Yesterday was my first ever time serving Jury Duty. I’m a pretty civic minded guy; I vote dutifully every year, I have firm faith in the US Constitution, and my father and I always sing the national anthem at baseball games (although I would prefer we sang Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’). And I also love a good police procedural, so I was excited for the chance to serve. I also was sure I knew what jury selection would look like. I was wrong.
After introductions and rules from the judge, and getting basic information from the first 24 prospective jurors, the defendant, a black man in his 40s, was read the charges. Afterwards, the potential jurors were questioned by the prosecutor and the defense attorney. The questions were not surprising; do you believe a suspect is innocent until proven guilty? How do you feel about police testimony? If the suspect was arrested as part of a police sting, would that affect your opinion? Jurors who showed obvious bias based on their statements were dismissed. So far, nothing dramatic or unexpected had transpired. A pause was taken for a new batch of jurors to be added and questioned by both attorneys.
Down to her last three juror dismissals, called ‘preemptory challenges’, the prosecutor dismissed a black female, a black male, and a white male. An audible gasp was heard across the courtroom. None had shown any bias one way or another; in fact, the black male was a firefighter and acknowledged that he worked regularly with the police. Why were they dismissed? It so happened that the Assistant DA prosecuting was Asian; the next three jurors in the line were, by coincidence, Asian too. The public defender rejected one of the new appointees and two others, alternates were picked, and the rest of us were dismissed.
I’m not naïve: I know that this is how the justice system works, and that jury selection can determine whether the prosecutor wins or loses the case. I also do not want to be misunderstood. This was not about Asians or Whites or Blacks or Latinos having bias: all people have biases. This was about race perverting justice. Even though intellectually I knew that juries are sometimes selected on the basis of race, it was still shocking to see in person.
In this week’s parsha, Parshat Vayera, God tells Avraham that he will destroy S’dom and Amora for their wickedness. Avraham objects, saying “Will you really sweep away the innocent along with the guilty?” God had seen this moment coming- the story begins with God saying to Godself “Shall I hide from Avraham what I am about to do?” God has chosen to judge the city without investigating its inhabitants deeds first, and Avraham responds “The judge of all the earth- will He not do what is just?” The very source of justice- God- is questioned as being unjust, for passing judgment without thorough investigation, and for judging based on appearances.
It was a pivotal moment in American history when our nation’s citizens put aside centuries of bigotry and racism and elected a black president only two short weeks ago. That election was a symbol, but to transpose that symbol to a reality that affects our daily lives we each must banish pre-judgment and the inclination to have bias towards people from our hearts, whether on something as big as race or religion, or as small as a person’s past behaviors that may annoy us or color our views of them.
To judge others by outward appearance is virtually unavoidable: even God is guilty of it in our story. But we must not give in to that temptation. We must strive to model our behavior after Avraham Avinu- pursuing justice at all costs, withholding judgment, and assuming the best of others, regardless of where they are from or what they may look like.
