In “Law and Order SVU: Season 13, Episode 6“ there is an episode involving a complicated situation regarding race. In this episode, a college-aged white girl is raped at gun-point by a black male. Throughout the episode they begin to question the girls story, learning that she is dating her piano teacher and cheated on him with another black male the night before. The lawyer hired to take on the rapists case is a black male, who claims that SVU is basing the investigation on stereotypes, and insisting that he did not commit the crime. The episode ends with the black male being released as “not guilty” even though according to the episode, he did commit this crime.
It was interesting because in this case, the black male did commit the crime. There are many cases where there is unfair prejudice against black people but, in this case, a rapist did get away free. This makes me confused about how to feel because I think the system is so prejudiced against people of color, but there are times when people of color do commit crimes. We talked about in class how Trayvon Martin and others got killed for doing nothing wrong, and that is absolutely wrong, but when a person of color is arrested for something they did do and they get to run free, I’m not sure that that’s completely right either? I know that white people get away with doing things wrong every day though, so it is a complicated subject and I am unsure how to feel about it. I am unsure how the justice system can address racial inequality without letting guilty people go free.