Philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, “The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” (Vajda, 2009). However, every person on this planet is guilty of passing judgement on other individuals. Whether the evaluation be made in a local grocery store or in as contentious an environment as a United States courtroom, humans are all guilty of judging individuals by their perceived covers. In an ideal world, legal punishments would reflect officials’ objectivity toward permissible evidence, however, empirical research has revealed additional arbitrary factors. The Hanging Judge, a novel by Michael Ponsor exposes the significant role that physical appearance and staged behaviors play in determining a convict’s sentence.
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According to Marina Kravkosky, scientists have based their studies exclusively on how we judge others based on two components: warmth and competence (Krakovsky, 2009). People tend to make mental shortcuts by favoring our own land and discriminating against others. In The Hanging Judge, when Moon Hudson rendered a threatening and incompatible front to Redpath, Redpath formed a conclusion based on the degree of warmth and competence Moon exhibited. Judgement can be chalked up to the epidemic of the “other” in Universal Culture. The “other” depicts social categories that rank culturally empowered or disempowered groups of people. Identifying subjects as “self” or “other” is known as the compensation effect which is the process of comparing people rather than judging them individually (Krakovsky, 2009). Historically, the most common factor of categorizing an individual into the appropriate ranking is race. In The Hanging Judge, the “self” is represented by Judge Norcross, a white judge who possesses a large fraction of the determining power in court. Another representation of the “self” is Ginger Daley O’Connor, the white murder victim. The “other” in the novel is represented by Moon, an African American being tried for first degree murder and drug possession. The case arguably wouldn’t have fostered such an extensive deliberation had the murder not been interracial. Looking Deathworthy, by Jennifer Eberhardt stated, “Not only did killing a white person rather than a black person increase the likelihood being sentenced to death, but also black defendants were more likely than white defendants to be sentenced to death” (Eberhardt, 1). In Ponsor’s novel, Moon Hudson will carry a much more stringent sentence for allegedly murdering an innocent white woman. Racial prejudice is still an epidemic in American culture. White defendants have historically been provided with the
According to Marina Kravkosky, scientists have based their studies exclusively on how we judge others based on two components: warmth and competence (Krakovsky, 2009). People tend to make mental shortcuts by favoring our own land and discriminating against others. In The Hanging Judge, when Moon Hudson rendered a threatening and incompatible front to Redpath, Redpath formed a conclusion based on the degree of warmth and competence Moon exhibited. Judgement can be chalked up to the epidemic of the “other” in Universal Culture. The “other” depicts social categories that rank culturally empowered or disempowered groups of people. Identifying subjects as “self” or “other” is known as the compensation effect which is the process of comparing people rather than judging them individually (Krakovsky, 2009). Historically, the most common factor of categorizing an individual into the appropriate ranking is race. In The Hanging Judge, the “self” is represented by Judge Norcross, a white judge who possesses a large fraction of the determining power in court. Another representation of the “self” is Ginger Daley O’Connor, the white murder victim. The “other” in the novel is represented by Moon, an African American being tried for first degree murder and drug possession. The case arguably wouldn’t have fostered such an extensive deliberation had the murder not been interracial. Looking Deathworthy, by Jennifer Eberhardt stated, “Not only did killing a white person rather than a black person increase the likelihood being sentenced to death, but also black defendants were more likely than white defendants to be sentenced to death” (Eberhardt, 1). In Ponsor’s novel, Moon Hudson will carry a much more stringent sentence for allegedly murdering an innocent white woman. Racial prejudice is still an epidemic in American culture. White defendants have historically been provided with the