Troy Davis and the Unmasking of Jim Crow

I'm going to fight the urge to utterly pass out right now to talk about the Troy Davis trial. My cousin calls me, which is crazy because we have spoken all of a few times this year--not because of personal issues but more because of convenience. Either way I'm glad he did. Knowing how, socially conscious I am he asks if I was following the news about Troy Davis. At that point I never heard of him. To make a long story short, in 1989 he was convicted in the State of Georgia for killing in a trial based largely of eye witness testimony. From my understanding this was a case that had been tried and appealed on numerous occasions. Since his conviction 7 of the 9 original witnesses have sense recanted their testimony stating that they were coerced by cops to give a false testimony. Davis was sentenced to the death penalty. A federal judge was asked to consider significant evidence of Davis' innocence but rejected such evidence. The Supreme Court would not consider the case and as I speak right now despite much protesting and rallying outside the jail Mr. Troy Davis was pronounced dead about 47 minutes ago.






I took a break from writing because I don't really know what to say concerning this disgusting injustice. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised. One thing is for sure race is definitely a large factor in how this case was carried out. Without even knowing who was on the jury or any of the court proceedings, I'm well aware of how the South and many other places do justice. Innocent people, specifically underclass black people, get put on trial for felonies they are innocent of. It is known--I wish I had some research on this but check out this NPR news feature--how unreliable evidence based on eye witnesses is. So now an innocent black man was pretty much kept in the system until they could kill him with the death penalty. Eye witnesses that recanted their statements and alleged police coercion. And the judge would not reconsider the evidence after the fact.

What makes this event a travesty is that although America has a black president, there is only so much that our system will do to fight injustice when it comes to certain people. You'll get practically shut down for anti-semetic or anti-homosexual comment but how much protection will an underclass black person receive if the very system in place to protect him is the one that fails to move on his behalf and turns away as he is put to death based on faulty reasoning and deception. To clarify, it's never right to fight injustice with injustice but c'mon. Right is right and wrong is wrong.

At the end of the day this event only proves how backwards the American system is. It is NOT build on principles of faith but on survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, and this is my belief, there are people and systems in power that work to define who and what is classified as fit. I said what I wanted to say.

I welcome any feedback you desire to give.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fully Functioning Society

The course that I thought was so riveting is now becoming less of such. This is probably because the questions I ask people just give blank stares as if I'm speaking Chinese, African what have you. I think it is more of a self-confidence thing. I have a high need for feedback and when people don't say anything I start thinking something is wrong with me. Silence makes me nervous for some reason. If that last sentence was a lead to an article I would have gotten absolutely no coverage. So glad I can have a forum where my writing is not being judged. My question today is does PR add value to society? Should it seek to help make society fully functional? We can see now that the consequences of a corporate culture of greed and self interest is finally bearing bitter fruit for so many industries. So now the public is demanding that CSR be the very core of business. But beyond that should PR seek an orientation to make society fully functional? This was the argument in class tonight.
Read more

This One's For The Ladies

To give some context to this statement I'll tell the story of Ruth and Boaz. Ruth's husband died and she decided to stay with her mother in law, Naomi. Naomi and Ruth are dirt poor and go through a lot of tragedy where they are. Instead of returning back to her family she decides to keep the customs of her mother in law. Naomi has a distant relative Boaz, who happens to be mad rich. Naomi tells Ruth to work in Boaz's field to make ends meet. Long story short Boaz takes a liking to Ruth and eventually they get married. Through all of the struggle Ruth went through she ends up with someone that is best for her. Now that you know this story you will understand this comment I saw on facebook: Hey Ladies, "Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz. While waiting on YOUR Boaz, don't settle for ANY of his relatives: Brokeaz, Poaz, Lyinaz, Cheatinaz, Dumbaz, Cheapaz, Lockedupaz Goodfornothinaz, Lazyaz or Marriedaz and especially his third cousin Beatinyoaz. Please, wait o
Read more

The Death of Nick Charles

This is my first post of 2013! This isn't really the post that I want to start the year off with so let's play catch up. For New Years I went to church, shot my first gun and drank champagne with my cousins. I was pretty excited to get back to work for the Spring semester. One reason being because each semester serves as a fresh start. Another reason being because I had a class that wouldn't start until February, so my load this time around is much lighter. I enrolled into an acting class. Our first assignment, and the reason for this post, is to pick a poem that could be delivered in a minimum of 2 minutes in length. I don't follow poetry too much so I chose the first long poem in Black Voices. It's called The Death of Nick Charles by Everett LeRoi Jones, who I later found out is Amiri Baraka. I heard of the author but never heard of the poem.  Not having a clue who Nick Charles was I did a search and found out that he was a sportscaster that died recently. This
Read more