I chose to read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, a narrative non-fiction book on a topic I knew very little about and had never closely experienced. While the cover definitely didn’t catch my eye, the endorsements from Desmond Tutu and Nicholas Kristof, its placement on the New York Times bestseller list, and an upcoming lecture at Luther College did. As it turns out, all of the hype was justified, and this has been added to my list of books that have rattled me and changed me and left me wanting more from my country.
Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer representing prisoners on death row, provides a first hand account that leaves the reader with no doubt that racism is pervasive in our courts, from police investigations to jury selection to judges to death sentence verdicts. Before reading this book I was naive about our criminal justice system, I somehow chose to believe, from a nice, safe distance, that it was by and large fair and commendable. I now know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that racism is pervasive and leads to innocent people being tried, convicted, and even killed for crimes they didn’t commit. The United States has the highest percentage of its population in prison than any other nation in the world, and these prisoners are disproportionately black, with 1 in 3 black boys projected to end up in prison in his lifetime. Oddly enough, the book left me hopeful, and this is, I believe, the genius of Stevenson. The stories of the individual people he represents are heartbreaking, and the ingrained injustice of it all is maddening, but once we see this and understand this we can most definitely advocate for change and the tools to do so are provided in the book. In addition, Stevenson has founded the Equal Justice Initiative as a non-profit that educates and advocates for change. As Stevenson was told, “You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close.” This book was my way of getting close to a problem that one man is tackling head on and asking us to step up and understand. “My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of ...our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.” - Bryan Stevenson Post by Ms. Horton, DHS Teacher Librarian
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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