Mock Trial

Opening Statement-
o Your honor, members of the jury, my name is José Javier Magaña Mendoza Hernandez/Samantha Pham and it is my privilege to defend Bigger Thomas in this case before you today. If i may have your undivided attention please, I can gladly proceed.
o You have heard the prosecutor explain what she/he hopes will be proven, but he/she did not fully give the facts their internalreasonings for persisting to the action. First of all, Mr. Dalton hired Mr. Thomas regardless of the fact that he knew of Biggers troubles with the law; he could have avoided these resulting actions with his family if he had simply turned away from hiring Bigger. Mary Dalton grew up in a wealthy family; if we follow the stereotypes of rich kids, we can come to the conclusion that she was most likelyspoiled by her parents and always got what she wanted. So, it would not be unusual for Miss Mary Dalton to come home highly intoxicated. Obviously, as civilized human beings, we can immediately assume that Bigger Thomas had assisted Miss Dalton into her room. This is where minds can turn negative and assume the worst: Thomas Bigger had raped Mary Dalton along the way. However, there is no evidenceto lead us to that specific conclusion. The prosecutor states that there is no solid evidence because Mr. Thomas had murdered Miss Dalton directly after the rape and burned her body in the furnace to erase evidence. When you deeply think about it, Mr. Thomas can’t really be found guilty. We must remember that Miss Mary Dalton was highly intoxicated.We do not know the exact amount she drank but wedo know that she could have died of alcohol poisoning during the time that Bigger had brought her up to her room.

o By the time Bigger placed her on her bed, he realized that she was no longer alive. As a man of color, he must have quickly envisioned the reactions white folks would have: he raped Mary Dalton. This is where inferiority is used by the upper class. Bigger is uneducated, thushaving less opportunities to succeed. Imagine how it must feel to have internalized that dark skin as a sign of a person who is treated worse than that of a dog. How it must have felt to be free for the very first time in your life. Imagine having your land taken away from you without notice. Neighboring cultural regions, demolished, due to years of institutional oppression, in which society preventsyou from having any say due to your racial identity and the factors surrounding your culture. Racial hegemony resides as a structured global policy and the foundation for hypocrisy in law. Although a selected few have debated on whether race resides as a biological entity, in which a superior class dominates, I ponder differently by asserting the effects of race in media: the oppressed, theoppressor’s dominance, and how the law fits into it all. Racial-Prejudice acts have instituted sexual colonialist norms upon natives through Machismo and Masculinity to an extent of being either the oppressor, or the oppressed respectively, with slight motivation from the surrounding media. Bigger’s internal damage resides from the constant barrage of racist propaganda and racial subjugation he faceswhile growing up. Bigger’s resulting attitude toward whites is a volatile mixture of fury, hate, and fear. The lethal effect of racism upon whites is that it prevents them from realizing true humanity in groups that they oppress. Mary and Jan represent an even subtler form of racism, as they consciously seek to befriend the colored population and treat them as equals, but ultimately fail tounderstand them as individuals. Bigger regards “whiteness” as an overpowering and hostile force that is set against him in life. Just as whites fail to conceive him as an individual, he does not really distinguish between whites: they are all the same: frightening and untrustworthy. The constant degradation and enforced expectations upon Mr. Bigger has not only given him a better sense of reality, but...