He tolerates it, and sometimes he even trivializes and condones it” (Metress 5). This is a complete misconception because although he does recognize the disrespect black people have to tolerate in his town, he does not deliberately ignore it just because it doesn’t initially affect him. Atticus states before the jury, “The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption--the evil assumption--that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds As well as, “I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system—that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working