In the book Response
by Paul Volponi, the issue of racism and justice ties in together. The book is
about a teenager named Noah Jackson who goes to a wealthy neighborhood with the
intention of stealing an expensive car and then selling it to a chop shop in
order to support his child, Destiny Love.
But when he goes to Hillsboro, a neighborhood which, he gets assaulted
by three white men, who hurl epithets at him as they attack him, making people
wonder if this was a hate crime or if the attackers knew that Noah and his
friends were up to no good and they were defending their neighborhood. The
neighborhood (Hillsboro) has a reputation for being racist because many hate
crimes have been committed there, and that suggests it was a hate crime, and
hate crimes are products of racism, I think the very complex and important
issues of race and justice come together in the book Response because
one his attackers, Rao, got only two years in jail for stealing Noah’s cell
phone, earring, and attacking him. He could’ve faced a sentence up to 25 years
in prison but instead he got only a mere two years. Also, Charles Scatturo, the
main offender in the attack, lied to all the detectives and lawyers and they
used all of that as evidence in the court. That shows how the justice could be
altered if the jury believes all of the “evidence” that the defense uses. And
when racial slurs were said to Noah, like the N-word, the defense blamed it on
his culture, saying it’s used in friendship, and to look “cool”. If it was only
in friendship, which it was not, the jury and all of the spectators going over
this case could deny him the justice of his attackers because if they were
trying to only look hip, what’s so bad about that? As you can see, there are
many examples of the issue of racism and justice tied in together.
Racism and justice tied in together when one of Noah’s
attackers named Rao, who robbed him of his cell phone and diamond stud earring
and brutally attacked him only got two years in prison instead of the maximum
of 25 years, which he deserved. It never lists the races of the jury, but the
two big neighborhoods in the book were East Franklin (a nearly all-black
neighborhood) and Hillsboro (a nearly all-white neighborhood) and naturally, a
case always wants a diverse jury. So probably, there were people from East
Franklin and Hillsboro. Also, a lot of the people at Noah’s high school were
wearing shirts that said “Free Spenelli”, who was one of the people who
attacked Noah. So possibly, some of the jury members were against sentencing
Rao because Noah was black, but Noah still didn’t any of his well-deserved
justice. That’s how racism and justice ties in together when one of Noah’s
attackers only got two years in jail opposed to 25 years.
Another way racism and justice ties in together is that
Charles Scatturo, the main offender, lied to the detectives and the jury,
saying he was just protecting his neighborhood and it wasn’t because of Noah’s
skin color. This could also alter Noah’s justice because sadly, there are
always ignorant people in the world who will believe anything. Many ignorant
people followed this hate crime and it got very famous, which means more people
to unjustly judge this crime because of Noah’s skin color and what Charles
Scatturo said. And what Charles Scatturo said they used in court as evidence,
trying to sway people’s opinions. The ignorant people’s opinions could change
them, depriving Noah of his justice.
A final way that racism connects with the issue of
justice in the book Response is that when racial slurs were hurled at
Noah while he was being attacked, (Such as the N-word) making it be more
susceptible to be a hate crime, the defense retorted that it was Noah’s
culture, and the N-word is often used in friendship in the black community,
saying that it couldn’t possibly be a hate crime then, because they were just
saying it to look cool. That causes all the spectators and even the jury to
think if they were just saying it to look hip; it couldn’t possibly be a hate
crime. Blaming Noah’s culture is not just incredibly racist, but it keeps him
further away from getting justice.
In conclusion, in the book Response by Paul
Volponi the two very intense and important issues of racism and justice tie in
together because the only thing that’s standing in that’s standing in the way
of his deserved justice is his race. Because of his race all these other
dilemmas are put in the way of his getting justice, such as one of his
attackers only getting 2 years in prison opposed to 25 years, Charles Scaturro
lying and saying that the attack on Noah wasn’t a hate crime, and the defense
blaming his ethnic culture for the horrid epithets hurled at him by his
attackers.
