Mahmood Aldhamen
WRA 125 Sec 1
12/4/2013
Interviews
Five African
American women over the age of 18 were interviewed about their perceptive of
the testimony of Rachel Jeantel during the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman
trial.
1. Zainab Coleman, age 22:
“She [Rachel Jeantel] seems to be very rude and
impolite. She sits there picking her ear and letting her mouth hang open. She
doesn’t look like she even cares about what is going on. She also is very rude
to the judge and the prosecutor. If she wanted to make her case sound good she
would’ve at least have been polite and professional. It just seems like she
doesn’t care and just wants to go home. She even said she wanted to go home. I
don’t blame the guys for questioning her because if she really cared about
Treyvan maybe she would have taken this seriously.”
2. Malikah Jones, age 28:
“Ms. Jeantel looks like she is stressed. I feel
for her but I mean she should of at least tried to put some effort in it. I
swear she looks like she is going to fall asleep with her eyes looking half
closed the whole time. The lawyer seemed to know she is tired and tries to
confuse her. But it looks like she is just confused herself at the end. She
just leans back and makes it like this is all a waste of her time. She didn’t
even try to speak well either. Yeah I can imagine she’s feeling bad because of
her boyfriend being murdered but she’s in court and should have better manners.
At least if it was me I’d try to make an effort to get the killer in jail.”
3. Carrie Dallas, age 31:
“This girl [Rachel Jeantel] looks like a joke.
She came into the court dresses like she’s going to the club with her weave
done and her loops on. She’s snapping at the judge and acting like she has
better things to do than try to get the guy who killed her boyfriend, Treyvon
Martin, in jail. She doesn’t even know what she is saying and didn’t think it
mattered. She’s got some attitude and no manners. You got to be polite in court
and she just acts like whatever. And she can’t even talk. Her grammar is off.
At least be professional in court girl and drop the attitude.”
4. Janay Nichole, age 19: Janay Nichole,
age 19
“The poor girl [Rachel Jeantel] just looks like
she’s being messed with by the judge and the lawyer. They are not polite to her
and they just seem to try and make her sound dumb. I know I wouldn’t say
nothing if those guys were asking me the same thing over and over like I don’t
know what I said. They don’t give her a break. That pig killed her man Treyvon
and they just treat her like a criminal. If they were polite to her than maybe
she’d be polite to them. I think she is doing good. She looks stressed and
tired of all the drama. She just wants to go home. The dudes need to back off.”
5. Sharmin Mayars, 35:
“Seems like everyone is being rude in this
video. The lady [Rachel Jeantel] acts like she doesn’t care and is lazy. The
judge and lawyer act like she’s doing things wrong. No one seems to want to be
polite at all to anyone. The lady was moving around like she was nervous and
wanted to leave. She lawyer was looking like he knew she was nervous and kept
trying to make her nervous. She made herself look like a bad witness and their
questions made her look even worse. She didn’t even want to read the book and
acted like she couldn’t read. The lawyers just acted like she was a bad witness
too. It’s not a nice court room setting.”
Summary:
The general idea of
the interviews stated that Rachel Jeantel was not acting professional. While
some sympathized with her, stating she was going through hard times and that
she was under stress, most said she was not polite or proper for the situation.
While the exact nature of her impoliteness varied from person to person, most
agreed it was in how she spoke and how she acted. As stated in the interviews,
Rachel Jeantel acted as if she did not care to be in court and that she was not
putting any effort into her testimony. Some have said that the judge and the
prosecutor (lawyer) were not fair to her and questioned her repeatedly to exploit
her; others said that she should have acted better regardless.
Analysis:
She broke some
social norms in her testimony regardless. In a professional situation,
especially that of a courtroom, her language was not appropriate. Her verbal
and nonverbal actions were not professional for a court. In regards to interactional
sociolinguistics, she used poor grammar and was speaking rudely to the judge.
This made her sound impolite and improper. It did not help her image to speak
this way. Also, she complained about wanting to go home, which in a court can
be taken as refusal to testify (as noted in the video). Also, her non-verbal
actions seemed to show that she was tired and frustrated with the situation. In
a court, a person should appear to be alert and paying attention to the
situation.
In regards to the
prosecutor, they did take opportunities to exploit her position. They were
using negative politeness. They kept questioning her repeatedly with the same
questions and attempted to convince her she was wrong about her testimony by
confusing her. They spoke to her as an inferior.
A picture can say a
lot and so can a video. Some people focus on different parts of a video and
base their argument. The images shown previously show how seeing and focusing
on different parts can change the meaning of the video. Actions represent a
person and can effect how people interpret them.
Citations
1. Coleman, Z. (2013, Nov 30).
Interview by M. A. Zainab Coleman, age
22.
2. Jones, M. (2013, Nov 31).
Interview by M. A. Malikah Jones, age 28.
3. Dallas, C. (2013, Dec 1).
Interview by M. A. Carrie Dallas, age
31.
4. Nichole, J.
(2013, Dec 1). Interview by M. A. Janay Nichole, age
19
5. Mayars, S. (2013,
Dec 1). Interview by M. A. Sharmin Mayars, 35
Video and Screen captures:
WESH 2 News. (2012). Trayvon
martin's friend testifying: I'm leaving today [Web]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY3XPf912-k
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