The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

Over the years I have both experienced and witnessed bias, prejudice and oppression.  These incidents have ranged from mircroaggressions with little to no harm intended to straight out hateful interactions whose intent was to cause destruction.  When the assignment reminded us that we can encounter these kinds of incidents in fictional environments as well my very first thought was that of Atticus Finch and the case against Tom Robinson in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”.  At a time where the color of a person’s skin spoke louder than truth, Tom Robinson was accused of attacking a young white woman by her obviously guilty father.  This story is packed with prejudice and the fight against it in a time where very few individuals were willing to do so.  In the 1962 movie version, Gregory Pecks character Atticus Finch makes a very moving closing statement at the trial that sums up the entire incident. 

“To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place... It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses, whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. Now, there is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewel was beaten - savagely, by someone who led exclusively with his left. And Tom Robinson now sits before you having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses... his RIGHT. I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the State. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance. But my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she has done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt. Now I say "guilt," gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She's committed no crime - she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She must destroy the evidence of her offense. But what was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was to her a daily reminder of what she did. Now, what did she do? She tempted a Negro. She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that, in our society, is unspeakable. She kissed a black man. Not an old uncle, but a strong, young Negro man. No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards. The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption... the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is, in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated TEMERITY to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against TWO white people's! The defendant is not guilty - but somebody in this courtroom is. Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system - that's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality! Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review, without passion, the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision and restore this man to his family. In the name of GOD, do your duty. In the name of God, believe... Tom Robinson.”

Every time I read or hear this speech I am both humbled and amazed.  Amazed that we as a people could ever be so hard, so hateful or so scared of what we don’t know, that we could treat others with such distain.  I wonder how anyone could turn their back on the truth, not giving any concern to the life of another human being just to save face?  I am then humbled to be able to actually see these kinds of inequalities for what they are.  I have been blessed to be able to access both formal and informal education that promotes a deeper level of thinking and stirs a sense of equality in me.  I feel honored to have the opportunity to learn from our past and pass on to this generation the importance of truth and equality.