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 through the perspective of a 6-year-old about her father as a lawyer, who is defending a Black man for a crime he didn’t commit in Alabama, around the time where segregation and blatant discrimination against people of color were prevalent in the law and society. As I opened up the book, I thought the story would end with a satisfying win where Atticus Finch (lawyer) would successfully defend Tom Robinson (the defendant) from the false accusations of rape and assault of a white woman, in which he was unlawfully being indicted for, bringing to light the power of advocacy against racial injustice. Instead, Lee’s story brought so much more to light than just individual advocacy.

I was admittedly frustration towards the end of the book. Tom Robinson’s (the Black man convicted) case, unfortunately, did not go in his favor, and he ended up being convicted of the charges and receiving the death penalty. We also watched the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird after analyzing the book, and the visual representation of the story only fortified my feelings of anger and a desire for justice. A combination of the story’s realistic nature (Lee referenced her real-life experiences to write) and the ending in which the victim never got justice revealed the need to change the dangerous conception where people of color, especially African Americans, are viewed as threatening. The frustration that I had experienced soon turned into a fuel to change the status quo, and I was starkly reminded of this feeling when reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who details his experiences with systemic racism that has affected his family for generations, and how it affected his schooling, his career, and his social identity.

In the first two chapters of Just Mercy Stevenson talks about a Black inmate on death row named Walter McMillian, who was accused of being involved in the murder of a revered white woman of the community, named Robin Morrison. In reality, McMillian was 11 miles away at the time of the murder, where his community, countless Black people, were strong alibis, yet all ignored. He was used as a scapegoat by the police when they were pressured to get an arrest when Morrison’s case started going cold. Stevenson states, “My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice,” (Just Mercy, pg. 18) upon taking a seemingly impossible case. Although not mentioned in the Ch. 1–2, McMillian successfully overturns the conviction, yet McMillian still spent 6 years on death row. This case and many others represent the system of mass incarceration, which an ever growing problem in regards to a fear of the rise of crime, drugs, and poverty. The issue is indefinitely connected to America’s history of racial segregation and scapegoating of minorities, in which generations lynching and racial violence has now turned into mass incarceration as a way to “keep problems out of society.” However, it’s not so much a society that’s keeping problems out of society, it is a problem that we feed through mass incarceration instead of rehabilitating those who need it to become working citizens of society, and since these problems aren’t being met, we keep them in the jail system, with no chance of getting out, and blame a certain population for being “innately violent and dangerous.” On Vox’s video titled “The school-to-prison pipeline, explained,” the narrator explains an increasing problem with suspensions in schools, starting from preschool. I didn’t even know preschoolers could be expelled. The video goes on to explain how there’s an increased presence of full duty police officers at schools with a higher than 50% minority population, and how Black children were more likely to receive harsher punishments for minor crimes. If we are already starting to suspend children, strip them of education, and increasing the chances that they’ll go through the jail system in the future because of these harsh punishments against minorities, then this is absolutely a systemic problem that connects race and mass incarceration. As Stevenson states “The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it’s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and — perhaps — we all need some measure of unmerited grace,” a statement that could not be more relevant than now.

Bryan Stevenson also went to speak on a Podcast called “Fresh Air” hosted by Terry Gross on NPR to discuss The Legacy Museum, which dramatize racial injustice from enslavement to mass incarceration, and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the memory of enslaved people and African-Americans who suffered through segregation, lynching, and humiliation under the Jim Crow laws. Stevenson in his book briefly speaks about the personalities and identity that black people held in their hearts vs what dominant groups saw, stating, “The black people around me were strong and determined but marginalized and excluded,” (Just Mercy, pg. 13). He speaks about his own personal identity dilemmas when he explains an incident that happened between him and the police when he was driving home from work. He was driving back, when all of a sudden there were cops who came by were searching for a possible suspect to a reported robbery. When the flashlight shined on his face, he knew they were coming for him. They were rash and violent with him, instantly pointing a gun to his head and shouting, “Move, and I’ll blow your head off.” Gross speaking to Stevenson states, “Your first impulse was to run,” but Stevenson knew he would be dead the moment he tried to (Fresh Air, 2020). He reason with the officers, using his identity as a lawyer, and having the knowledge to get himself out of such a hostile situation. The police officers saw one interpretation of an identity; a Black man driving around at a time of a reported robbery, and therefore, must be the robber. It’s unfortunate these characteristics that we’ve put onto minorities that ultimately makes life harder to live. Stevenson states, “…in the Deep South, there has been this whole effort to create a landscape that defends and romanticizes this period of enslavement and violence,” whereas the identities of those (Fresh Air, 2020). One way Stevenson is attempting to change the narrative and the constructive identity that is “minority” is through The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, where he details the moments in racially fueled history through technology such as holograms. He also presents the history and honors those who were lynched, digging up soil upon the lynching sites, and putting names to victims, both truly humanizing experiences. Through this information, we set free those who have been desensitized to the effects of systemic racism, either at the receiving or giving end, and therefore can contribute towards a society that no longer sees minorities as a threat.

Our current social structure is hierarchical, despite what America advertises as “the land of dreams and opportunity,” however, this current conceptual structure is only true for dominant groups, whilst simultaneously suppressing subordinate groups, namely, minorities. As a country with a very racially charged history that still carries on today, it’s unfortunate that the segregation of the schools, particularly in Marin County, denies students the opportunity for growth and knowledge development, which will set them free as Stevenson has continually spoken about in regards to freedom. American society has become too used to having the minority population at their dispense, with no recognition of a systemic issue (instead seen as an individualistic problem), when the minority population continues to fight and shout the blatant injustices against them. New Generation Scholars is about changing narratives and giving an underrepresented population the chance to change their own narratives and the narratives of other students in their place. The student I tutor for algebra 2 told me she wants to be a lawyer for those who can’t afford them, and the only way she could ever hope to be one was to “get into a great law school and gain the knowledge to free others.” I told her that was a line she could put in her college application, because of the amount of power her statement held. My student is so inspiring and recognized the power of knowledge in freeing people from these conceptual boxes that society has put us in, whether that is being trapped in an identity that is seen as a threat, or a box that has been made to believe that the threat exists indefinitely. I hope through NGS, that the fuel I once got from reading To Kill a Mockingbird and again through reading Just Mercy can be passed down to the other students I teach, encouraging them to change the status quo.