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JusticeForThePoor 4 - 28 Mar 2012 - Main.AjGarcia
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| | Hearing about the Trayvon Martin case, I can't help but think about a past Moglen discussion. His observation that the criminal justice system
is just to the poor and kind to the rich can also be applied to how races are viewed in the court system and in public opinion. I was baffled in a recent Matt Lauer interview of Trayvon's parents. At one point he urged the family to not "jump to conclusions" and pass judgment on Zimmerman. Ummm...what?? Some cases are murky. Some have grey areas and nuance. What is so striking about Trayvon's case is the lack of nuance. I don't think there's been a case so public in recent years that has in fact be so void of complexity. | | | The disadvantaged members of our society are silenced in many ways, mostly by social forces that have nothing to do with the law. I think that is partly why some people have a hard time accepting, in cases such as Trayvon's, that such a horribly unfair thing could happen - because they have never experienced such "justice" themselves, and it is easier to deny it.
-- AgnesPetrucione - 27 Mar 2012 | |
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> | This situation underscores the argument that the law isn't as powerful of a mechanism of control as socio-cultural influence; in fact our perceptions of race and class are strong enough to dictate to whom the law should apply. The more comfortable thing for a white, upper-middle class person would be for people of color to wear clothes that look more like theirs; to bring their faces from behind their hoodies to make sure they're not concealing themselves for a more devious purpose; to force them to walk on the other side of the street late at night to avoid the panic that the media has told white people (and particularly females) they should harbor.
The law couldn't make as strong of a threat to people of color--telling them to "act like they should or else"--than as making an example of a black kid that was shot for wearing a hoodie, carrying candy and tea, and trying to evade a creepy follower. This case sends a message to young people of color--and to concerned parents--that they should adapt their sartorial choices and vernacular to mitigate the panic and fear of others--even when their behavior doesn't logically (or even reasonably) evoke those feelings.
This reminded me of People v. Goetz, where a white man was found not guilty for shooting four black teenagers on a subway that asked him for $5.00 because he thought they were robbing him. He shot all four, and upon seeing he missed one after surveying the scene, went up to the boy and finished the job. Resulting in an opposite outcome, John White, a black man that defended his family against a white teenagers that harassed them with racial epithets and threats of physical violence at his home, was found guilty of manslaughter when he shot and killed one.
We all carry archetypes and biases about race, as a result of the internet, TV, movies, books, pop culture, history, our upbringings, our socio-economic class, our sexuality, our gender, amongst many other influences. It seems like these perceptions of race are not only stronger forms of social control than the law, but they're enough to alter the applicability of the law itself.
-- AjGarcia - 28 Mar 2012 |
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