in the minority.
The racial bias that was spotlighted in “3 ½ Minutes, Ten Bullets” is all around us and is not going away without a fight. There is constantly a conversation about race, but maybe it needs an adjustment. People need to have a honest discussion with themselves about their racial bias and not be afraid to talk about it. There needs to be diversity and education in schools for children to learn from a young age about accepting and realizing differences in people. If people are exposed to diversity at a young age when they grow older they will be inherently more accepting of others. Researchers have documented that students’ exposure to other students who are different from themselves and the novel ideas and challenges that such exposure brings leads to improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.
Over the past couple of years countless people, including the President of the United States has said that there needs to be a national dialogue on race. While that dialogue needs to continue and advance, now is the time for action.
Jordan Davis should not have been killed that night. Racial bias needs to be addressed and combated in our country. We need to build a space where we can talk about race and not feel uncomfortable. Diversity needs to be celebrated and tolerance needs to be taught. Through better representation of people of color and education of racial bias, we can start to eradicate racial bias.
To view and find out more about the film visit: http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/3-1-2-minutes