Adding Insult to Injury: Telling the Story From the Abuser's Point of View

Samantha Melamed and the Philidelphia Inquirer, Why tell the story from the abuser's point of view? Note: "Gerald Dugan tried to remain calm as the elevator doors opened and the man at the center of a case that’s haunted him for 40 years stepped into his 14th-floor law office."

This is racism on top of racism. Compare what has "haunted" the prosecutor - Dugan - with what the brother - Kevin Brinkly - endured.

The article was written to evoke sympathy for Dugan while Brinkly remains almost as anonymous in the article as he was in a prison cell for 40 years. The writer could have asked: "What haunted Brinkly in prison? What realizations did Brinkly come to?"

Instead of allowing the abuser - Dugan - to speak for Brinkly saying, “You never saw a sunrise..., saw a sunset..., drove a car..., fell in love ..."; the writer, Melamed, could have allowed the brother to tell his own story in the same number of lines.

No! racism (unconscious or not) dictates that Brinkly can only say one thing: "Being angry won't do me any good, and I don't hate him." Racism is carefully instructed and maintained. The readers and Black people especially must be induced to revere Dugan while being instructed to respond with forgiving, acceptance of our circumstances as fate or luck, if not self-inflicted, and most of all with no anger or power.

In the article, Brinkly could have asked that Dugan do more than hope the new prosecutor take up the case or being willing to put in a good word from him for a job. How about restitution? Brinkly could have disagreed with the conclusion that Dugan didn't do anything *unethical*, though the prosecutor admits he didn't do what he should have done. Brinkley could have detailed how he survived and kept some sanity shouldering an illegal conviction and 40 years of imprisonment. He could have said what he thinks about this racist criminal injustice system.

Racist reporting of a racist prosecutor, system, and event.

You and I are to have sympathy for Dugan, to accept his repentance, and still see him as a great man - even more so, since his apologized.

The writer doesn't even suggest that Dugan should actually do something like crusading for a change in the system that allowed him to convict the wrong brother. Dugan doesn't have to account for the racism and other things that led to him not do what he admits he should have done. He doesn't have to articulate or work for change in himself, others like him, nor the system that falsely prosecutes young Black youth like Brinkly with impunity.

Brinkley, on the other hand, is not really a free man. He's not been exonerated and I assume calculates that attending this pow-wow will increase his chances of getting that exoneration. I understand. I hope it works for him, and I'm thankful that his brother will not allow this apology to be enough!

I hope that we will NOT allow this article to be enough to induce us to believe that Dugan is an anomaly, or that Brinkly's experience is rare. I hope that we don't cry crocodile tears for Dugan or minimize the power of Brinkly and his family, and their tireless efforts to free him - even if temporarily.

We'll need to drink from their well of power to free the many young African American brothers and sisters who are daily jailed and killed by a racist unjust society and court system.

Let the family's steps and insistence that an "apology is not enough" inspire us to engage the long journey to remove from over us the people, policies, and practices that oppress us

Wekesa Madzimoyo,
Co-Director, AYA Educational Institute
www.ayaed.com