Headlines can be deceiving
Bookworm on Apr 03 2008 at 9:33 am | Filed under: African-Americans, Crime and punishment, Judges
Here’s the headline: “Judge admits mistake in kicking whites out of court.” Upon reading that headline, I assumed that this was going to be the familiar story about some crackpot anti-white judge who issued a ruling, a la the Jeremiah White mode of thinking, that blacks can’t get a fair trial with whites around. Instead, the story is much deeper and sadder.
The story behind the headline is about an African-American judge in Georgia named Marvin Arrington who is profoundly disturbed by the fact that, in his criminal court, “I came out and saw the defendants, and it was about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans.” He wanted to give these defendants a lecture — not a “the white man is out to get you lecture,” but a “you’ve got to start taking control of yourselves” lecture. He was embarrassed, however, to give that lecture with whites present:
“I didn’t want them to think I was talking down to them; trying to embarrass them or insult them; be derogatory toward them, and I was just saying, ‘Please get yourself together,’” Arrington said.
To help these defendants listen to him without becoming humiliated by having successful white people around, the judge dismissed the whites and gave the lecture. He’s since realized that the lecture would have benefited everyone or, at least, not offended anyone:
“In retrospect, it was a mistake,” Judge Marvin Arrington told CNN. “Because my sheriff said to me, ‘Judge, that message should be given to everybody’ — ‘Don’t violate the law, make something out of yourself, go to school, find a role model, somebody that will help you advance your life.’”
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He said he would open his court doors to everyone on Thursday and “I am going to give the same identical speech: ‘You’ve got to do better.’”
Judged Arrington’s handling of the situation may have been a bit inept, but he has the right idea: he saw a problem, and he addressed it, not with speeches about victimhood and demands, but with a speech about personal responsibility, made to those who need to hear it most. Good for him! I sincerely hope that he doesn’t experience any career fallout from this particular decision.
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3 Responses to “Headlines can be deceiving”
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Unless he’s as big and untouchable as Bill Cosby – which as a southern judge, he ain’t – he can expect some fallout.
The Judge sounds like a strong and a sensitive man. A combination which many appreciate.
I would not think he would have much of a problem with either whites or blacks in his own community. The MSM might train their sights on him, but if that happened, I would think he would get some loud local support.
Al
I had much the same reaction as you.
I was watching Glenn Beck, and he was going to have the Judge on after the commercial. I groaned to myself thinking “not more of this” and switched tuners (Tivo).
When I popped back to the show 5 min later, I caught the end of the segment with Glenn saying “good for you Judge”. HUH?? Luckily Tivo let me see what was going on.
The world is a strange place these days, and one should not be quick to “Judge” (ha).