Trial Magazine

One of the most enduring memories I have from law school is the first day of contracts class. Our professor—a brilliant lawyer with degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale—walked to the lectern, warmly introduced himself, dimmed the lights in the lecture hall, rolled down a projection screen, and played the full-length video of the Rodney King beating. Once I recognized what we were watching, a host of questions began to flood my head: Is this a mistake? What does this have to do with offer, acceptance, and mutual assent (the stuff we were expecting to cover that day)?

Once I overcame my initial shock, I began to look around at my classmates’ reactions. I could see that some displayed a familiar outrage at the treatment being dispensed to King, while others were visibly frustrated at being forced to watch the video in the first place. When the video ended, the professor began randomly calling on students, asking, “What did you see?” I knew what I had seen—one of the most blatant and repugnant displays of police brutality I had ever seen, and I wasn’t bashful in saying as much.

I honestly could not imagine anyone seeing it any differently; however, I could not have been more wrong. I was dumbfounded by the number of classmates who perceived King as resisting arrest. I remember thinking that here we are, future trial lawyers, prosecutors, judges, and lawmakers, and we can’t even agree that the Rodney King beating was clearly an injustice?

As we continued to discuss our views, the professor introduced us to a concept he referred to as the “perceptual prism.” In short, he explained how each of us views the world through a prism that is heavily influenced by our experiences. Like so many Black men, I experienced a very scary police encounter that resulted in weapons being drawn on me and my wife. That was the perceptual prism through which I viewed the Rodney King beating. It is the same prism through which I have viewed countless other cases that have occurred since then, including those of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake.

Some of my classmates didn’t have the same experience with law enforcement, and therefore couldn’t comprehend the fact that some police officers inflict violence on people without provocation or justification.

Of course, we don’t all share the same experiences and influences. That is part of what makes America the rich mosaic it is. It is also why we must continue to reinforce the indispensability of diversity and inclusion in our society and give a voice to a wide array of perspectives. We also need to stop seeing our differences as limitations or boundaries and start viewing them as opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the world and the times in which we are living. Each of us is capable of learning how to view the world through someone else’s eyes. It merely requires us to recognize when we lack the experiential bandwidth to fully appreciate certain events and to seek out the perspectives of others.

We are naïve to think we will ever completely eradicate the most malignant forms of racism afflicting our country. The vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow are embedded far too deep to be pulled up at the root. Nevertheless, I sincerely believe we can sideline those forms of racism by bridging the empathy gap—a gap that exists only because we have failed to make the effort to become informed by the experiences and perspectives of others.

Recent events have led many of us to seek a deeper understanding of current racial tensions, their historical origins, and how they continue to afflict communities of color. With knowledge comes understanding, and with understanding comes empathy—and empathy is the launch pad for meaningful change. This gives me a great deal of hope for a brighter future.

Derrick Walker is an attorney at Allen Allen Allen & Allen in Richmond, Va., and can be reached at derrick.walker@allenandallen.com.