Police Brutality
There are four specific instances of police brutality in Dear Martin. Police brutality can be defined by the unjust and unwarranted use of force by a member of law enforcement against a citizen. The novel's major concern is with police brutality, as Jus must learn how to live in a world where he might be killed by a police officer at any moment. Every instance of police brutality upsets Jus on varying levels, culminating with Officer Garrett Tison's murder of Jus's best friend, Manny, over a dispute about the volume of Manny's music.
The first occurrence of police brutality in Dear Martin appears in Chapter 1. Jus goes to help his ex-girlfriend, Melo, who is extremely drunk and all by herself in a supermarket parking lot. He does not know, however, that an officer, Officer Castillo, has been trailing him. Officer Castillo racially profiles Jus and believes that he is trying to attack Melo instead of help her. He does not ask Jus any questions and instead apprehends him while Jus's back is turned because he is helping Melo into her car: "Before [Justyce] can get his hand out of the car, he feels a tug on his shirt and is yanked backward. His head smacks the doorframe just before a hand clamps down on the back of his neck. His upper body slams onto the trunk with so much force, he bites the inside of his cheek, and his mouth fills with blood" (7). Officer Castillo beats up Jus and then leaves him in handcuffs on the side of the road for several hours. He only lets Jus go after the parents of his classmates at Bras Prep arrive to intervene on his behalf. Officer Castillo's unjust use of force in this moment leaves lasting scars on Justyce, who is forced to reevaluate the way others see him in this world. Justyce is a good kid with an excellent academic record; he never thought that he would be in this kind of situation. Despite the fact that Jus has always remained on the right side of the law, however, Officer Castillo sees him through the lens of racist stereotypes and assumes that he is committing a crime. Throughout the rest of the novel, Jus's wrists ache when he remembers that night. His trauma from that night opens his eyes to the other instances of police brutality that make national headlines on a daily basis.
One of the stories of police brutality that Jus learns about is the murder of Shemar Carson. Jus recounts that a police officer murdered seventeen-year-old Shemar Carson in Nevada even though Carson was unarmed: "The details are hazy since there weren't any witnesses, but what's clear is this cop shot an unarmed kid. Four times. Even fishier, according to the medical examiners, there was a two-hour gap between the estimated time of death and when the cop called it in" (12). Jus's encounter with Officer Castillo makes Jus take a closer look at the Shemar Carson case. Before he was racially profiled himself, Jus assumed that Shemar Carson was a "thug": "I've seen some pictures of Shemar Carson, and he did have kind of a thuggish appearance. In a way, I guess I thought I didn't really need to concern myself with this type of thing because compared to him, I don't come across as 'threatening,' you know? I don't sag my pants or wear my clothes super big" (12). As Jus has discovered, however, how a Black man dresses has little impact on whether he will be racially profiled and abused by the police. When Jus learns that a jury decided not to indict the police officer that killed Shemar Carson, Jus is troubled even further. This news comes at the same time that he learns that Quan Banks, Manny's cousin, killed Officer Castillo. Jus wonders if Officer Castillo deserved to die. He also questions what would have happened if Officer Castillo had seen Jus as a threat and killed him that night: "What if Castillo had killed Jus, though? Would he have even been indicted?" (20).
Later in the novel, Jus learns that a police officer killed another unarmed Black teenager in Florida. Tavarrius Jenkins, a sixteen-year-old who was unarmed, was trying to help a white lady who was having car troubles when a police officer shot him. Jus spends a lot of time thinking about Tavarrius Jenkins's unjust death. He tells Manny that he keeps thinking that Tavarrius's fate could have been his in Chapter 10. Manny replies that Justyce was unarmed the night that Officer Castillo arrested him. Jus responds that so was Tavarrius: "That's exactly what I'm sayin'. Guy's walking down the street with his boys and stops to help a lady who ran out of gas on the wrong side of town. Cops get there and tell him to put his hands up cuz they think he's robbing her, and when he does, they open fire cuz they think his cell phone is a gun. . . Can you imagine what woulda happened to me if I'd had my cell phone out that night? I would be dead, dawg" (89). At this point in the novel, Jus understands that how a Black person chooses to live their life or dress cannot protect them from the whims of a racist police officer. He knows how easily he could have lost his life in his encounter with Castillo, and this knowledge eats at him. Like the Shemar Carson case, a jury decides not to indict the officer who killed Tavarrius Jenkins.
Finally, the tragedy of police brutality comes to a head in Jus's life when an off-duty police officer shoots Manny in Chapter 14. Manny and Jus had been riding around in Manny's car, trying to cool off after Manny learned that his ex-childhood-friend's father was pressing charges against him. A man in the car next to them takes issue with the fact that their music is loud and tells them to turn it down. Manny refuses to do so and says, "'I'm done bending over backwards to appease white people'" (118). The man, who is off-duty police officer Garrett Tison, pulls out a gun and opens fire on Jus and Manny. Jus is shot in his shoulder, which leaves him in the hospital for almost a full month. Manny is killed. The grief that Jus feels in response to his best friend's death overwhelms him throughout Part 2 of Dear Martin. He is forced to see reminders of his best friend every day because the story of the shooting has made national headlines.
Notably, Officer Tison's murder of Manny leads to different results than Shemar Carson and Tavarrius Jenkins's cases. A grand jury indicts Garrett Tison on several charges, including aggravated assault and felony murder. There are protests across the nation in support of Manny and Justyce, under the banner of "Justice for JAM." On the other side of the aisle, however, there are protests in Jus's community in support of Officer Tison. The article that is reprinted on page 131 describes some of these protests: "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'" (131). In the weeks leading up to the trial, Jus's character is defamed on the news when someone submits a cropped photo of him in his "Thug" costume from Halloween. Despite this, Garrett Tison is brought before a judge and there is a trial. Ultimately, the jury finds Tison guilty of three of the four charges. He is convicted of "two misdemeanors—disorderly conduct and discharge of a pistol near a public highway—and aggravated assault, the less severe of the two felonies" (193). The jury could not come to a consensus regarding the felony charge, which means that they declared it a mistrial. By Chapter 23, Tison is in jail waiting to appear before a judge again. However, before he gets the chance to do so, he is murdered in his jail cell. Garrett Tison dies on August 9, almost eight months since the day he fatally shot Manny.
Throughout Dear Martin, we see several cops that get away with murder scott-free. Though Officer Castillo is killed by Quan Banks, a member of the Black Jihad, he is never brought to justice for mistreating Justyce in Chapter 1. In several ways, Garrett Tison is not brought to justice, as well. He appears before a judge, but he is never called to respond for the crime of murdering an innocent teenaged boy. Despite this, a poetic kind of retribution comes when Tison is murdered. It seems that justice will not be served at the hands of the justice system in Dear Martin. Rather, justice is served at the hands of three unnamed prisoners who decided to take matters into their own hands.
Systemic Racism
As Jus comes of age in Dear Martin, he must learn how to navigate systemic racism in all of its forms. The NAACP defines systemic racism as "systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantage African Americans." In this way, institutions like mostly-white prep schools (e.g. Bras Prep) and universities (e.g. Yale University) are examples of systemic racism. The majority of people who have benefitted from these institutions are white. In fact, African Americans were historically explicitly excluded from accessing these institutions. While there are more Black students at Yale than there are in Bras Prep, white people are still the majority at both of these places. Therefore, when Jus is attending Bras Prep and Yale, he is attending schools where people like himself have not been historically represented. He must learn how to work inside of a system that was designed to keep him out.
At Bras Prep, Jus is one of only a few Black kids at his school. He is a full-scholarship student who worked hard to get there. Just because he's been admitted, however, does not mean that his trouble is not over. He has to navigate a school environment that does not understand—or is even overtly hostile towards—Jus's identity and background. For example, in Chapter 3, Jared and SJ argue whether racism still exists in the United States. Their voices take up the entire class conversation while the two Black students in the room, Jus and Manny, are relegated to the sidelines. On top of that, Jared and his friends insist that racism no longer exists—an assumption that goes against Jus's lived experiences in the world. Jared and SJ's white privilege allows them to talk about racism as if it were hypothetical; they do not have to face the violent realities of living in a racist society in their day-to-day lives. This conversation upsets Jus, who begins to feel like he doesn't belong at Bras Prep. When he goes home, he tells his mom, "'All I know is I can't seem to find where I fit. Especially at that school'" (35). Thanks to systemic racism, Jus must fight for his own sense of belonging in an environment that is meant to nurture and benefit him.
Later, Jus's acceptance at Yale is devalued by Jared, who suggests that the only reason that Jus got in was affirmative action. Affirmative action is an attempt by admissions committees to counter the effects of systemic racism in order to create an equal playing field for all applicants. Jared believes this process is unfair. In Societal Evolution class, Jared asserts: "'Let's observe, shall we? I'm ranked number two in our class, I'm captain of the baseball team, I do community service on weekends, and I got higher test scores than Justyce. . . yet he got into Yale early action, and I didn't. I know for a fact it's because I'm white and he's black'" (59). After the class criticizes Jared for assuming that his test scores are higher than Jus's—it turns out that their test scores are about equal—Jared maintains that even if he and Jus had equivalent applications, his place will still be taken by other minority students.
However, not every student at Bras Prep is against affirmative action. SJ argues against Jared and reminds him of the privileges they have access to as Bras Prep students: "'Tuition includes laptops, tablets, and access to more scholarly databases than most colleges have; we've got the most current editions of all college-level textbooks; our library is like . . . I can't even tell you; we have test prep courses built into our curriculum from the moment we start ninth grade; and I'm pretty sure like ninety-seven percent of the teachers at this school are PhDs'" (62). She asks Jared to consider another student, who goes to a school that does not have the same resources: "'He lives in a really crummy area and goes to a public school that has fifteen-year-old textbooks and no computers. Most of the teachers are fresh out of college and leave after a year'" (62-3). This student does not achieve the same caliber of test scores and GPA as the other student. If you only look at test scores and GPAs, the student from Bras Prep is more likely to get into a good college. However, SJ argues, this is not entirely fair. In her point of view, admissions committees must also consider the effects of systemic racism when deciding whether to admit a student.
Injustice
Injustice is a major theme in Dear Martin. Justyce's name itself is a commentary on this theme, as despite the fact that his name is a different spelling of the word "justice," he faces much injustice through the book. In the very first chapter, his attempts to help his extremely drunk ex-girlfriend, Mel, backfire when a police officer believes that he is trying to do her harm. Jus is unable to explain himself as the police officer physically assaults him: "'Officer, this is a big misundersta—' he starts to say, but he doesn't get to finish because the officer hits him in the face" (7). Throughout this encounter, Jus knows that this encounter is deeply unjust: "Melo's drunk beyond belief in the backseat of a car she fully intended to drive, yet Jus is the one in handcuffs" (7). Another injustice of this encounter is Officer Castillo's racial profiling of Jus; he believes that Jus's race is an indicator of criminal activity and that he is in Oak Ridge, a wealthy Atlanta neighborhood, to cause harm. He also assumes that Jus and Melo don't know each other and makes assumptions about Melo's race. Officer Castillo tells Jus, "'I know your kind: punks like you wander the streets of nice neighborhoods searching for prey. Just couldn't resist the pretty white girl who'd locked her keys in the car, could ya?'" (8).
The injustice that Jus faces at the hands of the police in Chapter 1 leaves a lasting impression on him. Jus knows that the encounter with Officer Castillo would have gone differently if he weren't Black and it bothers him that he was racially profiled even though he goes to a good school, gets excellent grades, and dresses and acts respectably in public. In his first letter addressed to Dr. King, Jus writes that it opened his eyes to the racism that is still alive and well today in the United States: "Last night changed me. I don't wanna walk around all pissed off and looking for problems, but I know I can't continue to pretend nothing's wrong. Yeah, there are no more 'colored' water fountains, and it's supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I've done nothing wrong, it's clear there's an issue. That things aren't as equal as folks say they are" (13).
Throughout the novel, the specter of police brutality plagues Jus's conscience. He thinks at length about the death of Shemar Carson, an unarmed Black teenager who was shot by a white police officer in Nevada earlier that year. He wonders if Shemar was wrongfully killed, and feels conflicted and frustrated when a jury chooses not to indict the officer that shot him. Later, he learns that Manny's cousin, Quan Banks (who Jus grew up with), has been arrested for the murder of Officer Castillo. Jus questions whether Officer Castillo's death constituted justice: "Yeah, Castillo was an asshole, but did he really deserve to die? And what about Quan? What if they give him the death penalty? What if Castillo had killed us, though? Would he have even been indicted?" (20).
Later in the novel, Jus's best friend, Manny, will be shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. This moment is transformative in Jus's life, and not only because it weighs him heavily with grief over his lost friend. He knows by this point in the novel that when it comes to police officers and Black people, injustice generally prevails.
Community
A recurring theme throughout Dear Martin is that of community. Jus traverses two different communities throughout the novel—that of his elite boarding school and that of his childhood neighborhood, the "Hood"—and the two are stark contrasts. At Jus's elite high school, he is surrounded by mostly white faces, and most of his peers do not understand the struggles he faces due to racism. In fact, they often overlook or deny racism entirely, which makes Jus feel disrespected. On the other hand, he comes from a lower-income community back home, where he stands out from his peers because of his studiousness and his access to elite institutions. On either side, Jus is not a complete insider, and as a result, he often feels discouraged.
There are several examples of the text that highlight this theme. The first comes from Chapter 5, when Jus, Manny, and a group of Manny's friends attend a Halloween party dressed as "stereotypes." Jus is dressed as a "Thug," Manny is dressed as a "Token Black Guy," and one of the white boys, Blake, is dressed as a Klansman. Blake's costume goes too far, and as soon as they get to the party, he is punched in the face by a guy that Jus knows from back home. The group of Bras Prep kids face off with the group of kids from Jus's neighborhood, which is led by Trey. Trey tells Manny and Jus that they will never really fit in with the white people at their school: "'Don't get it twisted, my dawgs. These white boys might be standing here next to y'all, but y'all still ain't nothin' but niggas to them, ya heard me?'" (44). The group of Bras Prep boys decide to leave the party, and Jus faces the decision of leaving with them or staying with the kids he grew up with. Ultimately, he and Manny leave with their schoolmates, but Jus feels conflicted about his decision to do so. Later, in a conversation with SJ, he reveals that his decision to leave the party felt like making a statement: "Well, either way it went, I was sayin somethin', you know? Staying woulda been a statement of solidarity with these guys I grew up with—and who look like me. Leaving was a different statement, and the fact that I chose to do it with a white guy who was dressed as a Klansman. . . well . . ." (48). Ultimately, Jus does not fully fit in with either side, and it gnaws at him.
Later, when Jus is accepted into Yale, his complicated relationship with the communities he inhabits is exacerbated. The day after Jus's acceptance, Jared is hostile towards Jus in Societal Evolution class and suggests that the only reason that Jus got admitted over Jared (Jared was deferred) was because of affirmative action. SJ fights back against Jared, but nonetheless, at the end of the period, Jared says that he will question the qualifications of any minority that he passes in college because there's the chance that they're only there thanks to affirmative action. Jus reads this as an indication that he will never be fully accepted by his white peers at Yale. He tells Martin, "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" (66).
To make things worse, on the same day as Jared's insensitive comments, Jus goes home to tell his mom the news about his acceptance. On his way back to school, he passes Trey and his group of friends and tells them the news. Trey responds that Jus will never be fully accepted by his white peers, an echo of what Jared suggested earlier that day: "'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, dawg. We'll see you soon'" (65). Jus ends up feeling like he is being pushed down by both communities. He tells Martin, "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" (66).
Jus is not the only character in the novel that struggles with questions of community. Manny, who is also Black, has attended primarily white high schools for his entire life. In Chapter 8, he reveals to Jus that he is scared of attending Morehouse next year because he has never been in an all-Black community before: '"You're my only black friend, dawg. I'm supposed to go from this all-white world to an all-black one overnight?'" (73). In the subsequent chapters, Manny experiences a racial awakening that drives a wedge in his relationships with his white friends. In general, Manny lets the subtle (and sometimes blatant) racism of his white friends slide in an effort to keep the peace. However, he soon becomes fed up with Jared and the "crew"'s racism, which leads to a fistfight between Manny and Jared. In the few chapters before his death, he has turned his back on his white friends and tells Jus that Jus has "opened his eyes" to the lies on which those friendships were built.
Political Awakening
Throughout Dear Martin, Justyce goes on a journey of political awakening that starts after he is physically assaulted by Officer Castillo in Chapter 1. He decides to start reading Dr. Martin Luther King's teachings and tries to apply them to his everyday life—a project which becomes increasingly more challenging as the novel progresses. Jus begins to see injustice everywhere: at school, at home, and on the news. He explains himself to Doc in Chapter 11: "'Ever since my run-in with that cop, I've been on high alert. Noticing stuff I would've glossed over or tried to ignore before" (100).
As Jus goes down the path towards political awakening, he brings others with him: this starts with SJ, who realizes that she was stepping out of line in Chapter 3 when she was talking for Jus in Societal Evolution class. Later, SJ decides that they need to talk about racial profiling during the State debate tournament as a result of what happened to Jus in Chapter 1.
Much later in the novel, Manny goes through his own political awakening of his own. Throughout most of Part 1, Manny stands up for and enables his white friends Jared, Blake, Tyler, and Kyle. Despite the fact that they are repeatedly racist—while at the same time they insist that racism has vanished in America—Manny sticks by their side. During Blake's birthday party, however, Blake's racism pushes Jus too far and Jus ends up punching both Blake and Jared. Jus and Manny have a falling out and Jus does not hear from him for several days. However, on Monday afternoon, Manny appears in Jus's room with bruises on his face. When Jus asks what happened to his lip, Manny answers, "'I woke up'" (108).
Manny proceeds to tell Jus everything that happened after Blake's party: "'You know why I couldn't really get mad about what you said? You were right. I knew you were right the moment the words came outta your mouth. . . Saturday night, I went to a festival with those clowns. Four times, man—four—I had to grit my teeth to keep from knocking Jared's punk ass out. Every time he made fun of somebody, it was like sandpaper being dragged over my eardrums" (108). This interaction causes Manny to realize that his "crew" never really were his friends: "Them fools don't wanna hear when they're being offensive. They couldn't care less what it's like to live in our skin" (109).
Manny's realization that Jared, Kyle, Blake, and Tyler are not his friends bleeds into his realization that he doesn't like playing basketball—he only played it because people expected him to play it since he is tall and Black. While in Coach's office, Jared makes another racist comment which was the final straw for Manny: "Anyway, Jared was in Coach's office. When I said I was quitting, he made a 'joke' about how I couldn't until Massah set me free. I lost it. . . He clipped me once, but I can't even tell you how good it felt to pound that dude'" (109).
Manny feels liberated following his political awakening, and thanks Jus for opening his eyes: "'I just wanna thank you, man. . . For helping me get my eyes open. Didn't like what I saw, so I wanted to shut 'em again, but if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't know some of the stuff I've always felt around those guys is legit'" (110).
Grief
The theme of grief ties together much of Part 2 of Dear Martin, wherein Jus and everyone around him must grapple with Manny's violent and senseless death. In Chapter 15, Jus must attend his best friend's funeral, which has been postponed for more than three weeks until Jus is well enough to attend: "Twenty-seven days. That's how long the Riverses keep Manny's body in a mortuary cold chamber, waiting for his best friend to recover enough to attend the funeral" (125). Throughout the funeral, Jus is overcome with his grief, and a part of him does not want to be there in attendance at all: "He would love to just get up and walk out. Keep going until his legs fall off or he dies from thirst or starvation or exhaustion or some combination of the three" (126). He is caught off guard at the group of people in attendance at the funeral and their shared despair: "He takes in all the dark suits and dresses, the tearstained faces and shaking shoulders, and the collective sorrow hits him so hard, the room blurs out of focus" (126). Jus is in such extreme emotional distress that it overpowers the physical pain in his still-healing shoulder: "The pain that shoots from his shoulder through his entire body like a bolt of lightning is nothing compared to what's inside him" (130).
This grief overwhelms Jus and makes him rethink everything that he thought before Manny's death. One element of Jus's grieving process is that he gives up on his "Be Like Martin" project, because he now sees it as senseless and misguided. He writes his last letter to Martin just a few days after Manny is killed, and it is just three lines long: "Dear Martin, He's gone. Never did anything to anyone, and now Manny's gone. I can't do this anymore" (124).
Unfortunately, Jus is unable to escape daily reminders of Manny's death because of Officer Tison's trial and the media maelstrom that ensues. Even at Manny's funeral, Jus is aware that there are reporters waiting outside of the church who will try to get a statement from him. These reporters are careless in the face of Jus and his community's collective grief, and they begin to make "speculations" about the true nature of the shooting very soon after the crime has been committed: "Problem is there are media people everywhere outside. Based on some 'speculation' he's heard—Manny threatened Garrett Tison, one of the boys threw something into Tison's Suburban, Justyce had a gun, etc.—he'd rather not be seen" (126). Jus cannot escape scrutiny, however—because he has been dubbed "The Boy who Survived," he has unwillingly become the face of the fight for justice over Manny's death. Even in his own community, he stands apart: at the funeral, "people keep peeping over their shoulders at him where he's sitting at the back of the church with Mama. He has sunglasses on, but he can see them sneaking glances. Marveling at the Boy who Survived" (126). Jus will never truly be able to escape Manny's death, not even after Officer Tison is eventually found dead in his jail cell at the end of the novel. These constant reminders of his grief, however, are only making things worse for him.
Jus isn't the only character that is grieving Manny's death. As Mr. Rivers stands up to deliver the eulogy at the funeral, Jus catches sight of Jared and the rest of the "crew." Jus and Jared silently acknowledge each other from across the church pews: "Jared turns around like he can feel Jus jabbing arrows into the back of his head. The moment they see each other (though Jared wouldn't know because of Justyce's sunglasses), fury wraps around Jus so tightly, he almost can't breathe. Even from a distance, Jus can tell Jared's eyes are haunted. Like the floor has opened beneath him and there's no bottom to his agony. Jus recognizes the expression because he's feeling the same way. It makes him want to burn the world down" (127). Surprisingly, by the end of the novel, Jared and Jus are able to find communion in their shared grief over Manny. In the final chapter of Dear Martin, they happen upon each other at Manny's grave and share a moment of understanding. Jared tells Jus, "'I still miss him so much, dude. . . It's been almost a year and I still just can't—I'm sorry, man, you don't wanna hear all this.'" Jus responds, "'Nah, it's cool. I understand, man. I really do'" (206).
Two characters who are most notably racked with grief over Manny's death are Mr. and Mrs. Rivers. In Chapter 16, Mr. and Mrs. Rivers invite Jus to their house to have dinner to commemorate the fact that Tison was indicted. The dinner is a somber affair as all three of them share an almost overwhelming level of grief. Jus sees the wrongness in this situation: "When Jus steps inside and the fragrance of chicken cacciatore assaults his senses, he's one hundred percent sure he doesn't wanna be here. He doesn't wanna sit down at the antique oak table to eat from the 'special-occasion' dishes Dr. Rivers has taken from her china cabinet. He doesn't wanna make small talk with his dead best friend's parents as they eat his favorite meal and not their son's" (133). Jus and Manny's parents eat in silence, all three of them understanding that it's easier not to talk.
Respectability politics
Respectability politics is a theme that evolves throughout Dear Martin. According to Dictionary.com, respectability politics is "a set of beliefs holding that conformity to prescribed mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a person who is part of a marginalized group, especially a Black person, from prejudices and systemic injustices." Before Jus is unfairly arrested in Chapter 1, he believes that his respectability will keep him from harm. He lists all the ways in which he is seen as "respectable" in the eyes of the public: "I'm ranked fourth in my graduating class of 83, I'm the captain of the debate team, I scored a 1560 and a 34 on my SATs and ACTs respectively, and despite growing up in a 'bad' area (not too far from [Martin Luther King's] old stomping grounds), I have a future ahead of me that will likely include an Ivy League education, an eventual law degree, and a career in public policy" (10). Despite Jusytce's success—as well as the fact that he dresses "respectably" on a day-to-day basis—he is racially profiled by Officer Castillo in Chapter 1. He tells Martin that "sadly, during the wee hours of the morning, literally none of that [i.e. his academic success] mattered" (10).
After Chapter 1, Jus must come to terms with the fact that no matter how far he gets in life, he might always be seen as a threat in the eyes of the police. As he follows the deaths of Shemar Carson and Tavarrius Jenkins on the news, he realizes that Black teenagers are at risk of getting killed by the police whether or not society respects them. He starts to get fed up with the insidious racism that surrounds him, especially at the hands of Jared and the rest of the "crew." Instead of letting it slide in order to keep things peaceful, he eventually gets so angry during Blake's birthday party that he beats up both Jared and Blake. While he feels bad about the violence, he does not feel guilty for calling them out. He writes to Martin, "those assholes can't seem to care about being offensive, so why should I give a damn about being agreeable?" (96). He wonders how else he is supposed to respond to their racism if efforts at unity and understanding only get him so far: "I swear I heard some girl ask 'Why are black people so angry all the time?' as I left Blake's house, but how else am I supposed to feel?" (96).
Later, Jus tells Martin that Mr. Julian (Manny's father) told both Manny and Jus that one of his subordinates at work called him a racial slur. Jus is shocked: some part of him still believed that personal success in life would lead to respect: "To think Mr. Julian has all that authority and still gets disrespected? Hearing it made me realize I still had hope that once I really achieve some things, I won't have to deal with racist BS anymore. That's obviously not the case, though, is it? What do I do with that?" (114). These realizations cause Jus to question why he is working so hard to succeed in life in the first place, if it won't even bring him respect: "The conversation reminded me of something Doc asked me a few days ago: all the work I'm doing to try and get ahead in life, who am I doing it for? Better yet, what am I doing it for? To prove myself? Gain some respect? . . . I don't even know anymore, Martin" (114).
After Manny, who grew up wealthy and privileged, is senselessly shot and killed by an off-duty police officer, Jus begins to care less and less about being seen as respectable in the eyes of the public. He seeks out the advice of Quan Banks and Martel, the leader of the gang Black Jihad, who he thinks might understand how he feels. When Jus visits Quan in juvie, Quan tells him to throw his drive to become respectable out the window: "I know you all about gettin' ahead and everything, Justyce, but you gotta face reality at some point. These white people don't got no respect for us, dawg. Especially the cops. All they 'protect and serve' is their own interests. You just gon' continue to bend ya knee after they proved that shit by killin' ya best friend? . . . You and Manny were good dudes, and y'all still got a raw-ass deal" (143). Jus understands what Quan is saying to him: "Jus has to admit he's thought the same thing—what is the point in trying to do right?" (145). Jus sees the reality in Quan's message: "There's one thing that Jus can't dispute: doing things Jus's way got him and his best friend shot. Yea, Quan's in jail, but at least he's alive. That's more than can be said for Manny" (146).
All of these realizations bring Jus to the verge of joining Black Jihad. However, at the last moment, he pulls out and goes to SJ's house instead. In the end, Jus is less interested in becoming respectable in the eyes of others. Instead, he focuses on what he can control—himself. He commits himself to following Dr. King's examples not in what Martin would do, but in what Martin would be. He writes to Martin, "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" (202). He decides he's going to figure out who he is and what he believes in.
