May 2023
Interview Excerpt: Safiya Mirza
Host: Can you tell us what was going through your mind at that moment, when you confronted Richard?
Safiya: Honestly, some of it feels like a blur—especially now, nearly a year and a half later. Sometimes when I look back, it seems like it happened so fast. Other times, I see it like it’s in slow motion. Like I’m watching it outside of myself. Mostly I remember his face—Richard’s—it changed in a split instant. He pulled off the mask, the one he wore all the time, I guess. He convinced everyone that the fiction he created was real.
Host: But you didn’t feel Nate was wearing a mask? Hiding things?
Safiya: Oh, no. No. I mean, he definitely was hiding things. That’s the whole ghost skin philosophy, right? Hide who you are, blend in, be insidious, spread your toxicity, but be charming, be perfect. And gaslight anyone who sees through you. Nate did that, too. He used his friend Joel that way, like a decoy. But Richard was better at it. An expert. He got along with everyone. Was super popular. Teachers loved him. He’s the devil we all knew but didn’t recognize. He’s still working that charm even now. I mean, look at the press coverage, all the people fawning over him after he was arrested. He gets love letters in jail. It’s sick.
Host: You think that was because of his charm? Good looks?
Safiya: That and the fact that rich, connected white boys couldn’t possibly be the bad guys, right? Even when they were clearly guilty. Even when they admit it, they’re still given another chance. Kid of an alderman and another from a major philanthropist family? C’mon. They get a thousand chances, really. Remember that rapist from Stanford? Newspaper headlines referred to him as the “Swimmer from Stanford,” even after he was found guilty. Honor students, athletes—that’s how the press talks about Nate and Richard. It’s not their mugshots you see everywhere. It’s their airbrushed senior photos, their posed varsity team pics. But if you’re Black you get blamed for your own murder because you’re a “thug,” even when all you were doing was wearing a hoodie or holding your own cell phone or sleeping in your own bed. If you’re Mexican, people call you “illegal.” When you’re Muslim, everyone assumes you’re a terrorist. That’s what happened to Jawad. The media doesn’t want to investigate its own bias, its own culpability.
Host: Is that why you’re going to journalism school?
Safiya: Partly. Look, a free press is foundational to our democracy. But it’s an institution and racism is built in. Also, I love finding and telling stories that are forgotten—being a journalist gives me power to do that.
Host: Before the trial, both Nate and Richard pointed the finger at each other for the actual murder. Who do you think is guilty?
Safiya: Both of them, as far as I’m concerned. Them blaming each other for the actual act of the murder? I one-hundred-percent believe that was part of their plan, too, to confuse the jury, create a shadow of a doubt.
Host: The verdict is about to come down. Do you think you’ll get justice for Jawad as you wanted?
Safiya: I hope so… for Jawad’s parents. For society, too, I guess. But there is no real justice for Jawad, is there? No matter what the verdict is. No matter how long they would serve. They’re alive. Jawad isn’t. We might get accountability, but it won’t be justice. What’s justice for a murdered kid?