The
religious principle I've always had the most trouble with is "Judge ye not". I am a pretty judgey person by nature. Whenever I'm reading the
news, or observing my fellow citizens in traffic, ("Thanks for nearly
running us over, jerk!") my gut
reaction is "How can people be so completely
selfish/intolerant/cruel? What kind of decent person does that?"
I've been reflecting on my judginess as I'm reading this month's African American Lit discussion book.
Imagine your son is a freshman at an exclusive liberal arts college. Late one night, a scholarship student from Newark gets in a loud argument in the dorm with several guys from his old neighborhood. Angry that your son and other students are watching, the Newark kid yells at them to leave, and when you son refuses, threatens him, then pick him up and hurls him headfirst against the floor, breaking his leg. It transpires that the scholarship student had been jailed the previous summer for the attempted murder of a crack dealer he had stabbed. You are asked if you want to press charges, and send the assailant to jail.
Is there any question how most of us would react? All your son did was stand up to intimidation: he didn't call the guy names, or threaten him or use violence, and yet this thug with a violent criminal record, this ANIMAL dared to lay hands on your child in his own dorm. Of course you would press charges.
And if you had, you would have ended the life and career of Dr Rameck Hunt, currently an internist at Princeton's University Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Dr. Hunt is the co-author, along with his friends Dr. Sampson Davis and Dr. George Jenkins of The Pact, the story of 3 young black men from the Newark projects who supported each other in their dreams to become successful doctors.
Unlike many stories of poor but saintly children triumphing over the odds, this one doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties. Looking back, Dr. Hunt explains (but does not excuse) his behavior: "On the streets where I grew up if someone disrespected you, you beat his ass. Period. If I did nothing I'd look like a punk".
How
many times have we read about violent young people and thought "Punk".
"Lowlife". "Thug". After all, how could decent people do that?
President Obama speaks with black youth about the "My Brothers' Keeper" initiative |
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