AUTUMN ROBERSON-MANAHAN

Autumn Roberson-Manahan was a child gaslit and “nudged” to battery against a racist child at her school, thereby ruining her chances to achieve her dreams. She had no prior disciplinary record, and was very much focused on becoming the class valedictorian. After a few weeks of being taunted for being Black, she alerted her parents to the mistreatment she was receiving. Autumn used a recording device given her by her mother to collect evidence of the violations of her rights and personhood, which she later reported to the school administrators, but to no avail. After 4 months of such mistreatment, she snapped, and attempted to stand up for herself where it seemed no one else would. While Autumn was sentenced to 45 days at the campus of a correctional boot-camp, her tormentors received 3 days of in-school suspension. 

As if in a fit of drapetomania, Autumn fled the boot-camp, with the determination that death was better than bondage. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, after which the school administrators were finally willing to reduce Autumn’s sentence, and revise punishments for racial slurs at school.

The choices elicited bear the influence of the environment within which the chooser exists. In a toxic environment such as the one that existed for Ms. Roberson-Manahan, where little to no intervention occurred after multiple requests for redress, a psychotic break occurred and a toxic Hobson's choice was made. The sick environment where she attempted to excel academically ultimately made her sick. At scale, where systemic racism is global with a white supremacy agenda, the sick environment where every person, Black, white or nonwhite, attempts to survive if not thrive ultimately sickens them, and ultimately leads them through a pattern to a situation that destroys quality of life, if not physical life itself for the oppressor as well as the oppressed. Cho Seung-Hui was similarly led, much to the dismay of his family, his tormentors, their families and others involved.