Black Skin, White Skin

Introduction

It really took me quite a while until I was ready to write Black Skin White Skin. You just can’t write a book about the death penalty in the USA within a year or so. It really takes you years and you grow with the book within that time. Being a writer means to me having a commitment towards my readers and to show them the facts but also to entertain them at the same time. I want to open people’s eyes. I want to make them more sensitive to the subjects I write about and give them the opportunity to understand why I write about this or the other subject. To be honest, it’s horrifying to me to see that still so many people know so little about the death penalty. It’s high time to make a change in here and tell more about the real truth and not this truth the people want to hear.

I have always been a big America-Fan since my childhood and I am still. Nevertheless, it was very shocking to me to realise what America is also about, when I first contacted Amnesty International when I was 16 years old. I just couldn’t believe what I read and the “American Dream” turned to me into “American Horror”. How can people be so demeaning to a certain race of people who helped to build up the American Dream together with the white people. Without all those different races living in the USA today, America would have never attracted so many millions of people all over the years, because just because of those different cultures, America turned into a cosmopolitan, trendy country. And Manhattan as the living proof of the American Dream is the best example for this.

Let me tell you one thing, I grew up with black music, and this gave to me the opportunity to learn a lot about the black culture and their history. Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, Pointer Sisters, Michael Jackson, all the musicians of Motown and many many more. This was my main world of music and when my parents didn’t listen the whole day to Swedish Super group ABBA or BoneyM ( I am a real “70’s disco child”, believe me) or classical music such as Mozart and Beethoven, they listened to black music and I always felt so close to it.

I learned from a very young age, that showing respect towards each other, no matter what colour of skin they have or where they come from, is the basic of living in peace. I also grew up with different cultures around me, and I had to learn to respect the others and it worked. What I want to say with this is, that it’s time to understand that we have to get back to basics. We have to show more dignity, humanity and equality towards each other and get away from the self-centered thinking.

Reverend Johnson is the main character in Black Skin White Skin and Amy is one of the others. I wanted to demonstrate that today, it simply shouldn’t count anymore what colour of skin you have to be loved and respected. I show how superficial the thinking of people still is and how demeaning they still act. I want to demonstrate that it’s really high time to get away from racism. Because racism there should be none in this world anymore and the same counts for segregation. Haven’t we still learned from history?

The death penalty in the USA is a huge topic worldwide and it can also be divided into different sections. I chose the most demeaning of them all. Executing innocent people, mostly out of racial bias. As I have already said, Amnesty International supplied me with lots of information and also other US-Organisations.
Since I was sixteen years old, I was always interested in Human-Rights, in Amnesty and in the United Nations. They are what I call the basics. They demonstrate that equality and humanity are the quintessence of living a life in peace.

Believe me, the more I found out about the death penalty, the worse it got for me. Because it was really so unbelievable to read all of this stuff which really happened and to see how corruptive people can turn, just because out of racial bias. I even read that children, mostly black, are executed in the United States of America!!!

There was once a man, he was not very much convinced of what I thought about the death penalty. He asked me “What would you do if somebody would kill your child?” I said “Listen, killing a child should be punished. That’s out of question. But with the death penalty? No, not at all. I think, a much better way it would be to abolish the death penalty and then replace by life. Once a prisoner said “I rather like to die with the lethal injection than getting “life”, because that’s sheer hell for the rest of your life. Sometimes I have the feeling that those who are for the death penalty, think, that once the death penalty is abolished, there would be no other possibilities to punish a murderer. But that’s wrong, people. Of course, there is a possibility. Getting life is the best example for the replacement of the death penalty. This is the best way to punish a real murderer, and secondly you will save innocent people’s life!!

The legal system in the USA is full of injustice and fatal errors. At least, those who are underprivileged, will know what I am talking about. Because, when it’s possible to execute somebody who is innocent, there must be something going completely wrong in legal system. My researches show that executing Blacks more than Whites is mostly done deliberately, and in many cases also hush-money is paid or wrong statements are given by witnesses. It’s a real disaster and this has nothing to do with the legal system and the U.S. constitution. Moreover, there is the huge problem,that Blacks and other minorities in the USA are often very poor, so they can’t afford a lawyer and this means they will get a court-appointed lawyer from the state. Having no lawyer would help as much as having a court-appointed lawyer, namely to being executed. Court-appointed lawyers often do not help their clients very much, because they are getting paid very poorly. This demotivates both parties and it’s a kind of vicious circle that just doesn’t seem to stop, because sometimes it gives the obvious impression as if this is done deliberately, to just say in the end “You can’t blame us, we tried to help the client, but we are afraid that there was no chance to help.”

There are gladly many states, like my beloved New York, which have abolished the death penalty, because the risk is simply too high to execute innocent people anymore. But nevertheless, there are still too many other federal-states which stick too much to the death penalty, yet.

The death penalty is a shame to a beautiful country like America with such wonderful and warm-hearted people as I already had the chance to meet and have met many friends there. Now be honest with yourself, isn’t the death-penalty matter not a bit blasphemous? How can people, and here I mean the politicians and the judges claim to believe in God on one hand and on the other they execute people because of their colour of skin. Doesn’t the bible tell us that in front of God all people are equal. Why then don’t we act like that. It seems as if in America, at least in the legal and political system, only Whites are equal, the Blacks, the Latinos, the native Americans, they do not count. They are treaten like vermin.

That was what gave me mostly thinking and which was the final straw to me to write this book and many others too. Why do people try to connive at this instead of realising what massacre is going on in here?

BSWS should be seen as a wake-up call mostly to the American politicians and to the American legal system, but also to the human-race in general and most of all it’s NOT an anti-American novel or whatever. It should much more support the Americans in their thinking and their sensitivity and it shall support all of the Americans to become ONE again and not being separated between a black and a white America.

I am a young white woman raising her voice for the Blacks and the oppressed ones of this world. Racism concerns to all of us. It’s really high time not only to talk but to finally act. I hope you won’t misunderstand my Mission, but try to support me. With Black Skin White Skin, I tried to take the first step to show that humanity and equality still counts, I hope you will take the next.

Let’s finish this all with Buddha’s words: “There is only one time in which it is important to wake up. The time is now.”

All my best to you,

Lola Evans

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