Right now my community theater is in the middle of rehearsals for "To Kill A Mockingbird". I do hope we get a good turnout because the story is very relevant. Race has been the big topic of discussion around here ever since the local paper did a series of articles on racism in the Department of Public Safety (the DPW has promised to clean up its act--we shall see). Meanwhile my church is hosting a discussion group on Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow". I am reading it right now and it is blowing me away. Ms. Alexander's premise is that the War on Drugs was deliberately designed to target the African-American community and control it in the same way that the old Jim Crow laws did prior to the Civil Rights Movement. That this machinery was being put into place just as the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. It is a frightening read about how one segment of the American population is being systematically deprived of its rights with the full approval of the highest courts in the land. It made me start thinking, is it simply coincidence that jobs started being shipped overseas right about the time the War on Drugs started, or was this also part of the scheme, a way to get around affirmative action and other pesky programs? Are our prisons and jails the new concentration camps?
"To Kill A Mockingbird" is set in a small Alabama town, in the middle of the Depression. Tom Robinson, a young black man, has been accused of raping a white teenager, Maybelle Ewing. According to the racial code of the time and place, Tom is entitled to a defense, but everyone understands that is just a formality. However, when it becomes known that his lawyer, Atticus Finch, really means to defend Tom, the you-know-what hits the fan.
The story is told through the eyes of Atticus' daughter Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill. The three children learn first-hand exactly what kind of town that they are living in, and it affects Dill the hardest, because he is the most sensitive. There is another character whose story is told alongside Tom's, and that is the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The three children are fascinated by Boo and come up with one scheme after another to try to get him to come out of his house. Atticus finds out and puts a stop to it. He says that Boo is entitled to his privacy and how would they like it if he (Atticus) came barging into their rooms anytime he felt like it. Jem says, that's different, he's not crazy and Boo is. Atticus tells him that what Mr. Radley does may seem peculiar to everyone else, but it does not seem peculiar to Mr. Radley. He then tells the children that there is something he wants them to do. He wants them to get inside other people's skin and walk around in it, to see things from others' point of view. He wants them to learn empathy.
Then the trial comes and although Atticus makes a masterful defense, the outcome is never in doubt. It's Tom's word against Maybelle's and even though the town looks down on the Ewings as poor white trash, their skin--if scrubbed hard enough--is white, and that is all that matters. A black man has called into question the honesty of a white woman and that cannot be tolerated. The children are devastated when the verdict comes in. Dill says, "Now I think I know why Boo stays in that house all the time." They are just starting to see what kind of town the adults have made for them. As one of the town ladies, Miss Maudie, says, "What happened in court is just as much a part of Maycomb as missionary teas." "I thought Maycomb people were good folks," Jem says, and Miss Maudie says, "We are. The safest folks in the world. It's just that we are so seldom called upon to be Christians and when we do, it is a good thing we have men like Atticus Finch to do our work for us." She explains to the children that even though Tom and Atticus lost, the fact that the jury stayed out so long was a positive sign--a sign that the town was taking baby steps.
But I am not so sure anymore that our baby steps forward are enough to stem the backward-moving strides.
"To Kill A Mockingbird" is set in a small Alabama town, in the middle of the Depression. Tom Robinson, a young black man, has been accused of raping a white teenager, Maybelle Ewing. According to the racial code of the time and place, Tom is entitled to a defense, but everyone understands that is just a formality. However, when it becomes known that his lawyer, Atticus Finch, really means to defend Tom, the you-know-what hits the fan.
The story is told through the eyes of Atticus' daughter Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill. The three children learn first-hand exactly what kind of town that they are living in, and it affects Dill the hardest, because he is the most sensitive. There is another character whose story is told alongside Tom's, and that is the reclusive "Boo" Radley. The three children are fascinated by Boo and come up with one scheme after another to try to get him to come out of his house. Atticus finds out and puts a stop to it. He says that Boo is entitled to his privacy and how would they like it if he (Atticus) came barging into their rooms anytime he felt like it. Jem says, that's different, he's not crazy and Boo is. Atticus tells him that what Mr. Radley does may seem peculiar to everyone else, but it does not seem peculiar to Mr. Radley. He then tells the children that there is something he wants them to do. He wants them to get inside other people's skin and walk around in it, to see things from others' point of view. He wants them to learn empathy.
Then the trial comes and although Atticus makes a masterful defense, the outcome is never in doubt. It's Tom's word against Maybelle's and even though the town looks down on the Ewings as poor white trash, their skin--if scrubbed hard enough--is white, and that is all that matters. A black man has called into question the honesty of a white woman and that cannot be tolerated. The children are devastated when the verdict comes in. Dill says, "Now I think I know why Boo stays in that house all the time." They are just starting to see what kind of town the adults have made for them. As one of the town ladies, Miss Maudie, says, "What happened in court is just as much a part of Maycomb as missionary teas." "I thought Maycomb people were good folks," Jem says, and Miss Maudie says, "We are. The safest folks in the world. It's just that we are so seldom called upon to be Christians and when we do, it is a good thing we have men like Atticus Finch to do our work for us." She explains to the children that even though Tom and Atticus lost, the fact that the jury stayed out so long was a positive sign--a sign that the town was taking baby steps.
But I am not so sure anymore that our baby steps forward are enough to stem the backward-moving strides.
