Assessing Rachel Jentel

From Rachel Jeantel's testimony, society has labeled her at first glance as dumb, impolite, and rude. However, this one portrayal of Rachel Jeantel does not reveal who she is. Many do not know that Rachel speaks three different languages, English not being her first yet, they proceed to criticize her. Rachel also speaks ebonics which is misinterpreted as being uneducated as emphasized in the picture below. Society has proven to be over judgmental of a girl they know nothing about and do not understand. Not all people view Rachel Jeantel negatively, but to overcome first impressions takes critical thinking and overcoming stereotypes.

To further examine different opinions of Rachel Jeantel, we have conducted interviews with three African American women. We asked them to watch the clip above and then recorded their responses to how they thought Rachel acted in court. The fact that we interviewed African Americans is critical to our examination of  impoliteness among different cultures. These women can relate to Rachel and can say first hand if her behavior is considered rude among her peers or just to the outsider.

This is a summary of our inquiry.

When assessing Rachel's behavior the interviewees interpreted that she was frustrated. They rationalized and attributed this to the possibility of not being prepped before trial or not being informed of the length of time it required. They all understood that she was in a very stressful situation and believed her behavior was in some ways justifiable.

However, they could also see that from different perspectives, Rachel's behavior could have come off negatively. One interviewee, Yevonne Smith, pointed out that the justice department may have seen her attitude as being negative because she should have prioritized the case. The age of the viewer may also affect their view point because elders have more experience  in life and, therefore, can see the importance surrounding the case. On the other hand, young people are different and tend to be more selfish, only thinking about how things affect them.

Ashley Jenkins, another interviewee, identified that the way Rachel was acting could come off as bad character, but also believed people were prejudging her. Ashley noticed that Rachel was impatient, answering with short snappy replies, reflecting a poor attitude. She also commented on the deliberate manipulation of Rachel's use of ebonics in a previous statement to make her appear uneducated. This portrayal skews the publics view of Rachel and causes them to judge her based on the way she speaks instead of what she is saying.

The interviewees agreed that in some ways Rachel's behavior was negative, but also admitted that under the same conditions they would not know how they would have acted. The overall message that came out of discussing Rachel Jeantel's testimony is to not judge people too quickly.

These women defend Rachel's behavior because she is one of them. They are apart of the same community and it could be any black women up their being scrutinized. Rhonda Smith shared that she learned as an African American women that she would be treated differently. All African Americans face the challenge of overcoming stereotypes so these women stand as a united front with a similar background of being discriminated against past and presently.



"Black is Being the Last Person to hear your friend before he is killed and then treated in court like a criminal" 

The focus of everyone's attention was about her appearance, skin color and attitude. And due to her skin color the lawyer treated her like a middle schooler, which I think was extremely disrespectful. The lawyer picked on her weakness and made her less of a key person. He didn't want the jury to make their decision based on her evidence, so he used the race card. Making her look dumb and not trustable, and also attacking her like she was the criminal. He wasn't considerate at all, considering what she is going through. Losing a friend and also being attacked on national television.