Justice … In Black and White

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 2014.

            She stands blindfolded, the Goddess of Justice, holding scales. Justice, we are told, is blind. It is blind to color, creed, national origin. It is blind to wealth. Justice, the balancing of wrongs and restoration of rights rest on the fundamental tenet that it is fair, that all are equal before the law. “With liberty and justice for all.” Six simple words yet so complicated, so difficult to achieve. “All are equal before the law regardless of the color of your skin or your parents’ wealth.” That is the myth of American justice. And myths aren’t necessarily bad things. They bind us as community when there is truth in the myth. Unfortunately, justice is not equal. Justice sees wealth, and Nationality, and color. Justice is biased … and it is as different as black and white.

            Much of social media (the blogosphere, et al) is devoted to turning visceral reaction into fact. And, as my Poli-Sci professor in college noted thirty plus years ago, “where you stand (on an issue) depends on where you sit (your life experiences)”. So, a Black woman in a housing project who sees her teenage son repeatedly stopped and frisked by police will have a different opinion of law enforcement than the white, suburbanite homemaker in the gated community who watches as the same police make two passes each day through the neighborhood. Neither gut reaction can be challenged. Neither is built on fact, however. Facts matter, perhaps never more so than “Ferguson” and “Cleveland” so soon after “Trayvon.” Facts – and honesty – matter.

            Fact: 93% of all murders of African-Americans come at the hand of African-Americans. And the per capita murder rate is 8 times higher for black than white teens. At the same time, 86% of all white murder victims are killed by whites. This should come as no surprise. Even with the dismantling of de jure segregation we remain a country de facto segregated. My elderly mother lives in fear of young black men marauding through her neighborhood like an angry Viking horde. Know what? There are no black families in her upscale Raleigh neighborhood. There are no black teens and if there were, the chances are they wouldn’t bother it. A member of her church, or “over 55” club is more likely to cause her harm.

            Fact: Blacks and whites use drugs in equal percentages. But, blacks are more likely to be prosecuted for drug possession and more likely to be incarcerated. Blacks are also stopped significantly more than whites even when accounting for demographic data in a community (in wealthy areas, upscale black teens are still disproportionately stopped over their white compatriots). In Virginia, 59% of all DOC inmates are African-American while only 36% are white, yet both races commit crimes at the same level.

            “And justice for all.” One out of three young black men born since 2000 will end up with a criminal arrest record before age 18. Imagine – as a white parent – what your visceral reaction would be if those numbers were applied to your family and friends.

            Crime is color-blind; crime doesn’t care about the size of your bank balance. But, justice, justice does care. Black and poor are disproportionately harmed by arrest and sentencing. A huge bank steals billions in account holders funds and is given a “criminal settlement” of $7 billion – again money from the bank’s investors – while the perpetrators remain free. A young Iraqi War vet suffering from PTSD “robs” a bank with an unloaded shotgun. He gets $8,000; he sentenced to 12 years. “And justice for all.”

            Ferguson, Missouri. Race – on both sides – has driven this entire tragic circumstance. What if Michael Brown had been white? Chances are, he wouldn’t have been stopped, white teens are not stopped like black teens. What of the confrontation with Officer Wilson? Race factored in on both sides. Blacks generally view the police as a mercenary force, a foreign invader. Police – overwhelmingly white – view black teens as criminals – in – waiting; they sense the hostility present in the neighborhood. And the result is the loss of another young black man. Was the teen murdered by a racist cop? Was the cop attacked and in fear for his life when the gun was fired? I don’t know. My gut tells me Officer Wilson was not racist; he was a cop trying to do his job and “things” took a wrong turn. But, as a white cop, he was pre-disposed to see a black teen as trouble. And Michael Brown? He was no saint. That shouldn’t matter because (1) Wilson had no right to even stop him and (2) he shouldn’t be dead.

            Let’s remember, black or white, a mother and a father grieve over the senseless death of their son. Do we “hurumph” when a teenager, driving recklessly, dies in a car accident? No. We show empathy. We show sympathy. We feel for the grieving parents knowing that could be us. Michael Brown’s parents – like Trayvon Martin’s parents – deserve that. That isn’t a race issue, that’s simple human decency and compassion.

            “And Justice for All.” How many times do you think grand juris convene and don’t hand down indictments? It’s unheard of, and yet here we see a grand jury do just that. Makes you wonder, answer: 162,000 US grand jury indictments.

            Cleveland. A young boy flashing a play gun. The 911 call comes in saying that. “There’s a kid with a play gun.” The video shows police roll up to the scene, the boy waves the gun in the air and “Bam” a shot rings out from the police cruiser and the twelve year-old is dead. Silence. No outrage. No questioning about “justice” about living in a land dedicated to “equal justice under Law” where a Black President decries the violence yet allows the Pentagon to sell off military-style equipment to police departments; a President who oversees an “intelligence gathering apparatus” that collects virtually every bit of private data on you. Makes you wonder.

            Race and income matter in police work and in the criminal justice system. They cloud and distort the truth and they leave distrust and anger in their wake.

            I don’t know what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. I know this, race played a role in it. I also know those on the “right” and “left” who use tragedies such as this who spread innuendo and rumor in the name of their political position face a special place in hell. I know there are too many police shootings, too many dead black teens, too many mothers crying.

            Sitting in here I hear a disturbing separation. To the young black men who have had numerous encounters with officers like Wilson it reinforces the idea that America seeks genocide on young blacks; to the white guys, many viscerally side with the white cop and say the “n----- had it coming.” How do you respond to such ignorance? How indeed.

            “Red and yellow, Black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

            Justice – real, justice – like mercy, is blind. It is high time we begin in our own lives striving for that ideal.

 

In Black and White

As opposed to most white Americans, I live in an integrated world.  Our “learning community” – the “Campus within Walls” is just over 50% white and just under 50% black.  Those percentages are an anomaly in prison where almost 70% of the inmates are African Americans.  One of the eye opening parts of my prison experience has been coming face to face with my preconceptions, my prejudices, about race. I’ve written about it before.  I live it every day.  I’ve learned quite a bit in four years.  First, that for the vast majority of whites, we haven’t a clue what it means to be black in America.  Second, that the vast majority of Black Americans don’t hate us should come as a pleasant surprise.  And third, that race continues to define and damage this country and will do so until we come to grips with it.

I write this as race again rears its ugly head with the news of the shooting of a 17 year-old black teenager by the name of Trayvon Martin (in Sanford, Florida).  His death was senseless.  That the shooter remains free should concern every parent.  When President Obama – a man I don’t often agree with – said “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon Martin”, he spoke from the heart.  Unfortunately, in America, race matters.  Whether “driving while black” or walking back from a convenient market with skittles and an ice tea “while black” it is tough, sometimes deadly to be black in America.

A few weeks ago during a visit, a relative leaned in and whispered to me “Obama hates white people”.  How do you know that?  I asked, realizing the President’s own mother is white.  “It was on the internet”, came the reply.

And it made me think of my own upbringing.  I grew up in an upper-middle income family in upstate New York who had zero black neighbors or friends.  My high school had one black student.  Our church, a 400 member Presbyterian congregation had one black couple.  I still remember cringing as a middle-schooler in the late ’60’s when my mom remarked once that Shirley “is a credit to her race.”  I wonder what that makes me, now a member of the tribe of felons?

My family moved to Raleigh in the 80’s when I was in law school.  They have no black neighbors, no black friends, no black church families.  They have never voted for a black candidate.  The only contact they have with Black America is when they go to the mall.  And if my mom sees young black men she instinctively clutches her purse and car keys. 

And I wonder, thinking about all that, why no young black man in prison has ever suggested to me “your family hates black people”.  White America, I am convinced, doesn’t understand what it means to be black in this country.

Here are some facts to ponder.  Roughly three out of four black children are born out of wedlock.  60% of all black males between 17 and 25 have a criminal record.  80% of black students don’t go beyond high school.  Four in ten don’t even graduate high school.  The dropout rate, the incarceration rate, the mortality rate, the poverty rate for black Americans is dramatically worse than for the white community. 

Those are just facts.  That doesn’t quantify the number of times blacks are stopped by the police for random pat downs, or the fact that while drug use is proportional in both the black and white communities, a young black caught with drugs will almost always end up in prison.  And the white?  Rehab and probation.

America is not a color-blind society, and it’s a shame, a national shame.  Trayvon Martins lies dead for one simple reason; he was a black teenager walking at night.  I hate saying that, but the truth sometimes isn’t pretty.

Prison is an amalgam of gang bangers, white supremacists, and the rest of us.  I thought when I was first locked up how wasteful and inane the entire gang culture was.  Then, I looked myself in the mirror.  Gangs are a reflection of the sick, pervasive race issues this nation still suffers from.  And it will get worse.  The N.O.I. – Nation of Islam, with their call for race separation and their revisionist history and illogical conclusions passing as “knowledge” grows by leaps and bounds each week behind these walls.  I hear the young black guys discussing their “elements of wisdom” and my heart breaks.  They are being fed falsehood upon falsehood.

Dr. King understood the dangers that lurked for America if we didn’t grasp our race problem.  We are not to judge “by the color of our skin”, but “by the content of our character”.  Those of us who believe in the Gospel of Jesus know well that “in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female, free nor slave”.

Trayvon Martin’s tragic death can be a chance for America to be something different, a nation not separated or defined by color.  Surely any parent can feel the pain his family must feel.  And that is as plain as black and white.