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.

Stevenson’s “Just Mercy,” depicts a narrative about his journey through law school and his encounters with prisoners on death row. To give some background, Stevenson is an African American man who participated in an internship with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC) while he was at Harvard Law School in 1983. The story begins with his story of his first interaction with a “condemned man.” On the way there, he met Steve Bright, the director of SPDC who assisted him during his internship. One of the things that Bright told Stevenson when he doubted his abilities was, “‘Bryan… ‘capital punishment means “them without the capital get the punishment.” ‘We can’t help people on death row without help from people like you.’” (Stevenson, 6) This quotation stuck out to me because Bright had a unique perspective on what capital punishment was — one that I was not exposed to before. Capital punishment, in dictionary terms, is deemed as “the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime.” However, Bright puts a twist on these words and states that it is those who do not have capital, or wealth, that receive the punishment. It is all about status.

Later on in the story, Stevenson tells the story of the murder of Ronda Morrison, a girl of a respected family and seen as “perfect” in everyone’s eyes. Her murder came as a shock to everyone. Additionally, there was also another atrocious murder of Vickie Lynn Pittman, a woman in the neighboring county. However, the news and impact between these two young women were drastically different. “While the death of Vickie Pittman was news, it failed to compare with the continuing mystery surrounding the death of Ronda Morrison. Vickie came from a poor white family, several of whose members were incarerated; she enjoyed none of the status of Ronda Morrison.” (Stevenson, 32) There were a couple things that struck out to me. Vickie came from a white family, which at the time had a significant social advantage, but it seems as if her race had no impact on the news coverage. Furthermore, she had family members who were incarcerated. It made me wonder if this was a heavier factor in the report than race. Then, I realized that it mentioned she had come from a poor family. It was about status all along, just like how Bright had touched on. Ronda had received more attention because she had come from a more affluent family while Pittman was not covered as much because of her background. These were two similar unfortunate events that occurred, but the impact of each of these on society was based on a social hierarchy, and just seemed unfair overall.

Stevenson also participated in an interview with Fresh Air. He made a couple points that raised some questions for me. For example, he states, “We passed the 13th Amendment that prohibits involuntary servitude, enforced slavery. But it doesn’t say anything about ending this narrative racial difference. And because of that, I don’t think slavery ended in 1865. I think it evolved. And this wasn’t a narrative we actually articulated” (Stevenson). I believe what he meant by this was that even though we have disintegrated the violence aspect of racial injustice, there are still small elements lingering in our society. There are still people who are racist — people who discriminate others for the sole reason of the color of their skin tone. There is still a current history of racial violence in America, even if not always physical. Verbal abuse is still apparent within our country. This not only applies to race, but also one of wealth and status. Stevenson also explains, “Today, we have a legal system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re poor and innocent. And I just think when you understand this history of racial violence and lynching, you begin to ask a different question about some of these contemporary issues” (Stevenson). Stevenson attempts to raise awareness of the racial and economic disparities that come into play through the mistreatment of underrepresented communities. We can tie this to the video, “The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained.” This video explains how schools are intentionally funneling African American students into the criminal justice system through acts such as giving harsh disciplines for simple misdeameanors, such as talking back or insubordination. However, white students were more likely to receive discipline for harsher acts, like smoking, instead of the smaller ones. It was shown that students who received greater punishment were more likely to be incarcerated in the future. I think that there was an underlying discrimination in this case, but instead of being rich or poor, it relates to race. Why were African American students receiving more severe punishments for minor wrongdoings than their white peers? This still baffles me, but it is apparent that there is still some ounce of racial history associated with this action which would facilitate the current issue of mass incarceration.

Another quotation made by Stevenson that I found interesting was, “We’ve given up on rehabilitation, education, and services for the imprisoned because providing assistance to the incarcerated is apparently too kind and compassionate. (Just Mercy, 15). Another statement that relates to this goes as, “We’ve instutionalized policies that reduce people to their worst acts and permanently label them, ‘criminal,’ ‘murderer,’ ‘rapist,’… identities that cannot change regardless of their circumstances of their crimes or any improvements they might make in their lives. This made me wonder if the reason why peoeple are unwilling to help those who are incarcerated is because of how they are seen objectively. People are less likely to help those who have been deemed as a criminal, therefore there is a smaller chance of solving the issue of mass incarceration.

So What? Stevenson redefines what it means to be a person of color in America by reiterating the history of African Americans and how much injustice people had to go through in order to get the the status we are at today — but even that is still not in perfect condition. In “Just Mercy,” Stevenson speaks about his frightful experience with an encounter with a cop. He had been confronted by an officer without a legal reason, to which the officer drew a gun on him. “When I replayed the whole incident in my mind, what bothered me most was the moment when the officer drew his weapon and I thought about running… The more I thought about it, the more concerned I became about all the young black boys and men in that neighborhood. Did they know not to run? Did they know to stay calm and say, ‘It’s okay?’” (Stevenson, 42–43). His own history makes a large impact on the African American community because it depicts a fear that many of them have internalized, but as a reality. Stevenson knew what to do in that kind of situation, but not everyone else does. And what happens to the people who didn’t? They’re injured — killed even. For what reason? It could have been nothing of importance of all, like Stevenson’s case. The history behind this is crucial because it highlights the deep-rooted discrimination that is still apparent in the present. Yes, there is a larger critical consciousness of the injustice of underrepresented communities. Yes, there are more drastic measures taken for prejudices such as these — but is it enough? Not yet.

Now What? The most apparent social structure that inhibits the opportunities is the difference in the quality of education within the county. Students attend NGS in order to break down the barriers that are stopping them from growing to their best potential. Students come to NGS right after their primary schooling, which in my opinion takes an immense amount of determination and energy to do. This already demonstrates the strength and persistence of that the people of these communities have. Even reaching out to NGS itself is an act of courage because it tells those who undermine these groups that they are willing to work and fight against these disparities. While working with my student, I noticed that he was struggling to do certain assignments, such as English, but he still persisted and asked for help because he wanted to do well regardless of his discouragement. It was not only him, but all of the students there came from different educational backgrounds. It made me think about the extent of how important education must be for them, since it was the backbone for all of their futures. For many of us, education is a given and can even become a choice to receive once we reach our adult years. However, for these students, it may be their only option for a secure future. They are jumping over obstacles by creating their own opportunities instead of waiting for them to appear.