Bryan Stevenson's seek for equality
What makes Bryan Stevenson revolutionary, is not only him recognizing why the current justice system is corrupt but taking an initiative to change it. His voice speaks for a greater audience, for everyone. When he realized the justice system was flawed, he wanted to find answers. Understanding that this idea of racist stems from lack of knowledge. He states “I believe the true evil of American slavery was the narrative of racial difference, [the myth] that black people aren’t fully human…. And because of that I don’t think slavery ended in 1865 — it just evolved.” This powerful quote resembles his acknowledgement of the current corruption of the system. But not only does he point this out but he seeks and acts to change it. His understanding for balance is equality. One of his main goals is to change the narrative on race and poverty, in which he believes comes from our current lack of change in the justice system.
His goal of fighting racism and creating equality is his desire to seek a new balance. This balance that in his eyes should have been earlier. His goal of reaching this new balance is a revolution in which many other people of color fight for.
Another campus commentary I went to was held by Davidson’s Pan-Asian Student Association on Youtube Live during our current COVID-19 outbreak. Janki Kaneria is a South Asian woman who is currently an assistant public defender at the Mecklenburg County Public Defender’s Office.
Something that I did not realize to be so drastically different was the difference in changes by state. Kaeria went to UCLA for law school and talks about a very shocking difference she found in North Carolina compared to California. It was shocking to me that soliciting alms was a crime in NC, which means you are arrested for begging for money. “criminalizing homelessness”
Something that spoke to me during her Q&A was being not only a person of color but a woman of color in Criminal Justice. Dealing with all of the microaggressions and doubt, I feel as with the adversity Kaeria had to push through was moving. I also find it quite ironic that we seek to find justice and equality but lack that on an even on a macro level.
John Kaisch event
John Kasich and Davidson Professors
John Kasich’s talk was interesting to me, I had to actively remind myself that he was not a running politician due to his persuasive speech. It seemed to me that he was doing the typical politician talk about all of inspirational/motivational talks. He has some interesting points of how we as the youth must push for change but “slowly”. This to me was a little confusing in his talk because it made it seem as if he was distinguishing the youth from the people in power. Someone asked that “how can we as individuals has politicians hear our voices?” His response was to keep pushing and make your voice heard. To me this response was the vaguest response. He started to talk about the difference between being “woke” and “enlightened”. He questioned why our generation uses the word woke because to him that just means to become awake, instead of being enlightened as to be granted a sense of knowledge. He believed that being woke means that you were better than the other part that is not woke. He stated that “To be enlightened is the light that can be found”. Another statement that intrigued me was the importance of building a party. He approached the topic very aggressively, when a student asked the question. To him it seemed as he was frustrated at the youth complaining that their voices aren’t heard. He was very passionate on the idea of building your party and to have supporters. He even brought up the idea that some ideas are just not supported by the majority so they are invalid.
I wanted to add onto this the knowledge of Trump’s impeachment. I found that the response that everyone had to his impeachment reminded me of Kasich’s talk because there is so much blur from political persuasion and media.