Just Mercy

Yesterday's post was short but today will make up for it. Sorry.

I saw Just Mercy, and it was an emotional roller coaster.

This isn't exactly going to be a review, though I will say it was good and I can give some details on that. It also isn't going to contain much in the way of spoilers, though there is one. This is more about my reaction to it.

Just Mercy is the story of Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. The movie follows him as a recent graduate of Harvard law school, going down to Alabama to work with death row inmates. It was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who is credited as a writer along with Stevenson himself and Andrew Lanham.

I am more used to Jamie Foxx from comedy, so it would be easy to forget that he is a good dramatic actor, but he is. I have been impressed with Michael B. Jordan's acting for a while now.

The subject matter is important, and that is felt, but things move along at a brisk pace, with moments of grace and beauty.

Those moments were probably helpful for those of us on the emotional roller coaster.

I had not done a lot of research or planning regarding the movie. I needed to get out of the house and I had heard some good feedback on the film, so I went.

I read a profile of Bryan Stevenson a few years ago (it was from 2012), and there was a part that stuck with me. I looked it up again, so I am going to quote it:

He then walked with Richardson to the execution chamber.

“Bryan, it has been so strange,” the condemned man said. “All day long people have been saying to me, ‘What can I do to help you?’ I got up this morning, ‘What can I get you for breakfast? What can I get you for lunch? What can I get you for dinner? Can I get you some stamps to mail your last letters? Do you need the phone? Do you need water? Do you need coffee? How can we help you?’ More people have said what can they do to help me in the last 14 hours of my life than they ever did” before.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/why-mass-incarceration-defines-us-as-a-society-135793245/ 

So your spoiler is that this happens in the movie. Among the multiple death row inmates there is one execution.

I said it stuck with me, but that is not exactly right. It hit me hard then - to only have people looking out for you on the last day of your life, and how much does that affect why your life is ending that way - but it's been a while, and I hadn't thought of it. I certainly hadn't remembered Stevenson's name.

I suddenly realized that this was his story, and this is what was happening now. Knowing more about the man being executed and relating to him in a different way, I cried a lot. I can't even swear they were the first tears; there was a lot that was touching in the movie, and me crying at movies is not at all rare.

But that wasn't even the real roller coaster.

There is kindness and devotion to justice and humanity in the movie, but there is also a lot of horrifying injustice greatly facilitated by racism. There were moments of humiliation and fear, and there was a lot of hopelessness with that. Sure, Bryan Stevenson could have decided to work somewhere more hospitable than Alabama, but then what about those men? There were a lot of people suffering under that system, and relocating is expensive. It's not always possible.

So the real ups and downs were moving back and forth between "Burn the whole thing down!" anger and the understanding that going in bent on destruction is more likely to harm than help, and more likely to harm those who have already suffered the most without deserving it.

That is not completely unfamiliar, either to me or to readers who have been with me for a while. I am going to make two other points about that today.

One is a reminder that when you have a system like that, based on higher ups getting to dominate the people "below" them, there are repercussions for those higher up too.

I do believe there is soul damage for those who abuse, but that is not my primary concern. You still have a young woman murdered, even though she is white. A Black person being wrongly convicted of her death doesn't make the community any safer. A need to be able to control Black people doesn't protect a white convict from horrifying manipulation. Whiteness doesn't save an officer from being fired when his conscience interferes with the railroading. Privilege has its limits when the whole system is based on domination.

Amidst all of that frustration, there was one thought that might help. Once you get a conscience and accept the reality of your privilege, it is easy to feel guilty about it. It may be more valuable to think of it as a tool.

If there are situations where you are safer, if you don't have to get worn down by the microaggressions, if people are more likely to listen to a person of color if you endorse what they are saying, maybe there is good that can be done with it.

My thoughts on that are partially from recently hearing Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race, speak.

The burden of change often falls disproportionately on the marginalized, even though they have less power for enacting that change. There are opportunities to support and speak up and improve.  To amplify.

I knew that already, but the movie was a strong reminder of how much improvement is needed, in so many ways. There must be at least as many ways to help.

Checking out that book and that movie might be a good start. I am going to have some more posts about movies.