Contemporary Connections for Beloved

Unfortunately, in today’s world. racism is not dead. The article titled “Town Leaders Sorry for Handling of 1944 Rape Case” by Bob Johnson raised some points that were relevant to Beloved. The case involved a then-24 year old African American woman named Recey Taylor and a gang of white men. According to the article, “the married woman was walking home from church when she was abducted, assaulted and left on the side of the road in an isolated area.” When she tried to bring the case to court, the two all white male juries declined her wishes to move the charges forward. Since then, her case has been tried -- and won -- and has received the deepest apologies from the court, the city, and community.

With all of the riots going on dealing with young, black men being shot by cops for what seems like -- due to intense media coverage -- no reason whatsoever, race is a topic that has been elevated once again. Black Lives Matter protests have sprouted all over the nation and have raised the awareness of the injustices that African Americans are still suffering from today. Seeking justice for all is one of the main goals our courts have been working towards, and this case proves to be an example as the justice system continues to work out the kinks in their flawed system.

When reading about cases like this, it frequently makes people wonder how a case like this would have been handled today; certainly much different, but how much? Race still has an impact on today’s society due to all the recent murders. And present murders make people dig up past murders, assaults, etcetera that may have been unjustly sentenced. Yet, Taylor was quoted from the article saying, "I can pray that things would be handled differently now than in the past” -- and it was. Although she believed all her rapists were dead, the justice she finally received from the courts and an apology that was received from the city, courts, and community justified herself -- although it doesn’t undo the action and unprofessional way the court handled her case in the past.

This article relates to Sethe and her attack from Beloved. As she was about to escape Sweet Home, she was gang raped by the schoolteacher’s nephews -- also a gang of white men -- and unlike Recey, never saw justice for her assault. Her husband, Halle, had witnessed this unjust act and didn’t do anything about it. “I can’t go back and add more. Add my husband to it, watching, above me in the loft -- hiding close by. . . looking down on what I couldn’t look at at all. And not stopping them -- looking and letting it happen “ (Morrison 83). It was hard for Sethe to imagine someone standing by while this heinous act was taking place. Instead of taking action and stopping the rape, he chose not to be a hero. From what we heard from Paul D, it sounded like Halle was rather mortified at what he saw. In my opinion, it was still not a good enough reason to stand by and let that happen to her.

In a way, he acted as her judge and jury, dismissing her instead of helping her. He watched her attack and never made an effort to stop the rape from occurring. Halle made it about himself instead of about Sethe by shutting down and slathering butter all over his face (whatever that was all about), which would inevitably divide their family since he was too depressed or ashamed to run away with his family. This part of the book made me think about Taylor’s case and wonder if there were any bystanders who walked by her, either during or after the attack, and looked at her and kept walking. It makes me wonder how long she laid there until she finally scraped herself up and went home, how much courage it took to report the rape, and how empty she felt when justice wasn’t served. Beloved has inserted more questions and sympathy to my train of thought when it comes to reading news that deals with race today.

Work Cited

Johnson, Bob. "Town Leaders Sorry for Handling of 1944 Rape
     Case."Msnbc.com. Associated Press, 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 11
     May 2015.