Cultural Diversity and the Death of James Byrd, Jr.

In her 2002 book, Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas, Joyce King relates that on June 7, 1998, the body of James Byrd, Jr., a black man, was found in the streets of Jasper, TX (King, 2002, p.3). She chronicles the criminal investigation, which revealed Byrd was dragged, alive, behind a pickup truck until he succumbed to the abuse and died, in a racially motivated murder reminiscent of lynching. She relates the basic horror of the hateful violence and describes that his remains were found scattered over more than 70 places along three miles of roadway (King, 2002, p. 29) in Jasper. She further describes the justice visited upon the men who committed the murder, Sean Berry, Lawrence Brewer and John King, who were sentenced to life in prison, death, and death, respectively (King, 2002). King’s book, however, is not meant simply to document the crime and the related legal process. Rather, she uses the horrific events to spur a discussion about race and cultural diversity, beginning with an examination of her own biases on the subject. A critical look at King’s attitudes reveals she is perhaps correct to examine her own inclinations on the subject. This inward look of King’s may be useful for each of us to emulate in ourselves as we have our own discussion on the subject.

King discusses and demonstrates her potential biases directly and indirectly. She plainly states she had her own ingrained racial prejudices and stereotypes and uncertainties that she needed to work around in order to write the story and analysis in her book (p. 211). In other places, however, she communicates potential predispositions more subtly, and perhaps unintentionally.

One example of this indirect communication of her possible preconceptions is in her description of the events surrounding her being fired from her job as a news anchor in a CBS radio affiliate. She discusses the fact that she was terminated from her position because the station wanted to “target a younger audience” (p. 59). In relating she was the youngest anchor at the station, she relates that she wondered at the time if the termination was due to racial discrimination in the workplace. In overlooking the potential to discuss age discrimination and instead defaulting to the race issue, she may have inadvertently communicated a sensitivity to issues of race that she did not intend to.

Another potential indicator of partiality is her treatment of the descriptions of the actions of the murderers and the victim prior to the murder. All were drinking with family and friends before the murderers’ hate caused them to kill Byrd; the major difference is in how King relates the two parallel nights. While the murderers’ actions during the hours leading up to the murder are depicted as reckless partying, Byrd’s actions are framed as innocent and happy. This human tendency to exaggerate the general innocence of Byrd and to exaggeratedly demonize the people we already know to be clearly awful may indicate a lack of neutrality in her discussion of the events, whether or not it is clear that this bias is due to race.

We are all human, and we all have preconceived notions about race and cultural diversity. Acknowledging that King may have illustrated this in her reporting and discussion of the terrible and tragic death of James Byrd is not a criticism, but an observation. It appears these events may tell us that we are not as near to a perfectly harmonious society as we would like to be. The fact that three men could commit an act so heinous and completely foreign to humanity just based upon racial hatred is a clear indication of where we are in society. Even if an incident like this is recognized nearly universally as abhorrent, the conditions exist for the crime to have been conceived and committed. Ms. King’s preconceptions about race and, perhaps, partiality in telling this story may be a similar indicator of how far we still need to go. By examining Mr. Byrd’s death, the events that lead to it, and the partiality of King’s description of it, we can learn invaluable lessons about our own attitudes and where we may grow as a society.

Reference

King, J. (2002). Hate crime: the story of a dragging in Jasper, Texas. New York: Pantheon Books.