{"id":9664,"date":"2021-12-04T03:24:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T13:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=9664"},"modified":"2021-12-04T04:19:15","modified_gmt":"2021-12-04T14:19:15","slug":"as-2021-winds-down-the-ahmaud-arbery-trial-gives-us-a-lesson-in-how-to-get-racial-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/12\/04\/as-2021-winds-down-the-ahmaud-arbery-trial-gives-us-a-lesson-in-how-to-get-racial-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"As 2021 Winds Down, the Ahmaud Arbery Trial Gives Us a Lesson in How To Get Racial Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo

<\/em>I\u2019m still digesting all that\u2019s happened this Thanksgiving holiday. I\u2019m vegan, so it was all fake turkey. But the justice was real.

And boy, did we get a major helping of it this year when a jury found Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William Roddie Bryan all guilty of felony murder in the Ahmaud Arbery case.

<\/em>It almost didn\u2019t happen. Remember, when no arrests were made in this case until after 74 days after the crime was said to occur. It seemed like we\u2019d be stuck with the small-time justice of 19th<\/sup> century Jim Crow America.

<\/em>But fortunately, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski knew how to get a nearly all-white jury to find three white defendants guilty of killing an unarmed black man in the Deep South.

Sadly, even in 2021, the odds of that are not good. But then Dunikoski showed us all how to do the near-impossible: achieve a sense of racial justice without alienating latent white supremacists.

That\u2019s why when a friend asked me how I would spend the four-day weekend, I said I\u2019d be meditating. Truthfully, it was more like savoring what I had just seen of the trial on TV.

It\u2019s just not every day you get to see how difficult it is for justice to prevail.

<\/em>Asian American Filipinos know how hard it is to come by. Just look at the Vincent Chin case. No one has ever served time for Chin\u2019s murder nearly 40 years ago.

<\/em>This is our common ground with all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) communities \u2013 our united struggle for justice in America.

<\/em>So, when it happens like it did in the Arbery case, it\u2019s our cue to bow our collective heads in gratitude. Justice is real.

<\/em>Lord knows the Arbery trial was not easy.

I mean you were watching the trial, weren\u2019t you?

<\/em>When I asked Prof. Dan Gonzales, of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University if he thought Filipinos and other Asian Americans were paying attention to it, he said probably not.

<\/em>\u201cI think it\u2019s relatively few,\u201d Gonzales told me on my Emil Amok Takeout program No. 187, \u201cThey don\u2019t see their situation as being similar to that of African Americans, that also suffer those kind of confrontations, those kind of crimes. They just see them in reference to themselves and their own experiences.\u201d

<\/em>In other words, our racial empathy, just isn\u2019t what it should be.

<\/em>Time to turn it up. There are lots of reasons we all should\u2019ve been paying attention to the case that is the latest and most ingenious way to beat a common form of white privilege \u2013 white defendants who escape conviction in crimes against BIPOCs.

Justice in the deep south<\/strong>
<\/em>The case was in Georgia, where racism runs deep, and Asian Americans are among the fastest-growing groups in the state. We\u2019re the new minority.

It\u2019s the place where Robert Aaron Long, the shooter already convicted of four of the eight Atlanta spa murders, coincidentally made an appearance in court in Fulton County last week for the other four people he\u2019s accused of killing.

In all, six of the eight dead in the spa shootings were Asian Americans, a case that was a milestone in anti-Asian scapegoating during the pandemic.

To date, the number of transgressions toward Asian Americans across the nation has climbed to more than 10,000, according to the group Stop AAPI Hate \u2013 everything from racial slurs to murder.

<\/em>If you\u2019ve been worried about Asian Americans getting justice in the spa murders, I\u2019d say the guilty verdicts for the Arbery defendants should make us all feel a little better.

<\/em>Dunikoski, the prosecutor in the Arbery case, was brought in from Cobb County, but spent most of her career in Fulton County. And that\u2019s probably why justice was ultimately served in rural Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia.

It had to be imported.

<\/em>It was a necessity. Of the two prosecutors previously assigned, one had a relationship with the defendant Greg McMichael, a former police officer there. That DA has now been criminally indicted for her actions in the case. Another prosecutor also recused himself.

Everyone seemed all too willing to buy the story that the McMichaels and Bryan were just protecting their community.

\u201cCitizen’s Arrest\u201d was the claim, an antiquated law that no longer exists in Georgia, but did during the crime. I had only heard the phrase decades ago on the old \u201cAndy Griffith Show,\u201d when officer Barney Fife used to yell it out loud for laughs.

<\/em>But this was no laughing matter.

When the phone video William Roddy Bryan took of Travis McMichael was leaked, it was clear.

This couldn\u2019t be swept away, not when the video showed McMichael pointing his shotgun at an unarmed Arbery, who then struggled over the weapon and was shot.

<\/em>The 911 call also made it clear that Arbery\u2019s only crime appeared to be jogging while black.

Dunikoski used both the leaked video and the 911 call to methodically dismantle the defense. Unless the McMichaels saw Arbery in the commission of a crime, no such \u201ccitizen\u2019s arrest\u201d could be made.

Still, even with the evidence and the facts on the prosecution\u2019s side, I wasn\u2019t sure what the verdict would be. That\u2019s the power of a nearly all-white jury as an obstacle to racial justice.

<\/em>Appealing to the good in latent white supremacists<\/strong>
<\/em>Some people criticized Dunikoski for not bringing up race more often in the trial. For example, she could have depicted Arbery as essentially being \u201clynched\u201d by vigilantes with a mob-like mentality.

But the prosecutor knew how not <\/strong>to alienate a jury that may be sympathetic to the defendants.

<\/em>\u201cY\u2019all are really, really smart,\u201d Dunikoski told the jury, appealing to vanity. \u201cYou\u2019re going to determine what really happened based on the evidence and you\u2019re going to apply the law.\u201d

<\/em>And then she said the magic words, appealing to the potential \u201cgood ol\u2019 boy\u201d in all of them.

<\/em>\u201cThis isn\u2019t about whether these three men are good people or bad people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about responsibility. It\u2019s about holding people accountable and responsible for their actions. When they do something like this, they have to be held accountable and responsible. Who would get a free pass? Would you get a free pass?\u201d

<\/em>It was a touch of genius. No one was passing judgment on racist actions. A black man is dead \u2013 who\u2019s responsible?

<\/em>And then Donikoski assumed the guilty verdict. \u201cWhen you come back with a guilty verdict on all the charges,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat you\u2019re saying is you know who did the crime, now we (all) know.\u201d

<\/em>She didn\u2019t have to mention race. Not like the defense lawyer for Bryan, Laura Hogue, who described Arbery as a man who was running in shorts, sockless, adding a detail about his \u201clong, dirty toenails.\u201d

Everyone knew Hogue was making a disgusting appeal to the jury on race that might hang the jury.

Prosecutor Dunikoski didn\u2019t need any of that. She just had to mention that the McMichaels and Bryan were good people. Just like the jurors. But that no one gets a free pass. The jurors wouldn\u2019t get one. Don\u2019t give one to the defendants.

<\/em>It worked.

<\/em>It\u2019s the workaround logic that gets justice in the Deep South. Racism? What\u2019s that? We\u2019re all just good people who can\u2019t escape accountability, remember? That\u2019s how you get a nearly all-white jury to convict three white guys for murder.

<\/em>After the trial, the Rev. Al Sharpton talked about how this would be a historic trial. It will be historic, in no small part because Dunikoski was strategic and judicious in the use of race to get real racial justice. How do you beat an all-white jury? Donikoski, the Arbery prosecutor, showed us all the way.

Check out Emil Amok\u2019s Takeout Numbers 185, 186, 187, where I discuss the case with Prof. Daniel Phil Gonzales, J.D., College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University. Click on <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator. See his live show, Emil Amok\u2019s Takeout on Facebook and YouTube at 2p Pacific.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emil Guillermo I\u2019m still digesting all that\u2019s happened this Thanksgiving holiday. I\u2019m vegan, so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,20],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1",1600,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=1536%2C864&ssl=1",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1",1600,900,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1",1200,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=870%2C570&ssl=1",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=600%2C900&ssl=1",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=1115%2C653&ssl=1",1115,653,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=522%2C500&ssl=1",522,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1",1024,576,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=540%2C285&ssl=1",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?resize=375%2C250&ssl=1",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Candid Perspectives<\/a> Featured<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/CP-Arbery-Trial-color_12042021-2.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9689,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9664\/revisions\/9689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}