So many guns. Just like the one Castillo kept his hand on while treating Jus like a criminal. One wrong move, and Jus might've been the next Shemar Carson.
In this passage, Jus is put on edge by the violent video game that he is playing with Manny. It reminds him too much of the violence he faced when Officer Castillo arrested him. Jus knows that he very easily could have been shot by Officer Castillo, who kept his hand on his gun at all times. For Jus, the violence within the fantasy world of the video game has become all too real as he realizes that he is not exempt from having to face it. That night, his fate could have easily been like that of Shemar Carson, a seventeen-year-old Black boy from Nevada who was shot by a white police officer earlier that year. At this moment in the novel, Jus is coming to the realization that violence is not just the stuff of video games—it is all around him. However, unlike the world of video games, in real life Jus has no control over his own outcome. He is subject to the abuses of an unjust and racist society, something he never really had to think about before Officer Castillo so easily took his rights away in the previous chapter.
Jared: Right here, right now, on these red hills of Georgia, a son of former slaves and sons of former slave owners are sitting down at the table of brotherhood, dude. The Dream has been realized!
Tyler: Damn, bro. That was really poetic.
Manny: That's from the I Have a Dream speech, T.
Jared: Remember, bro? I had to memorize that shit for our eighth-grade Heritage Play.
Blake: That's right! Token black guy over here got sick or something, right?
In this passage, Jus is overhearing Manny and his friends talk about the class discussion from Doc's class in the previous chapter. Prior to this moment, Jared has insisted that inequality no longer exists in the United States. He enters the conversation angry and threatens to have his father call Bras Prep to get Doc fired from the school. Right before the moment detailed above, Jared asserts that Manny's parents are evidence that everyone is equal in the United States. As in the previous chapter, he is using Manny's life to back up his point, despite the fact that this makes his friend uncomfortable. Finally, Jared alludes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, reminding his friends that he had to memorize it for the eighth-grade play. This passage is significant for several reasons. First, it offers a different kind of relationship to Dr. King than the one that Jus has with the historical figure—while Jus deeply admires Dr. King and sees how his teachings are still relevant today, Jared uses Dr. King's teachings to make a point that has the tone of a joke and dismisses them as the stuff of the past. Finally, Blake's line at the end of the passage suggests something about how Manny is viewed by his white group of friends. Evidently, Blake means the words "token black guy" as a joke, which is meant to be brushed off by the other boys. The joke, however, is revealing of how Manny's white friends view his race—it is open to be joked about, because, as they say later, they "don't even see [Manny] as black" (33). They do not realize that racial inequality affects the day-to-day reality of Manny's life or that, in a few chapter's time, Manny will be shot and killed by a racist cop.
Notably, both Manny and Jus are mostly silent throughout this scene and the chapter before, Chapter 3, despite the fact that both times racial inequality is being discussed. Their lack of voice in the conversation speaks to white privilege—Jared, Tyler, Blake, Kyle, and even SJ can use Manny and Jared to back up their respective points but they will never have to face the violent consequences of inequality themselves. It is telling that they do not bother to step back and hear Jus or Manny's opinions on the matter; instead, they would rather take up the conversation themselves.
It's like I'm trying to climb a mountain, but I've got one fool trying to shove me down so I won't be on his level, and another fool tugging at my leg, trying to pull me to the ground he refuses to leave. Jared and Trey are only two people, but after today, I know that when I head to Yale next fall (because I AM going there), I'm gonna be paranoid about people looking at me and wondering if I'm qualified to be there.
How do I work against this, Martin? Getting real with you, I feel a little defeated. Knowing there are people who don't want me to succeed is depressing. Especially coming from two directions.
This passage appears in Jus's fourth letter to Martin, in which he describes an encounter with Trey after he goes back home to tell his mom that he got into Yale. Jus passes Trey and his friends on the street and makes the decision to tell them about his acceptance to Yale, to which Trey responds, "'You'll be back, smart guy. Once you see them white folks don't want yo black ass at they table. They not down with you bein' their equal, dog. We'll see you soon'" (65). Jus's feelings are hurt by Trey's dismissal of his accomplishments, and he leaves the encounter feeling as if Trey was pulling him down. The above simile—in which Jus imagines himself trying to scale a mountain with negative forces from each side trying to halt his climb—appears as Jus digests this encounter.
Ultimately, this passage reveals Jus's complicated relationship with community—he does not feel like he is truly a part of his community back home nor his new community at Bras Prep. At Bras Prep in Chapter 7, Jared openly questions the validity of Jus's admittance to Yale. Just a few pages later, Trey undercuts Jus's success and suggests that it won't last long. When speaking to his former or his current peers, there seems to be the feeling that his presence in elite educational institutions is a mistake. Jus feels as if he is to make his way in the world, he must do so despite everyone who surrounds him—both from his past and present. Jus indicates that these feelings will have a lasting effect on his psyche, as he thinks he'll feel paranoid about people questioning if he's qualified to be there—an echo of Jared's racist comment in class in the previous chapter (see page 64). This is an example of "imposter syndrome," in which minority students feel as if they "shouldn't" attend or don't belong in elite and selective institutions because there is not a long historical precedent for them being there. At this moment, Jus should be riding the high of his victory—he got accepted into one of the most selective colleges in the world. Instead, he is feeling discouraged and despondent, as he feels he is getting it from all sides.
What would Martin do, Jus?
'Maybe we should turn it down,' Jus says.
'Man, please. This is my car,' Manny says. 'I'm done bending over backwards to appease white people.' He pushes a button on the steering wheel, and the music gets louder.
'YOU WORTHLESS NIGGER SONS OF BITCHES!' the guy shouts.
"I know that muthafucka didn't just say what I think he did,' Manny says.
Jus's heart jumps up between his ears.
What would Martin do what would Martin do what would Martin—?
In these lines, Manny and Jus are riding in Manny's car. Manny is extremely upset because his parents have just been notified that Jared's dad is pressing charges against Manny for their physical altercation earlier that week. They are playing loud music, and when they stop at a red light, a white man in a Suburban starts to give them trouble. He gets increasingly angrier as Manny and Jus refuse to turn down their music. Jus gets increasingly tenser, but Manny pushes back against the white man's aggression. In the lines above, Jus's question to himself—What would Martin do—repeats like a mantra in his head as he tries to handle the quickly-escalating situation. These italicized lines also show the heightened tension of this moment. Eventually, the white man shoots Manny and Jus, killing Manny and injuring Jus.
"The man was defending himself from thugs," said Tison's neighbor April Henry. "I've known Garrett for twenty-five years. If he says those boys had a gun, they had a gun." A fellow police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, claims the indictment is nothing more than a publicity stunt at Tison's expense. "They're out to make an example of him. Prosecutor pulled the race card, and the grand jury bought it hook, line, and sinker."
And many agree. At a solidarity rally held in Tison's honor, picketers wore T-shirts that read 'Race-Baiting Should Be a Crime' while holding signs featuring Tison's face and the words 'Protector not Poster Child.'
This passage appears in the news article quoted following Chapter 15. The article contains good news for Jus and Manny's community, as it has just been announced that a Georgia grand jury decided to indict Garrett Tison for several charges, including aggravated assault and felony murder. This means that his case will be taken to trial—a stark contrast to the cases of Shemar Carson and Tavarrius Jenkins, in which the officers were not indicted at all.
As the passage above tells us, Garrett Tison's community is in an uproar about Tison's indictment. They believe that Tison is simply being made an example of and that he is being wrongfully accused of these charges. These paragraphs indicate that there is a large population of people who believe that Tison was in the right for shooting Jus and Manny because he felt his safety to be at risk.
On the other hand, we see Jus's community rallying behind the pursuit of justice for Manny and Jus, who were wrongfully shot by Tison. These warring communities have distinct understandings of police brutality and racism. Where Jus's community sees the connection between Shemar Carson, Tavarrius Jenkins, and Manny's deaths, Tison's community believes that police officers who kill others on the job are in the right.
"We've heard about his grades, SAT scores, and admission to an Ivy League school," the anchor says, "but a picture speaks a thousand words. This kid grew up in the same neighborhood as the young man accused of murdering Garrett Tison's partner more or less on a whim."
"You gotta be kidding me," Jus says.
People all over the country have rallied to the cause, wearing Justice for JAM T-shirts (JAM being Justyce and Manny) and riding with their music loud from 12:19 to 12:21 every Sunday afternoon to commemorate the time of the argument between them and Garrett. But if there's one thing Jus knows from the Shemar Carson and Tavarrius Jenkins cases, it really doesn't take more than a photo to sway mass opinion.
In this passage, Doc, SJ, and Jus are watching the news where they have just put up a picture of Jus in his "Thug" Halloween costume. They leave out the fact that Jus's outfit is a Halloween costume and instead suggest that it represents something about his identity. Evidently, Jus dressed as a "Thug" puts his innocence into question, as the anchor suggests that because of where Jus grew up he must have been involved in gang activity. In the real world, people all over the country are rallying behind Jus and Manny in nation-wide protests and demonstrations. Nevertheless, Jus is worried that this new media development will turn public opinion against him. He remembers the Shemar Carson and Tavarrius Jenkins cases, in which pictures of each of these boys turned mass opinion against them in favor of the officers who killed them.
Police have apprehended three teenage boys who were seen in the area on the night of the incident. Beverly Tison, Garrett's wife, sustained multiple second-degree burns, leaving her in serious condition.
These lines are spoken by a news anchor during a news segment covering a fire set at Garrett Tison's home. The news segment reveals that the fire was deliberately set and that Tison's wife was harmed. It also reveals that a date has been set for Tison's trial: five weeks from that day. These lines, however, leave us with more questions than answers about the people behind it: Who were the teenagers that were apprehended? Were they actually involved with the arson, or were they profiled, as Jus was in Chapter 1?
The arson at Tison's house is an example of Justyce's community enacting their own justice. In a country where the justice system is seen as broken, in which police officers can get off for killing unarmed teenagers, it is understandable that community members might want to take justice into their own hands. An attempt to destroy Tison's house can be seen as a powerful weapon as well as a way to fight back against the institutional power that he has been given (by destroying some of his wealth). A question to consider, however, is whether or not this truly constitutes justice or whether it is just another violent act in an inescapable cycle of violence.
Tison testified that he feared for his life, citing 27 years of law enforcement experience in support of his ability to detect a genuine threat. Though Tison's claim that the teens had a gun was unsupported by evidence, the surviving teen, Justyce McAllister's, exposed connection to known gang members, including sixteen-year-old Quan Banks, the young man charged with murdering Tison's partner last August, cast a considerable pall over the proceedings.
This passage appears in a news article following Chapter 22. The article tells us the results of Tison's trial and informs us that he has been convicted of every charge against him except felony murder. The jury was split over the felony murder charge, meaning Tison will have to be tried again. In the lines above, the author of the article gives us a hint about why the jury was split regarding the murder charge. We learn in Chapter 22 that the district attorney presents Jus's case as a grave injustice: "By the time Mr. Rentzen finishes his questions, the court has heard the tragic tale of two college-bound African American boys, gunned down at a traffic light by an angry white man who used a racial slur and fired his weapon at them when they didn't comply with his demands" (184).
Tison's defense attorney, on the other hand, tries to reinforce Tison's respectability while at the same time bringing Manny and Jus's characters into question. She does so by having Tison present himself as a competent and experienced professional with 27 years of police work under his belt. She also brings up Jus's (however slight) involvement with Quan Banks and the rest of Black Jihad. As the article above tells us, the revelation of Jus's involvement with these individuals casts a shadow over his testimony in the eyes of the jury.
If nothing ever changes, what type of man am I gonna be? Chewing on that over the past few days, I've started to wonder if maybe my experiment failed because I was asking the wrong damn question. Every challenge I've faced, it's been What would Martin do? and I could never come up with a real answer. But if I go with Doc's thinking—Who would Martin BE?—well, that's easy: you'd be yourself. THE eminent MLK: nonviolent, not easily discouraged, and firm in your beliefs.
In the final lines of Dear Martin, Jus reflects on his "Be Like Martin" project and what might have gone wrong. He wonders what he was trying to get out of it in the first place: "What was my goal with the Be Like Martin thing? Was I trying to get more respect? (Fail.) Was I trying to be 'more acceptable'? (Fail.) Did I think it would keep me out of trouble? (Epic fail.) Really, what was the purpose?" (201). In many ways, Jus feels like he is right where he started. He decides to change his strategy: instead of trying to understand what Martin would do, try to understand what Martin would be like. He resolves himself to find out the kind of person he wants to be.
They settle into a comfortable silence, both staring at the headstone. A cool wind blows around them, and it's like Jus can feel the EJR on his watchband pressing into the skin of his once-swollen wrist.
In this passage, Jus is standing in front of Manny's grave with Jared. It is Christmas Day and Jus is back home. He and Jared reconcile and even make plans to hang out once they are back at Yale. This is a moment of resolution and peace for Justyce. His wrists—which have bothered him ever since his encounter with Officer Castillo in Chapter 1 and which have come to symbolize all that he must navigate—now hold a new symbol: they hold Manny's watch, a reminder of his best friend.
