So-much was made that there were too many white people on the jury-

[demtenjeep]

I have served on jury twice. I am a white middle aged woman. I never used my color when deciding on a verdict.



MANY people can honestly serve on a jury without thinking about their color




Today proved that

[electric_blue68]

1. There has been sooo mich history in the other direction, though.

[demtenjeep]

6. you are right

but I would like to think many of us are beyond that

[electric_blue68]

18. Not enough yet 😔 but today justice has triumphed

[Solomon]

32. Bless your heart.

[onecaliberal]

2. You're not wrong. This crime is so heinous.

[BlackSkimmer]

3. Same here.

I was one of two holdouts that hung a jury in an armed robbery case. The other holdout was a white woman too.

Defendant was black.

[BradAllison]

4. This was pretty open and shut.

[demtenjeep]

5. true-but still

both juries I was on the defendant was a different color.

None of us used color - We used facts.

[BradAllison]

9. There was also a video

[spinbaby]

34. Without the video, there wouldn't have been a trial

If I remember correctly, it took weeks to even bring charges.

[spooky3]

11. A lot of bias is unconscious. I'm glad it didn't influence

The juries on which you sat, and glad justice was served in the Arbery case.

This one was almost as clear cut as the George Floyd case. I hope we will get to the point where cases don’t have to be extreme or obvious in order for justice to be served.

[electric_blue68]

20. This too (the extremes only being properly acted on)

[viva la]

21. That Roddy guy looked like someone hit him on the head with a 2X4--

pole-axed.
"How did this happen to me????"

I wonder if he was offered a deal and turned it down, assuming he'd get off because he "only" chased the victim and helped trap him.

[BradAllison]

28. Supposedly no deals were offered

Per the prosecutors.

[Irish_Dem]

44. I thought the Rittenhouse case was open and shut.

[iemanja]

7. You use your color every minute of your life

You can't help it. We all do. We're raised white in a racist society. Whiteness is key to who we are.

[whathehell]

17. That doesn't mean your color has to influence your decision in a trial.

[demtenjeep]

25. I teach in a school that is VERY diverse

I do not walk around with my "whiteness" every second.


I treat people like I would want to be treated.

I treat my students like I wanted my daughter to be treated.



All my kids call me Mama D because I tell them that in my classroom, they are my babies and always will be

I did not come up with that moniker-they did

[whathehell]

29. Good..

Neither do most of us, imo.

[iemanja]

33. Do you think about the ways in which white privilege influences your life?

Because it does, in virtually everything.

[mopinko]

23. mostly, but that brush is a bit broad.

i honestly never heard a word of hate come out the mouth of a single member of my family.
and being pure irish, i know i come from a people that was oppressed for centuries. we had zero sense of privilege beyond the fact that we were lucky to be alive, and living in a land of plenty.

i raised my kids the same. live in a very diverse neighborhood. you could have asked my kids about the ancestry of their friends, and they wouldnt have had a clue. it never occurred to them til they were hs age that people even noticed that shit.

the closest i come is knowing that being an anti-racist in this day and age is a necessity.

[iemanja]

36. Do you think that

that being white in America brings no privileges? This isn't the 18th or 19th century. The Irish aren't persecuted as we once were.

Being influenced by race isn't just about hurling slurs. It's walking into a store and not being harassed because one isn't white. It's about the freedom to drive in a car without being stopped for driving while black. Virtually all black men have been stopped multiple times for just driving their cars. As white people we don't have to worry about that, unless we've engaged in some sort of infraction. American culture is built for us. Yes, class plays a huge role, but even the poorest white person has whiteness to rely upon, and that makes a major difference.

[mopinko]

48. i'm not saying other's dont think i have privilege,

i'm saying that i never looked at another human and thought myself better because of the color of my skin. and i raised my kids to think it's just wrong as well.

when my grandparents came here there were still signs that said- no irish or dogs.
it's not that long ago. and those people handed it down to me.

[whathehell]

27. Not consciously.

unless you're a racist, which I doubt most here are.

[iemanja]

30. Of course it's not conscious

even for many racists.

[whathehell]

37. Lol..You're sure about that, huh?

No, I don't think you are..."Using" one's whiteness (or anything else) conveys intention, and therefore "consciousness".

[iemanja]

39. It is automatic

You drive to the store today and you aren't pulled over for being black--because you aren't black. That's the privilege of whiteness. There is nothing funny about this subject matter.

[whathehell]

47. Yes, so is male privilege..

They get to do all sorts of things females can't, and it cuts across all.racial lines.
My point is, if it's not "intentional", the individual, be their privilege race or gender, cannot be blamed. Having said that, however, I DO believe it's incumbent upon the advantaged to be AWARE of the injustices, and to work, in what ways they can, to eliminate it.

[Tommy Carcetti]

8. The judge really made the difference in this case.

He was calm, rational, professional and unbiased.

Unlike the Rittenhouse judge.

[dsc]

10. I am not sure we should break our arms patting ourselves on the back

that people who murdered an unarmed man, in broad daylight, and upon cross examination admitted that their defense was a joke managed to get convicted. These seems like a least you could do scenario.

[demtenjeep]

12. NO back patting

and honestly,

the defendants were white

so really a jury of their peers ..............

[iemanja]

42. Wow

[greenjar_01]

13. Seriously!

[demmiblue]

19. No kidding.

[whathehell]

22. I don't think anyone is doing that...

but could we at least savor a victory for one minute before Debbie Downer
makes an appearance?.

[padah513]

45. Lol

She never fails to show up, does she? I said the same thing a week or two ago.

[whathehell]

46. Correct!

It's like happiness is "suspect", or something..

[CrackityJones75]

14. JFC... Really?

Happy for your non-color affected ability in coming to a verdict but a jury should be made up of a cross section of society as a whole IMHO.

[viva la]

15. I'm glad there was at least one black person on the jury, however.

It helps to have the perspective of someone who has experienced life as a non-white.

The defense was so cynical, assuming that all white people were going to side with the lynch mob.

[barbtries]

16. right?

this was the defense that asked for no more Black pastors, right?

[viva la]

24. Those defense attorneys quite openly used the sort of racist rhetoric

that were common... in the 50s.

Did they not even think that maybe it wouldn't go over well with the jury?

[barbtries]

31. it seems they did not.

might constitute grounds for appeal on the basis of ineffective counsel.

[Hav]

40. At times, it looked as if they were torpedoing their own case

and I jokingly thought as well that they might claim incompetence as a reason for an appeal.
They tried to get jurors removed, one of the lawyers couldn't stop his daily dog whistles, then we had the despicable lawyer with her toenail comment that was absolutely unnecessary (if it was an argument about being a jogger or not, it could have been made without being so disgusting). To top it off, they ridiculed one of the jurors in public two days before the jury started their deliberations.

I don't know whether they lack the awareness to realize how bad all of this made them appear or whether they knew that the most they could hope for was a hung jury by appealing to one racist among the jurors.

[iemanja]

41. and said that Arbery wasn't a victim

because he didn't wear socks and had long toenails.

[barbtries]

43. jeez.

i have not watched either trial. i'm taking a sabbatical this year trying to recover from 4 years of trump. but it appears that he never actually goes away.

[Hav]

35. The defense asked for the removal of a juror (not sure whether it was always the same)

multiple times during the trial. They did the same during the closing phase as well. Jurors were only referred to by their numbers but I wondered whether the defense was targeting one specific juror.

[Patton French]

26. Very good point (n/t)

[iemanja]

38. Back to the point of your thread

All white juries are a problem. They disproportionately convict black people for the same crimes that they would free white people for. The courts have ruled that a jury of one's peers cannot be an all-white jury for a defendant that is not white.

We live in a system in which being a black man who kills a white man exponentially increases one's chance of receiving the death penalty. That is because MANY white people unconsciously treat people of color as less, treat their lives as of less value.

Racism is the norm in US society, not the exception.