Walls of Hate

Institutional and social racism, as it was the mindset of those who first came to this continent from Europe, has been responsible for the cruel treatment of American citizens since the beginning of our country’s history. The story that Bryan Stevenson tells only confirms that our country still engages in hate and fear of persons, based solely on the color of their skin. All cases of racism share a common thread, and that is the notion that whomever is being persecuted is deserving of such treatment; this is because they are thought of as less than the one persecuting. One place we see the affects of this dual racism is in the prison system. 33% of the male prison population is constituted of black males, whereas African Americans only take up 13% of the total population of the United States. The numbers are skewed when examining Latino and women of AA/Latino descent. I learned that as far as the death penalty goes, 1 in 10 of those on death row have evidence in their cases come to light that would have proved them innocent.

The first few pages of Stevenson’s writing introduce us to a nervous young man who’s just realized his major did not translate into career. Back when the debt wouldn’t crush you forever, he went to law school. However he was unable to find that important goal that he was seeking,“The courses seemed esoteric and disconnected from the race and poverty issues that had motivated me to consider the law in the first place” P- 4 He would find his way to Death Row, as a lawyer. An internship that saw him sent to tell a death row prisoner that he was not going to be executed in that year would transform his life. Before reading this testimony, before watching his TED talk in class and examining updated statistics on those in prison and on death row I thought I knew something about the reality. When I read that he would go to meet a man condemned to die by the Law I thought he was going to recall a muscular gangster type, or maybe some quiet creepy white guy. Instead, I was surprised as Stevenson was, to read him describe a scared average man. “He looked immediately familiar to me, like everyone I’d grown up with, friends from school, people I played sports or music with…” P- 9 This trend of finding our neighbors and loved ones in those who we would otherwise think of as scary and hostile is most audible, I believe, when Stevenson delivers the news that Henry wasn’t going to die that year. He describes a wave of relief visibly wash over the him. They begin to bond and talk, “We talked about everything…family…law school….what’s important in life and what’s not.” P- 10

Later, we would read of the poor conditions faced by those who choose the life of a death row Lawyer. After being inspired to help Henry and people like him, he resolves to dedicate his life to helping those most totally abandoned by society’s consciousness. “Henry altered something in my understanding of human potential, redemption, and hopefulness” P- 12 I was shocked, as he must have been when he first saw what would be his new office, to read him describe an office with few rooms, few lawyers, phones, and general resources. The grim reality of the disproportionate number of death row lawyers to inmates results in many who call for help with no one to answer. “…most of the people crowded on Death Row had no lawyers and no right to counsel. We were getting calls every day from people who had no legal assistance…I’d never heard voices so desperate.” P- 7 During the latter half of Bryan’s story the issue of racial inequality really comes into focus as part of reason for such large numbers of black men in prison. Bryan goes into detail about his family’s history, his family being one of many descended from the freed slave population. The freeing of the slaves in America should have been a celebratory occasion, but for generations of Americans the color of their skin did, and still does in many places, determined their treatment. “The black people around me were strong and determined but marginalized and excluded.” P- 13 How would you feel, seeing your family struggle to improve, tossed ceaselessly against an un-ending tide of a system that does not want them to succeed? “My relatives worked hard all the time but never seemed to prosper.” P- 14

So how do we reverse these trends? What steps can be taken to undo the years of heart-ache and injustice that divides our country? What can be done to change the hearts of people who see other people not as people, but as the enemy? The only real solution is education, and proximity. We must fix our broken, lacking, outdated, underfunded, mostly-pointless lower education system, and then work on the pricing of higher education. But this will not be enough. In all counties, in all States, we must combat segregated schooling at every turn. The fear that is the root cause of racism is the same as the deepest fear that all humanity shares, the fear of the unknown. To not-know is to be afraid, to be afraid is to be ignorant, to be ignorant is irrational, irrationality confirms bias, bias breeds hatred, hatred will always lead to ruin. Bryan’s grandmother gives him and us some truly valuable advice, “You can’t understand the most important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close.” P- 14 Our system has left thousands without recourse to pursue the American Dream, and that in-itself is un-Constitutional. “We have created a new caste system…forces thousands into homelessness…bans them from living with their families and in their communities…renders them virtually unemployable.” P- 16 We must fight this attitude of hatred. We must come together against this hostility with heart full of kindness, and a head filled with knowledge and understanding.