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Morgan Crocker blog post for 11/09

The movie Just Mercy really showed us the criminal justice system and all the flaws that it has. Specifically the flaws of it not being equal and are bias to African Americans and other minorities. In the court system people of color are more likely to be incarcerated for a crime they did not do, just because of their skin color. If a white person got caught for the same thing as a person of color it is automatically expected that the white person would get a shorter sentence or even just get a warning while the person of color would get the worst punishment possible. Just Mercy uses Walter McMilian as a narrative to talk about the corrupt power in his case. The corrupt power comes from having foundations in white supremacy.
Before reading this I did not really know what the “war on drugs” truly meant. I did not know that this brought a lot of harm to the African American community. Nixon wanted to criminalize heroin and by doing that also associating criminalization with the African American community. The court system should work on ending the war on drugs so we can keep minorities out of prison for unreasonable drug charges. So instead of going to prison they can work on overcoming their addiction and learn to not use drugs as a replacement for coping for traumatic experiences.

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5 Comments

  1. Thomas Bennett Thomas Bennett

    In “Just Mercy”, it was additionally appalling to learn that McMillian was initially suspected of the crime solely as retribution for his having an affair with a white woman. This sort of punishment for sexual relations draws a direct connection to the lynchings of the past and was reminiscent of “To Kill a Mockingbird” which is mentioned throughout the movie. The irony of the town flaunting that “To Kill a Mockingbird” was written about them was extremely clear when contrasted with their explicitly racist justice system.

  2. Mia Slaunwhite Mia Slaunwhite

    I have never heard of “war on drugs” either. It is crazy that some of the things that are most important to learn about we never hear about.

  3. Maggie Otradovec Maggie Otradovec

    It is incredibly disturbing to think of (or see in the case of Just Mercy) how corrupt our justice system can be, especially when it comes to minorities. The policies put into place during the war on drugs has disproportionately affected minority communities in ways that are still seen today.

  4. Michael Stein Michael Stein

    I think in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, it can be easy see police as the only part of the justice system that disproportionally hurts Black people. As the movie “Just Mercy” shows, the courts also have a detrimental effect on Black people by charging them with exaggerated sentences even when there is minimal evidence.

  5. Mohamad Kassem Mohamad Kassem

    I also agree with Michael, when talking about the injustice system people would mostly associate it with police brutality towards minority groups. However, in the case of “Just Mercy,” we see that the police are not the only part of the system that justifies hurting the black community but it also includes the courts. It was crazy to see how the judge managed to keep the death penalty for an innocent person after presenting all those proofs.

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