An Injustice Indeed

I usually stick strictly to sports around here, but this is definitely worthy of mention.

I'm short on time, as I have an 8:00 class tomorrow morning, so this will be much shorter than this topic deserves.

I got back from playing some pick-up basketball around 10:30 this evening, showered, and - as is force of habit - logged on to espn.com. The front page contains this article. I encourage you to read it for yourself, as I'd rather you read it there than risk missing a detail in a short summary here.

The compelling article tells the story of Genarlow Wilson, once a star athlete and honor roll student at his high school in Douglasville, Georgia. Wilson is now serving a ten-year prison term (without possibility of parole) for receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old when he was 17. The girl and prosecutors admitted it was consensual from the start. He stood trial on rape and aggravated child molestation charges, and was found not guilty to the former, guilty to the latter. In Georgia, aggravated child molestation carries a minimum penalty of ten years in prison without a chance for parole. That was how the courts punished Wilson, following the wording but not the intent of the law.

The law has since been changed, but it was not implemented retroactively, so Wilson is still in prison. Wilson's case has been before the Georgia Supreme Court, comprised of four Caucasians and three African-Americans. In a vote that could have gotten Wilson out of jail, the vote was 4-3 against. Sadly, I probably don't need to spell out which members voted for and against. Also, as is later stated in the article, a white high school teacher was found guilty of having a sexual relationship with a student - and received only 90 days in prison.

After reading this article, one week after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I felt angry and ashamed for our society. I am sickened that - over 140 years since the abolition of slavery and nearly 40 years past King's death - some people (worse yet, people in power) still don't get it.

I'm a white kid from a predominantly white hometown, and I go to a school that I would guess is about 95% white. I've been pretty shielded from this stuff (though I have seen it in person), and though (sadly) I wasn't terribly surprised, I was appalled to see something like this.

My first crack at writing on something other than sports around here, and I know this is a touchy subject. I truly hope to have done it some justice.

And once again - if you haven't yet, read the article. I don't want you to miss anything I've left out here.

"So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change" - John Mayer