November 8 2018 – Click here to listen
A friend was telling me that he served on a jury for the very first time a couple of weeks ago. The man on trial was accused of robbing a business owner whom he followed to his home. He stuck a gun in his back and told him to give him his money. The victim had no cash but did have a blank signed check in his wallet which the robber took. The perpetrator stole the check and his car and then cashed the check at a check cashing business. It was investigated, and the authorities found his fingerprints on the check and in the stolen car which the assailant had ditched not far from the victim’s home.
So, one would think it had to be a no brainer to convict this guy, but it ended up being a hung jury. One lady held out stating that she believed the police investigators were lying about the fingerprints.
Huh?
It turns out the man on trial was black and this lady was black, and my friend told me that is the only reason he can think of for her to be the lone vote for not guilty. He said the rest of the jury argued for days with her, but it was to no avail. I don’t know her motivations but if that is the case, I feel sorry for her. I cannot imagine allowing a criminal to go free just because he is white. My friend told me the suspect was covered in tattoos including teardrops coming from his eyes which signifies that he has murdered someone for each teardrop.
I have been writing an article about a lady who worked five years at a women’s correctional institution. There she saw fights, beatings, and the worst behavior imaginable. She changed jobs and worked in a children’s protective services agency for three more years. There she saw the most horrific cases of child abuse including beatings and sexual assaults that were so bad that she experienced nightmares about it. She cried out to God and asked why she had been exposed to this evil. He replied, “You spent five years dealing with angry teenage girls and now I’m taking you back in time to show you why they are so angry.” Her ideas about being judgmental about people changed from that moment on and she went on to create a ministry that accepts people as they are. She maintains that the key to helping them begins with understanding what made them the way they are.
I don’t pretend to understand why so many black people feel the way they do about whites. I can only guess it must have been ingrained in them by some event in their youth or by indoctrination by someone else that experienced it. I was with a four-star general black man and his wife this past weekend at a conference and they were as nice and gracious as anyone could possibly be. Why are these folks not full of resentment? Were they raised differently?
When will this racism sentiment ever end?
I do know that I get tired of those who play the racism card towards me. I’ve never owned a slave and doubt seriously that my hardscrabble relatives ever owned one either. In fact, they were probably indentured servants if not slaves themselves. I didn’t have white privilege growing up. I was homeless and got to where I am through hard work, perseverance, and blessings from God. I don’t hate anyone for the color of their skin. I don’t like bad behavior from anyone whether they are black, brown, white, yellow, red, or maroon . . .
I think that the color of people’s skin has little to do with what is in their heart. There are evil and good people of every color. I wonder what happened in that juror’s life to make her distrust the police so much to think that they would “lie” about finding his fingerprints on the stolen check and car. Was it something passed down from her parents, and their parents, and their parents? Or did she have some injustice occur to her in her youth? Or did she just want to release a criminal back to the streets where he can rob and kill again?
Racism is a two-way street; it is not reserved for white people oppressing people of color because every race has racists. Satan loves it; God hates it. If only we would view people from the same perspective that God does . . .
1 Samuel 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”