Free The Ghost Apple by Aaron Thier Page A

Tyrants wide receiver Depatrickson White was descended from a slave—a man called “Ned,” later William White, who subsequently escaped to the North—once owned by the Pinkman family.
    All eyes were on Bish Pinkman III, who remained motionless, staring at his hands with a fixed watery glare.
    Obviously, the president said, this was not a matter we needed to resolve on our own. The trustees and the senior administrators were already discussing it, and the Public Relations Office had issued the first of several press releases. What we needed to decide here was what action, if any, the faculty itself would take.
    David Herring, professor of physics, laughed cheerfully and moved that we “stage a demonstration.” Perhaps Depatrickson White could strike Mr. Pinkman III with a bullwhip! He could do it on the lawn in front of Pinkman Hall.
    The president treated this motion as a joke, although Richard Carlyle, professor of English, had risen to second it. Mr. Pinkman III did not react at all. He sat with his soft hands clasped, his head inclined, his rounded belly rising and falling at regular intervals.
    Broward Chamberlain, professor of religion, wanted to explain that there was extensive justification for such a punishment in biblical law. The phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” which was usually dismissed as an ancient barbarity, was actually quoted out of context. The biblical passage was a revision of contemporary Near Eastern laws, which stipulated that perpetrators of violent offenses would be punished in kind (an eye for an eye) only if the victim was of an equal social class. Under biblical law, the idea was expanded to protect victims of a lower social class as well. It was actually a progressive measure, and one that obviously had a particular resonance here, where questions of slave and master were at issue. There was also a lengthy biblical precedent for the punishment of an individual for the crimes of his ancestors.
    There followed a period of tense silence. The president frowned and looked at her hands. Was Professor Chamberlain joking?
    Professor Herring was joking. He laughed again and asked us to consider how “cathartic” it would be to watch Mr. Pinkman III whipped savagely in front of the building that bore his name.
    Professor Kabaka, on the other hand—the so-called conscience of Tripoli College—was not joking, nor perhaps did he ever joke. He summarized his own position as follows: He was furious. We were making a show of outrage over a trivial coincidence. More importantly, however, we were behaving as though slavery were a matter of individual rather than societal guilt—a crime that could be avenged by calling responsible individuals to account. Slavery was in fact only one expression of an ethos of exploitation that had preceded the invention of the plantation complex and the creation of distinct racial categories. That ethos persisted to this day, and companies like Big Anna® were only one of its present manifestations. We could not pretend to condemn slavery at the moment we allied ourselves with such a corporation.
    The president, an honest person in an impossible position, thanked him for his remarks. She agreed with him. Unfortunately, we were not in a position to change the world, nor was ancient Near Eastern law “germane to the case.” Once again, all we had to decide this afternoon was whether the faculty would take any action. She thought it would be good if we could be seen to act in concert with the Athletic Association, which had its own interest in the matter, and toward that end she now called on Glenn Forrest, assistant to the deputy director of the Athletic Association, whom the faculty greeted with scattered applause and subdued murmurs of “Go Tyrants.”
    “Obviously,” Mr. Forrest began, “we all want what’s best for the Tyrants.” He then expressed his hope that the whole problem would “just vanish,” adding that the Tyrants were a