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She complied.
“Based on your interactions with Miss Blue, did you come to form an opinion of her?”
“Absolutely. She has a very bad temper and seemed to have some sort of ax to grind.”
There was a hum in the courtroom.
Champ looked saddened to hear this information. “Please give us an example of the behavior that led you to form this opinion.”
“About a year ago, I received an excellent book proposal from a literary agent and asked Jackie to read it and tell me what she thought of it. Two days later, I went into her office to discuss it and she came unglued. She behaved so irrationally that I was actually afraid that she was going to attack me.”
“Tell the court what you mean by the word ‘unglued.’ ”
Astrid took a deep breath. “She hit the desk with the palm of her hand, yelled at me, and told me that I should stay away from manuscripts about Black people and stick to what I know. I was verbally abused by Jackie because I am a white woman.”
The hum grew louder.
“Thank you, Miss Norstromm. No further questions.”
Keith moved swiftly to cross-examine. “Miss Norstromm, what was the name of this book proposal?”
“I don’t remember.”
He smiled pleasantly. “Do you remember what the proposal was about?”
“Sure. It concerned the dramatic rise in the number of African-Americans sent to prison in this country over the past ten years.”
“Did Miss Blue say that she was upset about these jailings?”
“We didn’t talk about that.”
“Did she say that the author lacked the appropriate credentials to take on such a serious project?”
“No. The author was a respected journalist. There was no way that Jackie could argue that.”
“But she was definitely upset.”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm . . . a respected journalist proposed a book about an unfortunate state of affairs affecting African-Americans. Miss Blue is an African-American who would presumably feel dismayed by the data collected by this journalist.”
“That’s exactly what I thought,” Astrid said triumphantly.
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Keith rubbed his chin. “I’m confused. Perhaps Miss Blue was offended by a position that the author took. Did the author feel that this trend is a good thing and that more Black people should be jailed?”
Ruth Champ shot out of her chair. “Objection! Miss Norstromm cannot know how this unnamed journalist feels about anything.”
“Sustained.”
Keith showed no sign of having heard this exchange. “Miss Norstromm, please forgive my ignorance of the publishing process. Let me ask you this: is it true that you asked Miss Blue to read the proposal because you thought that Welburn Books should enter into a contract with the author to publish the book?”
“Yes.”
“What was written in this proposal that convinced you that Welburn Books should offer the author a contract?”
“It was the author’s opinion that given the astonishing number of impoverished Black people in privately owned prisons, and given the fact that a large number of Black people are interested in starting their own businesses, it was only fair that wealthy, middle-class Blacks get a chance to own these prisons themselves.”
