9th JUROR: It suddenly occurs to me that you must be an ignorant man.  

 

10th JUROR: What do you mean? What’s he talking about?  

9th JUROR: Do you think you have a monopoly on the truth?

This quote takes place near the beginning of Act I, after the 10th Juror insists that people of the boy’s race are all liars. The 10th Juror has extremely fixed ideas of the boy based on his stereotypical, racist beliefs. In response, the 9th Juror points out that not only is the 10th Juror’s racism problematic because it is hateful, but it’s also particularly problematic in this case because the man believes in his version of reality to the exclusion of all others. As a result, the 10th Juror cannot assess the case with any impartiality—if people agree with him, he considers them correct, and if they disagree with them, he’s dismissive, belligerent, and argumentative. His black and white thinking is rooted in his idea that he alone can see the truth about racial dynamics in America, the events the night of the murder, and about the boy himself.

10th JUROR: […] They’re violent, they’re vicious, they’re ignorant, and they will cut us up. That’s their intent. To cut us up. [To the 7TH JUROR.] I’m warning you. This boy, this boy on trial here. We’ve got him. That’s one at least. I say get him before his kind gets us. I don’t give a goddamn about the law.

This quote takes place towards the end of the play, when the 10th Juror quickly loses allies in the deliberation and lashes out aggressively while trying to win the others over with his racist rhetoric. Here, he reveals the thesis that has driven him throughout the deliberations. The 10th Juror is less concerned with the law or with abiding by due process, and this is clear as he openly dismisses the law. Instead, he quite openly admits that his goal is to utilize the power of the judicial system to put a boy to death because of his race. In this case, his racist ideology does more than skew his perception of reality; it makes him openly hostile to the truth. He dismisses the facts and reveals that he doesn’t care about what actually happened. This dialogue reveals the true danger of putting the judicial apparatus in the hands of people whose racist bias reveals openly homicidal tendencies.

8TH JUROR: It’s very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.

This quote takes place after the 10th Juror reveals his racist agenda. Here, the 8th Juror attempts to recover the discussion after the 10th Juror’s ugly speech. He is equanimous, and rather than engaging in a battle about the illegitimacy of the 10th Juror’s argument, he redirects the conversation back to the case at hand. By refocusing on the duty the jurors have in assessing this case, the 8th Juror is able to call out and shame the 10th Juror. He explicitly describes how his prejudice against the boy’s race makes it difficult if not impossible for him to see the truth. He preemptively halts further racist input from the 10th Juror by underscoring how counterproductive it is to the proceedings. As a result, the 10th Juror is stonewalled, and the conversation returns to the facts of the case. Soon after, the 10th Juror gives up his crusade and changes his vote to “not guilty.”