Two Towns of Jasper
...ite of the nature of Byrd's murder, you cannot stereotype a community because of the actions of a few. According to the Mayor of Jasper, there had been no unusual racial problems in the town in the past. "The kind of racial problems we had here were the kinds of things where you wouldn't get the promotion or the right jobs," said Byrd's sister Mary Verrett. "In all the time I grew up, there was never any outright bigotry, and none of us were afraid to walk the street. In fact, you could say we were pretty happy." Many people seemed to believe the crime did not reflect a deeper problem. All three men had tattoos or personal items with the special markings of a white supremacist. For all of his personal problems- alcoholism, petty thievery, an inability to hold a job- James Byrd was well liked and had never been involved in any kind of racial incident. It may have been a case of unfortunate circumstances, too much to drink, nothing to do, influence of Klan propaganda, a lone black man on a dark street giving shape to all the thoughts the men had absorbed in prison. Without a doubt, these men were not transformed into racists overnight. "Learning to hate is almost as inescapable as breathing. The hate crime offender grows up in a culture that distinguishes certain people as righteous, while designating others as sleazy, immoral characters who deserve to be mistreated" (Levin 21). One cannot be disillusioned to think that we live in a society free of stereotypes. The three men who murdered James Byrd grew up in an environment that stamped all blacks as being inferior subordinates. So when they saw James Byrd walking down the road on the night of his death, they weren't looking at James Byrd the individual; all they saw was a black man that gave shape to the nasty stereotypical images in their heads. All that mattered to them was that the person's skin was black and different from theirs. "Two Towns of Jasper" reveals a more troubled and nuanced reality behind the demonstrations of racial unity. Beneath honest outrage lurks a legacy of mutual distrust between blacks and whites and wildly differing accounts of the state of race relations in the town. Some whites in Jasper feel angry over the negative attention the crime has brought, and claim complete surprise that such an atrocity could have occurred in their town. Others feel a need to point out the faults of James Byrd, Jr., as if his personal shortcomings somehow help explain the crime. One of Jasper's white citizens, an avowed white supremacist, is neither shocked nor surprised by the crime. He sees the town's reaction to it as ...