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 today. Through the comparisons, the reader can understand that society has not made an impact on racism. Stevenson mentions people who are African American, are often the targets for misconduct and violence just because of their skin color. The school-to-prison-pipeline video gives us statistics that this is true. In the video, the school that has more African Americans ends up with more security guards and a higher rate of arrests. “The amount of police officers have increased in schools and schools with officers have five times as many arrests” (School to Prison Pipeline). At the schools, the crime rate is low, but the officers and teachers suspend them for talking back and violating the dress code. Other schools with fewer African Americans do not get suspended for talking back in class or violating dress code policy. For African Americans, they are sent to the office for a minor problem and this is because society and the media have taught us to see African Americans as people who are unsafe to be around.

From the video, the statistics show the more the child gets suspended or in trouble, the higher the chance they will end up in prison. This is evident in the world today because the amount of African Americans in prisons is much higher than white people in prisons. Prison is also a place for people who are not able to afford the money to bail out. “Capital punishment means them without the capital get the punishment” (Stevenson, 6). People without money and who are not able to afford to get out of jail are the ones who get punished. Because of this problem, people of the lower class are the ones who end up in prisons. A majority of the lower class are people of color and that includes African Americans. Through this, we can see how the history of racial violence in this country can’t be separated from the current issue of mass incarceration and related issues of racial injustice and violence.

In the Fresh Air podcast, Stevenson delves into the problems of the problems he has to face as he started out as a lawyer. The reason he wanted to become a lawyer is because “the law had the power to achieve justice and opportunity that wasn’t possible otherwise” (Stevenson). He saw the injustice that many of the people faced and did not want to just sit there. This is a similar story to one of the kids in the NGS because she wants to become a lawyer to help immigrants due to her family situation and all the problems that she sees. The convictions that Stevenson saw were unfair. He noted that “Wrongful convictions were epidemic, and yet the court didn’t seem motivated to respond to that in a meaningful, structural or systemic way” (Stevenson). In the court’s eyes, once the person has a small misdemeanor and is a person of color, then they are more likely to be violent and to break the laws. Although some may not be aware that they are judging someone based on their race, society teaches us that we should be aware of them.

One main factor as to why racial injustice still has not been treated or corrected is because the community does not take action. When people started learning about how brutal and inhumane the Holocaust was to Jews, the Germans took action and tried to change the scenario. “The Germans want you to go to the Holocaust memorial. They’re trying to change the narrative” (Stevenson). We are not changing the scenario with race because no one is talking about the problem and making it known. If we were to talk about slavery and take action for the things that we did, then the story would be different. We still celebrate people who owned slaves and treated African Americans poorly. That would be similar to celebrating Hitler for what he did to the Jews, but since they were able to change the narrative, Hitler is not celebrated and we are aware of the problems. If we were to take away the people who had slaves, then the narrative would be different because people would see that slavery is not good. Right now, we are accepting those who had slaves because of all the other good things that they did for the United States. An example of this would be Abraham Lincoln because he had slaves even though he thought slavery was unjust.

The problem with slavery not being completely solved and not mentioned enough today raises issues of lynching and executions. “…we live at a time in America where we have these execution chambers that are disproportionately being used to execute black people after just coming out of this era where we tolerated lynching” (Stevenson). This connects to the executions in jails because many of the people who are executed are African Americans. Often times, the news does not cover all of these executions and only focuses on white people when an immoral problem occurs.

At the end of Stevenson’s podcast, he states what freedom means in his perspective and the problems that his grandparents face does to them. Stevenson mentions that “People who were tortured and terrorized through lynching still found a way to create love and create another generation”. A person of color in America needs to be hopeful and not be governed by fear and anger because violence will not get them anywhere. In Just Mercy, Stevenson goes to a church about the injustice and at the end of his speech, a man goes up to him to tell him that “You’ve got to beat the drum for justice” (Stevenson, 46). What the person said is true because we need to make a different rhythm in order for others to notice us. If we were all to keep doing the same things, then there would not be a change in the world.

The different social identities that one faces as a person of color makes it difficult to succeed in life. “It was this idea, this narrative that black people aren’t as good as white people, that black people aren’t fully human. Black people aren’t evolved” (Stevenson, podcast). This would be similar to seeing the kids that we tutor at NGS as people who are poor and do not deserve to be educated. Framing this narrative on the kids that they are not as good as white kids, makes it difficult to tutor them. If we are to see them as a whole person and understand their backstory, we will not only be able to tutor them, but we would also be able to find which stories can relate to each subject. Through this, they will be able to connect to the subjects easily. We are the ones who put them in a box and see them only in one perspective. This goes back to the activity that we did in class. We need to see the child from all angles in order to understand them and not constrain them. If we only see them from one angle, it will be similar to imprisoning them because they are confined to what we were taught.

When Stevenson reflects on his grandmother telling him, “You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance. You have to get close” (Stevenson, 14). His grandmother is stating that we must go and face the problem. We should see the problem from afar and just leave it be. The closer we get to the problem, the more we can analyze and understand what we can do to fix the situation. This quote is important because I sometimes think that seeing the problem from a distance will help me understand the bigger picture. In a way, this is true because I can see all the angles, but what is missing is all the minute details to conquer the problem. In order to deal with racism, we can’t have an African American president and think that everything is okay now. We must go up close and see what the problems are in each community.

By looking at the community in NGS, they are underserved and have financial difficulties which makes it hard for them to afford to go to colleges. Due to the low income that the families face at NGS, they are excluded from opportunities such as going to a good college, getting healthy meals, getting proper education, and having clothes that fit them properly. By connecting to my partner site, I was able to see the struggles that they face because of the tutoring that they need. Tutoring at NGS is only limited to a certain amount of people and this makes it difficult for others who are not able to get into this program. Without this program, the kids would be able to find other tutors, but they might not be as reliable or they might not have the resources that NGS provides such as computers, printing, books, and some other essentials for learning. Although I have not had the chance to ask the staff about what drives their work and commitment to support people in overcoming the structural barriers, I have had a chance to see that they are committed and care for each of the kids. The staff at NGS reminds of what Stevenson said about the lawyers. “…these lawyers were comfortable with one another in a way that reflected a shared mission, shared hope, and shared stress about the challenges they faced’’ (Stevenson, 6). It is evident that the staff has their own personal experience that makes them want to work with the less fortunate community.