A Letter to Rachel Jeantel - An Apology on Behalf of the Whole World

[nolabear]

19. You're welcome. But it is a real question. I'd like to know.

I might think I'm a bit too precious here, but I do have some advantages. As a therapist I talk, and sometimes as an authority figure fail magnificently to talk, to teens a lot. Perfectly normal teens are suspicious, irritated at, and have little interest in adult authority figures. It's part of breaking away and forming a peer identity. And as a woman raised in the New Orleans area I am very, very aware of distinct cultural norms within various African American communities. The idea that she would struggle to read cursive in a world filled with texting and an oral as opposed to a written tradition isn't indicative of low intelligence but she was treated that way. The idea that she would curse in front of her friend's mama might well be unthinkable (I have been told more than once "My mama would whip my ass if I didn't say 'Good morning' to Miss So-and-So on the street," when the very idea in the cool Northwest where I now reside is thought of as intrusive and icky). And I have the fairly certain, though uncomfortable, idea that were she pretty and a little submissive the exact same words could have come out of her mouth and she'd have been perceived entirely differently.

Oddly enough, she seemed to me to be trying very hard to be respectful in a situation in which she was being treated with the ultimate goal of being proven a liar. I'd be hostile too, but I'd be better at playing the attorney's game.

I suppose I'm on a tear, but I truly feel bad about the way that child is being treated.