Mimi Hatches is an incredible young woman, who looked at me with her courage today and inspired me to be a better version of myself.
"There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life. […]"
"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box."
At St. Dominic Savio in the sixth grade, I was staying after school to work on my Bellarmine speech with other students. Mary Allen, who lived just down the street, the daughter of Bob and Phyllis Allen (two of the all time best people I know), was practicing her speech. It was Atticus Finch' address to the jury. I was still three years away from Mr. Winkler's class and his subtle call to my humanity, so maybe this was the first time I really heard about those who work for justice and fail. We have to remember in the end, Atticus was not successful and he failed Tom Robinson.
So many years later, and we, more specifically I am failing Tom Robinson today. What did I do for Philando Castile or for Stephon Clark. I sat in my room, read an article, and told myself I was one of the good guys. Sitting across from me today was Mimi, a softball pitcher I once coached who threw too many balls and walked too many batters. The 15 year old I met with pitching imperfections was here to inspire me today and also if I was true to myself question my own inactions and my own privilege.
I talked to Mimi about Trevor Noah's book Born a Crime (click to buy it) and how Trevor's child was tough growing up the son of a White Man and a Black Father. Most people I know, good people, would read this book and say it is terrible what happened to Trevor. Today, on several occasions, tears welled up in Mimi's eyes as things I were saying were too close to her own truth. I think she knows of the limitations of the good people in our country, and this is not the first time my own limitations have failed one of my students. On more than one of these breakfasts, my fellow diner has told me good things about myself. But I know I could have done more and should have done more.
As Pope Francis says, "I am a sinner" hearing him say that helps me find my own humility and strive to do better. But sitting with Mimi for an hour and a half and now using these words to reflect on her strength and her message I heard from her today makes me want to work harder for all of my students, especially next year at North Tech.
Look over at the picture of Mimi, she is the portrait of a women who is working hard to "live her truth". She has been out on the streets, marching with others, and has responded to the injustices of 2017 and 2018 by striving to make the world a better place. She IS "seeking that boundless compassion". Some would call her a dupe of George Soros, because dismissing her is so much easier to us than listening to her. But after talking to Mimi today, I do not believe she has ever taken an action in support or protest where she has not gone home that night to reflect, to think, to relisten to the words she heard, and put all of that together and work harder to do better the next time.
We all want to be loved, we all want to be included, we all want someone to reach back to us and include us in the circle. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have been included in the circle for a decade and then just that quickly to be excluded from the circle. To really be made to feel like you never should have been in the circle in the first place. I cannot imagine that hurt, the hurt I know Mimi feels today, and I cannot make that hurt go away. Mimi, I am sorry.
Mimi has a black father and a white mother. She knows that. Sometimes I feel when we whisper around that truth as well meaning people we fail. I am often humbled when I examine my own actions or inactions for my students. I try I strive ( Mimi, whatever I say next is not going to enough so instead I will use these words.)
“I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting."
(Barack Obama, Nov. 7, 2012)”
Today Mimi has her own life and fights to "live her own truth". She does it with a smile and a swagger. She does it with a large tattoo that makes old white men like me uncomfortable. I hope something better awaits Mimi, not that is not great now. I know she has the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, and to keep fighting.
Miss Jean Louise stand up, Mimi is passing.
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