Socrates: What’s up y’all
The Barber: My Man! It’s good to see you as always, but today it’s especially good.
Socrates: Well, it’s always good to be seen. What’s so special about today?
The Barber: Well since your last visit when we were discussing the race and caste column, and then we talked about the Othering of white women and children by white folks themselves, (which is a hell’va thing when you think about it, in America white folks ain’t safe from white folks).
Socrates: Yeah, he and I been talking about all that the last 4-6 weeks, So, we did what we’ve always done in those kinda moments, we went to spend some time communing with Uncle Nearest to help us get some perspective, bring some intellectual order to the chaos.
The Barber: That’s always a good brotha to commune with when you’re trying to solve life’s mysteries! Well after sitting with Uncle Nearest for a while, what insight did you two come up with?
The puzzle is what does it mean to politically be us, Black people in 21st century America? [Mike Jones’] columns have all been pieces of that puzzle. The question now is how the pieces fit together, to make an understandable picture.
Socrates: Based on Mike’s On Further Reflection column that he wrote after taking that year off, he’s not writing ad hoc political opinion pieces, but taking random political events to try and explain the historical arc of the Black political experience in America. The Brotha has never lacked ambition! LOL
The Barber: So, he’s like trying to tell a story? (that’s creating a narrative for you professional brothas)
Socrates: Yeah kinda, a story about us, at least about us from a political perspective.
The Barber: I agree up to a point. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end, not necessarily in that order. A story also requires something else, a protagonist-the dude that drives the action, makes the story happen- Mike ain’t got none of that for this!
Socrates: You’re right, and plus he’s not an academic doing research-based writing.He decided, after further consulting with Uncle Nearest, there’s plenty of brilliant stories or narratives, by Black people about our experience in America, in addition to libraries full of legit academic- based research. So that couldn’t be the problem bugging him, had to be something else.
The Barber: So, what’s the something else?
Socrates: Mike had this epiphany; you get those when you’re in deep conversations and communing with Uncle. He hasn’t been trying to figure out how to tell the story of us, he’s been trying to figure out a political puzzle. The puzzle is what does it mean to politically be us, Black people in 21st century America? The columns have all been pieces of that puzzle. The question now is how the pieces fit together, to make an understandable picture.
The Barber: Actually, I get that. What’s his plan, how does he put the puzzle together?
Socrates: He doesn’t, we are! He said the key to putting the puzzle together isn’t academics or politicians writing columns or giving lectures, it’s here in the barbershop, the lived experience of these brothas. He wanted me to be sure to be here today to begin the conversation because he knew who was getting a haircut today.
(Socrates directs his attention to a customer)
Socrates: Brotha, I know you’re a member of the bar, I got a question and you’re the most qualified person in the shop to answer it, if you wouldn’t mind?
Black Lawyer: Be happy too!
Socrates: What are the three things every lawyer takes into court, and of the three, which one is the most critical?
Black Lawyer (smiling): That’s easy! It’s the facts, the law, and his theory of the case. Of the three, the theory of the case is the most important.
Socrates: Enlightened us further my Brotha.
Black Lawyer: Well, the facts are the facts, you don’t get to make those up. Both sides must stipulate the same set of facts, and the judge approves. You can’t introduce new facts unless both lawyers agree that the new something is relevant to the case and the judge also agrees.
#2 The judge is gonna define the legal parameters of the case, the lawyer can argue for a point of law, but doesn’t get to decide it.
#3The theory of the case is where you make your living, you get to explain to the jury the story about the facts and the law. The jury will only have two explanations to consider, yours and the other lawyer’s. The lawyer with the best story, the one the jury believes, will win at trial. I’d argue you can’t be a good trial lawyer unless you know how to be a great storyteller.
Socrates: I got a couple more questions if you wouldn’t mind indulging me?
Black Lawyer: My pleasure Socrates!
Socrates: Is a trial an adversarial process?
Black Lawyer: Hell yeah! It’s just a civilized version of trial by combat. There’s nobody trying to create a win-win situation, you’re in court because you couldn’t negotiate a satisfactory settlement to whatever’s the contested issue is. At that point, if you’re the lawyer, your objective is to prevail, period.
Socrates: Second question, how many clients can a lawyer represent in a trial?
Black Lawyer: You could have multiple clients, but those clients all must have the same interest, like class action lawsuits- whole lotta clients, only one interest. You can’t represent multiple clients who have different interests in the case.
Socrates: I see. Last question, does the client take anything to court?
Black Lawyer: LOL. Yeah, every client brings the same thing to court, the hope that they retained the best lawyer! In court the client cannot advocate for themselves, so their story will never be better than their lawyer.
Socrates: Thank you my Brotha, got no more questions, for now!
The Barber: I think I see where this is going.
Socrates: Mike said you’d figure it out. The political dilemma confronting Black people in America is that we know longer have a political theory of the case that represents our interest in terms of what it means to be Black in America. The people that we send into the political arena, that by definition is adversarial, don’t have a Black political theory of the case either, and it’s reasonable to even conclude that many of them also represent political interests that conflict with ours, if we better understood our interest.
The Barber: So, what’s next?
To be continued…
