In the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, the main social issue that is presented is racism. All of the dilemmas within the book branch out from one major issue, which is racism against people of color. Had there been no racism within the book, the problems that the text consists of would not exist.
Even within the first pages of the book, the racism towards people of color is astonishingly noticeable. For example, in the text it states, “But there was no evidence against Mr. McMillian- no evidence except that he was an African American man involved in an adulterous interracial affair, which meant he was reckless and possibly dangerous, even if he had no prior criminal history and a good reputation. Maybe that was evidence enough,” (Stevenson 31). This part of the book captures how something that has nothing to do with the case, the color of one of the important characters (i.e. Walter McMillian) skin, impacted whether or not he was proven guilty of a murder that he had nothing at all to do with. If racism wasn’t such an extreme issue in the book, Walter would have never been accused of doing something so vile. The blame was pinned to Walter because he was a black man,
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According to Bryan Stevenson, “All of the witnesses we called during the first day were white, and none had any loyalties to Walter McMillian. It seemed that Judge Norton had not expected that,” (149). This quote encapsulates the judge’s opinion on people of color, and how that unfairly impacts his thinking. Judge Norton, an older white man, seems to trust the statements of white people more than he would have trusted those of people of color. This is represented when the text states that the judge did not expect that the first witnesses would be white. Racism is an extremely prevalent issue in the book, and this quote from page 149 further proves that