Race has always been a prominent topic of debate in the United States. From the signing of the Constitution and its Three-Fifths Compromise to the present-day Black Lives Matter protests, American politicians have failed to reach a comprehensive agreement on how to address race-related issues. In Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward explores how this failure has resulted in an unjust American justice system. Three particular instances in the novel emphasize the role of racial stereotypes in the United States justice system.
First, when the policeman pulls Leonie over, he “looks between [Jojo and Misty] and makes his decision” and eventually “draws his gun on [Jojo]” (Ward 163). The officer’s judgment that a thirteen-year-old black boy who almost single-handedly parents his sister is more of a threat than a grown white woman signifies the extent to which white people, particularly white authorities, racially profile. While most of the issues characters experience in the novel are hardships with which both races struggle, the police’s preoccupation with racial stereotypes demonstrates the added layer of hardship that black people experience.
Second, the Sunshine Woman’s story calls further attention to the inaccurate and unjust dramatization of black people’s behavior. For instance, when a black man accidentally “brushed up against” (Ward 187) a white woman, “the [resulting] mob beat [him and his wife] so bad they eyes disappeared in they swollen heads” (Ward 188). Similarly, Given’s murder, which was covered up as a “hunting accident” (Ward 50) stems from the violent, targeted anger of white people, and demonstrates how simple, innocent behavior from black people results in their violent deaths, while the white perpetrators receive no legal punishment.
Third, the deaths of Richie and Blue further examine white violence against black people. The mob that forms after their escape from Parchman “wasn’t going to tell no difference” between Blue and Richie; “they was going to see . . . two beasts” (Ward 253), drawing attention to the near-eagerness with which white people become violent against black people, regardless of whether they had committed an actual crime. In each situation, the characters’ races dictate whether they will simply be let off the hook or violently killed without the chance to defend themselves in a fair trial.
Although fewer instances of violent lynchings occur in Jojo’s lifetime (the twenty-first century), Jojo’s near-arrest and Given’s death exemplify how even though laws have changed, racist attitudes prevail in much of America, including the justice system. Just as the ghosts of Richie and Given haunt the present-day in Ward’s novel, the ghosts of America’s violent, racist past haunt present-day America through the perceptions of white people and, consequently, the justice system.
These are all great points. The novel handles the issues of race and discrimination in the south pointedly, without shying away from harsh realities. I think it is interesting also that the book highlights moments of racism both in personal interactions and in systemic ways as well, and in both the past and the present. It further shows how racism is an issue that has haunted and pervaded America since its founding until the present moment. I think Ward's accurate depiction of Parchman is a powerful example of racism as well as the moments of profiling you mentioned here. When Richie follows Jojo on their trip, he witnesses Parchaman's cruel treatment of its Black prisoners from the 50's when he was there, from the earliest days when Native Americans were violently driven away, all the way up to the present day when Michael is convicted. Parchman hasn't really changed very much in its inhumane treatment of the people inside. They are still beaten and worked, and he says that it takes a lot of violent crimes to get white people convicted, where Black crimes are punished more severely, if for things like stealing bread to feed starving family members, which is what Richie is guilty of. Another important instance of racism in the novel is Given's murder. Pop warns Given to not hang around the white boys from his school that he wants to fit in with, but he doesn't see them the way Pop sees them, and it ends up in his murder by a white man. The novel shows instances of racial profiling, but also illuminates systemic racism in institutions from the very beginning to today.
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