Dear Martin: Chapter 18 Summary & Analysis

Justyce has a harder time resisting the urge to call Trey than he anticipated. While he’s spending the afternoon in Doc’s classroom to keep himself from calling Trey, SJ bursts in and tells them to turn on the news. When they do, they see a picture of Justyce on the screen. It’s from the Halloween party, when Jared, Manny, Justyce, and the others dressed as stereotypes. Except, everyone else has been cropped out of the photo, leaving Justyce alone in his “thug” costume. “We’ve heard about his grades, SAT scores, and admission to an Ivy League school,” says a news anchor, “but a picture speaks a thousand words. This kid grew up in the same neighborhood as the young man accused of murdering Garret Tison’s partner more or less on a whim.”

Justyce knows that many people believe in his innocence, since entire groups of people across the nation have started wearing “Justice for JAM” shirts (“JAM” stands for Justyce and Manny) and have been “riding with their music loud from 12:19 until 12:21 every Saturday afternoon to commemorate the time of the argument between them and Officer Tison. However, Justyce also knows from observing the Shemar Carson and Travarrius Jenkins court cases that “it really doesn’t take more than a photo to sway mass opinion.” In keeping with this, an “anti-gang violence pundit” on the news talks about Justyce’s supposedly suspicious background, saying, “I mean it’s obvious this kid was leading a double life. You know what they say, Steven: you can remove the kid from the thug life…But ya can’t remove the thug life from the kid.”

Justyce, SJ, and Doc are beside themselves as they watch the news. “It wouldn’t surprise me if both [Justyce and Manny] had ties to [Quan] Banks,” the pundit says. “Who’s to say Officer Tison didn’t see them on the scene the night his partner was murdered right before his eyes? You have to put the pieces together, Steven: Garrett Tison and Tommy Castillo respond to a complaint about loud music, there’s a Range Rover parked in the driveway of the offending domicile, and some thug kid pops out of the backseat with a shotgun. Now that we’re learning about all these connections, who’s to say it wasn’t the same Range Rover Emmanuel Rivers was driving?”

Just then, Jared calls SJ. She begrudgingly answers, stepping out into the hall as Justyce confides in Doc, telling him how discouraged he is about everything. He says that he has stopped writing to Dr. King, feeling like his “experiment” to live like the reverend “obviously didn’t work.” Hearing this, Doc tells him that people are only slandering his name because they feel uncomfortable with the truth. “That idiot ‘pundit’ would rather believe you and Manny were thugs than believe a twenty-year veteran cop made a snap judgment based on skin color,” he says. “He identifies with the cop. If the cop is capable of murder, it means he’s capable of the same.” When Justyce says that this shouldn’t be his problem, Doc agrees, but he also says that Justyce has to face it regardless.

Justyce asks Doc how his advice could possibly help him. “So why even try to be ‘good’?” he asks. In response, Doc says, “You can’t change how other people think and act, but you’re in full control of you. When it comes down to it, the only question that matters is this: If nothing in the world ever changes, what type of man are you gonna be?” When SJ comes back, she tells Doc and Justyce that Jared apologized, saying that what’s happening on the news is his fault. This frustrates Justyce, who accuses Jared of suddenly wanting to be some kind of white savior, but Doc interrupts and says, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Manny and Jared were good friends, right?” He then tells SJ and Justyce to go easy on Jared, since “he’s grieving too.”

Doc excuses himself from the room, leaving Justyce alone with SJ, who immediately apologizes for “bailing” on him after the debate tournament. When he asks her why she did that, she says that she “panicked,” saying, “Well, there was Melo…and I didn’t know where you stood with her or how I fit? Anyway. Point is, it won’t happen again.”