History and Racial Injustice

What? The history of racial violence in America has turned many heads towards reformation of our current justice system. However, how much has history truly changed? We will analyze this through Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy” and his interview through Fresh Air.

The Importance of Racial Injustice History

After reading through the reading “Just Mercy”, listening to the Fresh Air interview with Bryan Stevenson and watching the school to prison pipeline video, it provided a lot of information about why the history of racial violence in this country can’t be…

It’s Time to Change the Narrative

What?

After reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, listening to the Fresh Air Interview with Bryan Stevenson, and watching the school to prison pipeline video, I feel that I have a better understanding of how the history of racial violence in…

A History of Racial Violence

What?

The history of racial violence in this country cannot be separated from the issue of mass incarceration and racial injustice. Mass incarceration is a major issue that is affecting the Black community. Structural racism exposes Blacks to more…

To Change a Narrative

The first time a book ever left a strong and lasting impression on me was Harper Lee’s famous To Kill a Mockingbird in the 7th grade, but not in the way I was expecting it to. Before we started reading, we were given a brief synopsis of the story, namely about how the story was told…

Tackle the System, Don’t Shackle the Victim

In NPR’s interview of Brian Stevenson, lawyer and author of Just Mercy, he talks about his reasoning behind the Equal Justice Initiative, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Legacy Museum, both museums commemorating African Americans who…

Connections : A Series of Notes

• In the very beginning of the podcast, Bryan Stevenson talks about incarceration and how the court doesn’t much care about justice when it comes to race — they think it’s acceptable to put up all-white juries to represent majority black areas. I found myself thinking of…

We Need Change

In this week’s assigned reading, Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson starts his piece by explaining how he had the opportunity as a Harvard law student to take a one-month course about race and poverty litigation while doing work on social justice. In this course, Stevenson…

Critical Reflection #5 — History Matter

“Presumptions of guilt, poverty, racial bias, and a host of other social, structural, and political dynamics have created a system that is defined by error, a system in which thousands of innocent people now suffer in prison” (Stevenson, p. 16). Many people…

Race Oblivion

Stevenson is a lawyer for criminal justice who was on the podcast of Fresh Air and wrote the book Just Mercy. In both the podcast and his book, he mentions his personal story of when he faced the police at gunpoint. In Just Mercy, Stevenson compares the stories from the past to the ones that we face…

Legacy of Slavery

What? Events from the past regarding racial violence are very similar to today’s events. These events can’t be separated because they fit into the same category of racial inequity. Times may be different but society’s actions remain the same. In Just Mercy, Stevenson describes his meetings with…

The New Caste System

After listening to the interview, the main takeaway that I experienced was that in America we are not apologizing for the many wrongdoings and injustice that was done to African Americans here. Bryan Stevenson gives the examples of how in South Africa there is an apartheid museum depicting…