The sadness of Rachel Jeantel's testimony [View all]

[KurtNYC]

I found myself thinking a lot about this young woman's testimony (so far, she continues today) and how much the subtext tells us. There are many layers to this onion and the more I peel back the more I feel like crying:

1. She is/was afraid to come forward and is now afraid to testify. Her friend was shot but she seems so afraid to get involved in anyway with seeing justice done. Her identity was protected until yesterday and she will now be a target for all the free floating racial hatred in this country. She seems to know this all too well.

2. It certainly seems like she can't read well enough to protect herself from perjury charges. She was asked to read a transcript of her deposition and it seems apparent that she was faking it. This makes it very easy to claim that she is changing her story from the depo to the stand. Beyond the courtroom, how does a person with very limited reading skills make it in a world which is increasingly complicated and mined with EULAs, disclaimers, warnings, balloon mortgages, etc. But today, I expect Knock Knock to use her inability to read against her to discredit her and impeach her testimony.

3. Her testimony on the events and the words and phrases that she says were used are racially charged. Zim focused on TM's race, the dispatchers ask every caller "white, black or hispanic?" and TM shifts from describing Zim as "creepy ass cracker is staring at me" to the N word.

4. The SCOTUS ruled one day prior to her testimony that key parts of the voting rights act can be struck down now because "things have changed" since 1965, and their disconnect from the reality of courtrooms, the voting process and local governments across this country may be the saddest of all.