Wednesday, April 29, 2009

White Man Dead, Black Man Standing... It Must be Murder

As some of you may know I am a member of the Rhodes College Mock Trial team. We had a pretty good season this year and actually competed in the National Championship two weeks ago. Some of the best schools in the country were competing such as Stanford and Yale. Many people seem to think that the more educated a person is the less likely they are to believe in or support blatant racial stereotypes. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all.

We were arguing a libel case in which a celebrity turned politician claimed to have been accused of murder in a breaking news report. One of the strategies we mock trial teams use in order to grasp the attention of the jury, is the use of a theme which relates all the facts of the side of the case we are arguing. Well Yale’s theme for their side of the case was, “White man dead, black man standing…so it must have been murder.” As if the theme was not enough, the guy playing the so-called accused politician was black. Out of a team of seven people there were actually two African American males on the team. I must say this struck a nerve with me. For one, I could not believe that Yale would have the audacity to actually have a theme like this. Secondly, I could not believe that the two black males agreed to this theme. Am I wrong for being disturbed by this?

The latter concerned me more than the former. I guess I kind of expect that sort of thinking from some Caucasians. Maybe that is because I am a minority and I am just accustomed to being stereotyped however, I do my best to defy those stereotypes and not give in to the status quo whenever possible. The fact that the African American males agreed to be represented in such a light upset me most. I understand that Yale’s strategy could have possibly been to point out the problem with racial profiling in the media but considering the case had absolutely nothing to do with race I feel that was a strategy that was not needed and a point that was completely irrelevant. In view of how challenging it is for African American males to reach a high level of success in today’s society, I did not expect two African American males, especially ones who attend one the most stellar institutions in the country, to allow themselves to get pulled back so far. I would like to think that one of their goals is to exceed the status quo and the stereotype. I may have looked too deep into this theme but after hearing it I just could not help how disturbed I felt.

To my surprise, Yale actually ended up as one of the top 10 teams in the country. I could not believe that they were not scored down by any of their judges for this theme. Does this go to show the covert racism in our society?

8 comments:

  1. I find this hard to believe and am equally as taken back. Many of the Ivy League schools pride themselves on their racial diversity and strive to be viewed as an institution accredited to many ethnicities. Before I knew there were black men on the team, I had assumed the majority would be white. It really surprises me that they were able to pride themselves at this national competition with a claim not even implying racial undertones, but blatantly stating a racial comment. The fact they continued to do so well in the competition significantly shows the racism that still exists. I know we would all like to believe that our culture has changed, but this goes to show there is still a long way to go. The people affected and influenced by this are the youth of our nation, not to mention some of the brightest students in the United States.

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  2. I'm actually pretty surprised by this as well. I'm pretty tired atm, so maybe my thoughts will be clearer on this by tomorrow. But I'm not sure quite what you mean by saying its indicative of covert racism. While their approach is definitely controversial--as you said, there was nothing in the prompt that would have suggested trying this route--and startling, I don't immediately see how it necessarily buys into "the status quo and the stereotype" (maybe I'm just not thinking of a specific stereotype that applies here?). Maybe it's just a lack of details (things the Yale team said that indicated racism) or as I said I might be too dense/tired at the moment.

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  3. I am equally shocked.

    This is a bit of a tangent, but the title of your post immediately reminded me of “The Color of Blood,” an interesting article I read about a year ago in The New Yorker. The plot of the article, quite literally, is “white man dead, black man standing…it must be murder.” Anyway, the article questions the role of “race memory” in the killing of a teenager.

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/03/080303fa_fact_trillin?currentPage=all

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  4. I am very surprised as well, especially because Yale was the team that gave that title and had the witnesses. I think the title itself presents the covert racism in society now and the actual races of the witnesses just make that stereotypical claim worst. As Courtney said that IV league schools usually encourage diversity so instead of enforce racial equality, the team for Yale decided to draw attention to it. This type of covert racism will continue until people can to terms openly with the fact that each person is racist in some way, hence we should face it rather than keep having such secret, racial stereotypes.

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  5. I was also at the mock trial tournament and was privy to yale's unorthodox interpretation of the case and it just goes to show how prevalent racial tensions still are. Yale acted with the knowledge that the theme that they choice would inspire interest and ultimately play to their advantage, despite the fact that the case materials said nothing about race as a school is supposed to be able to put a person of any sex or race into a particular role. This example is just indicative of the fact that either race can exploit racial tensions or presuppositions.

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  6. I agree with Steven on this one. Although the team may have overstepped its boundaries, they certainly succeeded in drawing immense attention to their cause. Sure, they exploited racial tensions, but the fact that they were able to and that people felt so strongly about it only perpetuates the assumptions people have about race. If I were on the team I wouldn't have participated in such a theme, but they evidently accomplished their goal as the judges probably had these same thoughts on their mind throughout the trial.

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  7. I don't think it necessarily shows covert racism, but it seems to be a "We go to Yale, let's see how much we can get away with" type thing. I know a guy who goes to Yale and he would say stuff like this all the time, even to black people, and was actually extremely popular throughout our vast majority black school. The thing is he would say such things extremely sarcastically so that what he said might be completely racist, but what he was implying was the opposite (or was it?). I can just picture all these Yale kids laughing before the trial for a really long time at this theme. I wasn't there so I don't know if this reading could be correct, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. That being said, its incredibly frustrating that a mock trial team, from Yale of all places, would be so inconsiderate and, really, almost outright hateful.

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  8. Is the stereotype you had in mind the idea that "minorities, especially African-Americans, will inject the issue of race into any almost topic, usually a smoke screen tactic to ultimately achieve personal objectives (i.e. winning the case)?"

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