The 2019 film "Righteous Mercy" is american director Destin. Clayton according to U.S. human rights lawyer Brian M. Adapted from Stevenson's memoirs. The film tells the life story of American human rights lawyer Stevenson, a pioneer advocate of fair adjudication in the United States who fought against the unfair justice system and protected blacks and the poor who were treated unequally. Beginning with stevenson's first case, the film gradually opens up the dark and naked racial discrimination of the American judicial system.
In 1986, Ronda, an 18-year-old white girl in Monroeville, was killed in a car accident. Morrison was murdered, and for half a year the police did not solve the case, and the community fell into fear and anger. Walter, a black man who has nothing to do with this case. Macmillan became the "perfect suspect" in the eyes of the police. Because of the color of his skin, Macmillan was held on death row for six years.
The United States is a country that prides itself on democracy, justice, fairness, and freedom, but these words that symbolize light are full of paradoxes. Racial discrimination has always existed in the United States. When the white view, black slavery, black consciousness, and other factors are intertwined, we can tear the fig leaf of American-style democracy and enter the dark side of its system.
"The Mercy of Justice" builds a "labyrinth" about the system or about human nature in the context of the collusion of money, power, interests and extreme racial discrimination, and the director uses cases such as misjudgment and misjudgment to show the dark side of a country and the involuntary and helplessness of individuals wrapped up in the system. Walter. Macmillan was wronged for being black and was sentenced to death despite the conclusive evidence of his alibi. Lawyer at Attorney Brian. Stevenson helps Walter. Macmillan discovered the embarrassing situation of black people, which inspired him to fight for human rights.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >1. </h1>
When we talk about racial discrimination in the United States, the first thing that comes to mind is the superiority of white Americans, who seem to be "natural human rights" on top. In fact, the superiority of white people did not arise after the emergence of black people, but a kind of extremely selfish self-identification psychology precipitated in British culture.
The British, who came from the Elizabethan era, had a paranoid preference for white. In their culture, white represents purity, nobility, goodness, and beauty. In the faith, white symbolizes Christ and angels, while the opposite of black represents depravity and evil. The opposition between white and black indirectly defines the races between different skin tones.
With the advent of the Age of Discovery, whites and blacks came to face, and when blacks appeared in the white vision in a barbaric, primitive, rough image, white consciousness was strengthened and revealed obvious superiority. In other words, when two different cultures collide with each other, the dominant culture necessarily measures the inferior culture by its own scales and rules.
The first to contact the blacks on the west coast of the African continent were the English, who, when they set foot on this mysterious and uncivilized land, immediately became aware of the differences between them. This difference is not only an economic, cultural, military, and institutional difference, but also a state of existence in this land that is completely different from that of civilized society, such as polytheistic worship, infant drowning, polymarinuation, human sacrifice, and cannibalism.
These, bloody, barbaric, primitive, and all sorts of things are considered to be a repudiation of the Christian faith. So the Englishmen, who held the Bible, began to transform these "barbarians" with their own civilizational norms.
Under the extreme "self-centered" yardstick of the English, they saw themselves as redeemers on the African continent, and they used the white, white culture, white faith, and white nationality they represented as the standard to exclude other ethnic groups. Thus, the indigenous peoples of the African continent became ruled.
In fact, the racial theory brought about by the English was an excuse for white people to examine themselves, defend their actions, and emphasize the existence of their own civilization. In other words, it was the existence of blacks that inspired white people's racial ideas and national superiority.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2. Racial discrimination is a deep-rooted tumor in American society. </h1>
In 1619, the first black slaves were trafficked into the North American continent, and racial discrimination against blacks in the United States began to spread. It was not until after World War II that the movement of black Americans for freedom and equality began, "the large-scale struggle of black Americans against racial discrimination and racial oppression in the mid-1960s for political and economic equal rights." ”
Unlike the early colonial rule of the English, in the United States, blacks were the largest minority in the United States, chronically racially discriminated against, at the bottom of society, and on the oppressed side. This is because slavery has existed in the United States for a long time, and with institutional escort, slavery has become a legitimate act.
Why do black people suffer from huge inequalities and discrimination?
At its root is the stubborn racist intellectual tradition of whites. During the Civil War, nearly all American biologists, physicists, and experts interested in race considered blacks to be a lower race, and the educated classes of the North held a professional view. The British observer James Bryce boldly declared that "blacks have no capacity for abstract thinking, scientific inquiry, and any invention" and "they cannot associate with the higher races because of inferiorities that cannot be described in words."
Through culture, education and language, a vicious circle of racial discrimination was formed, resulting in the loss of the rights of blacks. When blacks are unable to obtain a material basis through legitimate behavior, the dominant whites are more righteous in declaring the inferiority, ignorance, barbarism, and violence of black people.
In Mercy of Justice, we can see a clip where black people in prison, when they talk about their crimes, always emphasize that because they are black, the crimes are established. Just because of the color of the skin, they become murderers, and this injustice abounds. It is precisely this injustice that makes up this film, allowing people to spy on the embarrassment and anxiety of black people.
When black slavery had not yet been abolished, inhuman treatment was commonplace for blacks, and black women were even more oppressed, and they had to endure not only racial oppression, but also gender oppression and physical aggression. After the abolition of black slavery, the idea of slavery did not disappear with it, because "slavery" had become part of the culture, coexisting with the superiority of whites.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >3. The rise of black national consciousness tore through the fig leaf of American-style democracy. </h1>
The embarrassing identity of blacks in the United States stems from the fact that they are the only race that has involuntarily and forcibly immigrated to the United States, so their revolt is also historic. The early struggle was relatively simple, basically to escape the oppression of the slave owners. Later, the scale of the black struggle gradually expanded, and a series of organized and led resistance movements began.
Booker at the end of the nineteenth century. Washington led the Tuskki Movement, the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and so on. These movements were all struggles by blacks to try to enter white society. Unfortunately, this kind of resistance does not point directly to the irrationality of "slavery", but to a powerful invasion. Under the influence of the black civil rights movement, many blacks began to fight for the right to sit on an equal footing with whites, unfortunately, in law and in practice, there were unwritten policies and systems that discriminated against blacks.
Fighting against racial discrimination has never been an easy road, and in real life, the treatment of blacks is not optimistic, and only by looking elsewhere can we obtain true freedom and fairness. The policy of "black-only" members was adopted in 1942, a congress for racial equality aimed at racial integration was adopted. The National Student Unity Action Committee, which originally aimed to build an ethnically integrated society for the struggle for apartheid, also demanded the rights of blacks.
At the same time, nationalism emerged in the negro countries, forming new republics, such as the New African Republic. At the same time, radicals also appeared in the black community, such as black Muslims, black panther parties, and so on. These organizations put a lot of effort into their quest for black power, but some of these excesses also caused resentment in white society. In this strong fusion, the relationship between races is also even worse.
Although the status of blacks has improved considerably in the United States today, discrimination persists. Charles Oglettrey, a black professor at Harvard Law School, said, "Every day, you can see progress [on the race issue], but when you look at the 500 big companies in Fortune magazine, when you look at the accumulation of wealth, when you look at the distribution of power, you see that African Americans are at best second-rate."
Mercy of Justice: "It is too easy for us to convict this innocent man, it is too easy for us to send him to death row, and it is even more difficult for him to prove his innocence and freedom."
Back in The Mercy of Justice, what we see in the film is not the sympathy between two black people, but the collision between two dilemmas. Brian. Stevenson as Walter. Macmillan's defense attorneys never stopped their quest for justice when they found enough evidence to prove Walter's innocence. Whether it's a public official giving it to Brian. Stevenson exerted pressure, or social condemnation, both to make Brian. Stevenson remained sober and sane.
And Walter. Macmillan's life after his release was not satisfactory, he could not escape the shadow of these six years of prison life, and eventually died in chaos and despair. Because of justice, Walter. Macmillan was freed because of Mercy, Walter. Macmillan forgave the public officials who had framed him. We don't know what kind of emotion this forgiveness is, but to be sure there is some faint sadness in it, because at this point, there is no better way than to forgive.
I once saw such a sentence: the so-called "civilization" is actually "inheritance". Even if the genocide that created civilization is extinct, the shadow of the race remains in the civilization, and as long as it has an "inheritor"—even if it is completely different from the original race—it will continue to develop until it can no longer find any way to exist.
Perhaps we will never be able to eliminate "discrimination" from civilization, because every race that survives in heaven and earth has its own faith; and every life that is born in the world has its own helplessness. But fortunately, we still have Brian. People like Stevenson are trying. Just like Brian. As Stevenson put it, "It is the most powerful, open, and transformative part of compassion that gives forgiveness—the forgiveness of justice, rooted in hope and free will," to those who are not worthy of forgiveness, or even to seek forgiveness, to reduce hatred and anger, to make justice no longer threatened, and to redeem everyone." After all, each of us needs forgiveness, each of us needs justice, and perhaps each of us needs some compassion that we shouldn't have received. ”