We humans are a most peculiar species — we are kind and we are dangerous. We can create the most sublime inventions with our minds, voices and hands, yet we are capable of the most heinous and destructive acts. We show empathy and compassion and grace, and yet, often just as easily, we wound and main and murder. In the face of a common threat or danger we reach out to help all others, yet under normal circumstances we are capable of the most despicable racism, discrimination and hatred for our fellows.
Two recent polarizing events show our enormous failings and our inherent goodness. These are two stories of quiet and heroic action in the face of harm, danger and injustice.
First, in Mississippi, Willie Manning a black man and convicted murderer had his execution stayed 4 hours prior to lethal injection. His team of attorneys fought, quite rightly, to have false evidence discarded and dubious evidence revisited. As one of his attorneys, Robert Mink, a white man, stated to the State Supreme Court, “To pass on this issue and sanction the execution of Willie Manning, even in light of these revelations, would be counter to fundamental due process, the eight and fourteenth amendments to the Constitution…”. Morality of the death penalty aside, we have a moral duty to fight injustice wherever it appears including within our seemingly just judicial process. To date, the Innocence Project has recorded 306 post-conviction exonerations. These were innocent people scheduled to be put to death by our judicial system, and on average spent 13 years in prison. So, thank you to attorney Mr. Mink and his colleagues for keeping goodness alive in the face of an institutionalized rush to judgement and a corrupt process.
Read more on this story after the jump.
In the second case, from Cleveland Ohio, the dichotomy of human behavior was on full display following the release of three woman kidnapped, raped and imprisoned for close to 10 years. We’ll not discuss the actions of the accused, which should become clearer in due course. Rather, we focus on the actions of a neighbor. Charles Ramsey, a black man, who lived across the street from the crime scene helped the three white women escape their hellish ordeal. Like the attorneys above Mr. Ramsey took action and is rightly hailed a hero. When pressed by the media to explain his actions in rescuing the women, he said something quite poignant, “When a little, pretty white woman runs into the arms of a black man, you know something wrong.” Indeed.
Excerpts from an open letter to Charles Ramsey, put it in perspective:
From the Guardian:
Dear Mr Charles Ramsey,
First and foremost thank you. Thank you for being an up-stander versus a bystander. All too often we are quick to flee from the things that could land us in imminent danger, but you in your hearts of hearts knew that the right thing to do was to come to the aid of someone who was crying out. We as the members of this great city of Cleveland are forever beholden to you for finding three of our daughters who we thought we’d never see again. But through the grace of the Most High … they are now safe.
In plain speak, you said something so prolific. And I want to unpack the statement that you made: “When a little, pretty white woman runs into the arms of a black man, you know something wrong.”
What does this statement mean in 2013? For me, it spoke volumes. It says: in America, we are taught to fear black men. They are assumed to be violent, angry, and completely and utterly untrustworthy. This statement also says what we have always known to be true for this country: white women, specifically pretty white women, have no business in the same space as black men. For as long as we can remember American society has been the sustainer of white women and the slayer of black men.
We have seen it with the all too familiar story of Emmett Till. We have seen it with the less familiar story of George Stinney, the youngest person in the United States ever executed. At 14-years-old he was charged with the murder of two white girls in Alcolu, South Carolina. He was charged with this murder after being the last to see these two girls alive and even helping to search for them. With no evidence and no concrete witnesses he was sent to the electric chair, with a booster seat for his 90 pound body, his case never reopened despite a rumored culprit and so little evidence.
I write this letter with extreme gratefulness, because I know how this country has historically made a mockery of and torn down men like you. Black men who have been the fall guy, black men who are assumed guilty for wearing hoodies and having wallets that somehow get mistaken for guns. So we all know that you could have easily said that you would not put yourself in harm’s way.
And for your act of heroism, you are met with extreme scrutiny dredged in jest. Joke after joke for telling your truth, as plain as you knew how. You, Mr Ramsey, were made fun of for flinching when the sounds of police sirens struck an innate reaction of terror in you. We all know that the police weren’t made for the protection of black men. The 911 operator who engaged you with disdain, disbelief, and sheer aggravation reaffirmed that “you don’t have to be white to support white supremacy”. So if you don’t “look” like a hero, “speak” like a hero, “dress” like a hero, wear your “hair” like a hero … then you’re just another person used to build the comedic chops of aspiring YouTube/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram sensations.
Read the entire letter after the jump.
In what continues to be a sad repetition of our human history we see on the one hand there are those who perform unimaginable acts of cruelty or violence, and on the other are those who counteract the bad with good.
On the one hand are those who blindly or hastily follow orders or rules without questioning their morality, and on the other are those who seek to inject morality and to improve our lot. But between the two poles many of us are mere bystanders; we go about our hectic, daily lives, but we take no action. Some of us raise our arms and voices in righteous indignation, but take no action beyond words. Many of us turn a blind eye to intolerance and racism, preferring the cocoons of our couches and social distance of our Facebook accounts.
The majority of us are just too tired, too frazzled, too busy. This group requires the most work; we all need to become better at doing and at being involved, to improve our very human race.