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By Rickey Hampton, Editor and Founder of The African-American Athlete
This is a perfect case study regarding the perceptions some people have of the African-American community. Bryan Stevenson, a noted civil rights attorney who happens to be black, arrived for court early in order to prepare for an upcoming case.
This was the first appearance in this court for Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. He sat down at the defense counsel table as he had hundreds of times in his career, and awaited the arrival of his client. The presiding judge walked in and saw Stevenson sitting there. He admonished Stevenson, telling the attorney that he never lets ‘defendants’ sit alone in his courtroom without their lawyer.
Stevenson responded by identifying himself as a lawyer. The judged laughed. The prosecutor laughed. Stevenson laughed, too but only because he felt he had to in order to give his client the best opportunity in front of the judge.
But what Stevenson, a Harvard educated lawyer, dressed professionally in a suit and tie, wanted to know was why the judge would simply assume he was the defendant?
Does this judge look at all black men, no matter what their attire, no matter what their educational background, or life experiences and character references are, in the same manner?
This is yet another burdensome fact of life when you are black in America.
Check out Stevenson in this powerful video, and share it with your friends. And, continue to visit us at TheAfricanAmericanAthlete.com. Our mission is to celebrate the accomplishments of the African-American athlete in and out of the arena, and discuss issues of the black community.
….. OR the judge could have been trying to PURPOSELY offend or rattle Stevenson’s chain. Judges. .. whether racist or non racist. ..are extremely inteligente people. Thier inteligence and wisdom can never be taken for granted. Personally I assume that the judge KNEW exactly what he was doing. … a way of being racist but not suffering and sanctions.
To Jamal’s comment- I think that’s going in hard. I never compared myself to an HBSU graduate or any other graduate for that matter and I guess your right some are obviously offended based on their ideas not mine! I am continually offended on this planet as a person of color and as a woman for no reason other than my gender and color. It does not matter if I am educated or where. The problem is racism, sexism, hatred and let’s add jealousy Jamal
I practice a lot of juvenile law in Texas and was asked by a judge if I was a relative of the child in custody. This was a visiting judge whom I’d never seen before and you could have heard a pin drop because everyone from the bailiff, juvenile probation officers, and the DAs all know me. I politely replied, “I’m defense counsel for this child. None of my relatives are in this courthouse that I’m aware of.” Btw, I am one of 4 attorneys in my family.
Not for nothing, I think it was an honest mistake, especially since that’s the area where defendants sit. He would get a pass on that one in my world and I’m Black and highly attentive to things like that
STILL IN 2017
We Wear the Mask
BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask