On the (Im?)Possibility of Justice

As I was driving home recently I heard a fascinating interview (on Fresh Air) with a legal scholar named Michelle Alexander (Jim Crow Still Exists in America).  I highly recommend listening to this interview (which I will not rehash here).  What particularly struck me about this interview was the interaction between Alexander and the work of another prominent academic.  This other individual claimed that, after having spent a great deal of time studying people in various positions within law enforcement, he could not reasonably believe that the criminal justice system is inherently racist.  Alexander's response, in part, was simply that,"I think it's very easy to brush off the notion that the system operates much like a caste system, if in fact you are not trapped within it."  Without having the legal background of Alexander, I'm not especially interested in the legal arguments as such.  Rather, the reason that this particular statement struck me is because she names so clearly the existence of what many ethicists would call structural evil.  I'm certainly not doing anything new by pointing to the possibility that structural evil is a reality in the world.  In fact, much of what I have to say on the matter was said (with significantly more insight) by Reinhold Niebuhr in his classic, Moral Man and Immoral Society, 80 years ago.  Although I disagree with much of what Niebuhr has to say in that text, I think that the very title of the book offers a thought-provoking critique of any sort of societal ethics.

I once heard it said, I know not where, though it's been in my head for a long time, that, "A person can be smart, but people will always be dumb." (OK, upon a quick googling I have found that this is a quote from the film, Men in Black... not the sort of high-minded result I had hoped for, but so it goes...)  While I do not share as high of a view of the individual with Niebuhr (or of Men in Black apparently), I do believe that this little saying is onto something.  Alexander is right to point out that it is nigh well impossible to fully recognize the systems in which we are enmeshed.  While I recognize the slight absurdity of making this claim while simultaneously trying to discuss the very systems in which I am, we are, entrapped, I also recognize that there is power to be found simply in naming the system as such.  If I could presume to put words in Alexander's mouth, I'm fairly certain that she would agree that many, perhaps most, law enforcement officials (and likewise individuals generally) are not intentionally racist.  Most of us ( I hope) who did not live through the civil rights movements shudder at the horrendous bigotry and hatred that used to be at the forefront of our society.  I, at least, can scarcely imagine living in such a world.  Nevertheless, if we listen to Alexander we learn that African-Americans are imprisoned for drug crimes at a vastly greater rate than Caucasians even though, statistically, they are both equally likely to possess and distribute illegal drugs.   Even if those individuals charged with enforcing our nation's drug laws are not intentionally seeking out individuals of a particular 'race', they are, even if inadvertently, helping to perpetuate a broken system.

Lest it seem as though I am merely interested in castigating others, I must admit that I am equally culpable, albeit it in differing ways.  The point of this blog post is not to point fingers, but to wrestle with what it means to speak of systemic/structural evil.  Is it true that, even with good intentions, we, as individuals which form a society, can be enmeshed in a system by which human dignity is rejected?  Although Alexander's focus on drug convictions is an interesting case study of systemic racism, it is by no means the only example that could be given.  Moreover, although 'racism' is certainly one form by which this structural evil is made manifest, it is certainly not the only one.  Bigotry and ignorance are all too often the public face of human societies.  Rather than simply give a list of -isms, it would perhaps be prudent to rather ask what might be done in the face of structural evil.  Is there hope in the face of such overwhelming bleakness, or might it be better to simply give in to the systems of power without rocking the boat?  If the battle with structural evil begins and ends with the individual, then I dare say it is hopeless.  Yet, the individual must still play a role.  What is needed is for individuals who have been intentionally shaping/being shaped by communities of virtue to stand up against systems of power.  Last week we celebrated MLK day.  Yet, it was not MLK the man (per se), but MLK the organizer who has earned a day of remembrance.  MLK would not have been MLK were it not for the communities in which he was raised and the communities in which he shared life with others.  The only way for 'moral' individuals to continue to have hope in the face of immoral societies is through what Bonhoeffer called simply "life together."  Only through intentional living, through the recognition and naming of systems of power, of structural evil, through the resistance of a community, can unjust systems of power be overcome.

Yet, lest I sound too much like an optimist, it should be stated that even IF such communities of virtue are possible, these communities, too, will enact their own unjust systems of power.  Ever newer recognitions and intentionalities will always be necessary; the fight for justice is never complete.