Trayvon Martin.
You may have heard the name already. If you haven't, it's the name of the latest victim of America's racism. Because while it may have been Neighborhood Watch Commando George Zimmerman who shot and killed Martin as the boy walked back to his father's Florida home, it was racism that was truly responsible. The racism that is so deeply embedded into the psyche of so many Americans that it makes it only smart for every black person to constantly keep their head on a swivel.
Martin died because black boys are suspicious. They are suspicious, they are dangerous, they are frightening, they are criminal, they are evil. That's what racism teaches us. Black boys in a neighborhood with white people are a clear sign that something is wrong. Black boys deserve to be questioned, they deserve to be confronted and ultimately, they deserve to die.
If you don't believe that, you haven't been paying attention. You haven't looked behind the thin veneer of proactive policing and "stop and frisk" to see the ugly truth. Just being black is probable cause. It is an indelible brand that marks you as a deviant. You have been identified, cataloged and eventually you will be put in your place. Trayvon Martin was put in his place for sure. He was killed on a sidewalk despite being unarmed, despite being in the neighborhood where his father lived, and despite having just as much right to American air as any other citizen. And the 25-year old man who shot and killed him in cold blood was set free by police.
I have two black boys. They're small now. Still in that cute stage where people of all races smile at them and want to pat their heads. But, one day that will change. One day they will be threats. And it won't just be people of other races who see them that way, it will be black people as well. I'm guilty. I'm guilty of seeing groups of black boys and girding up my loins. My wife is too. We're guilty of believing the hype.
Racism is that strong.
But, are we stronger? Are we strong enough as a nation to make an example out of Mr. Zimmerman. To make it abundantly clear that his actions are not acceptable. That he can't explain away the unjustified murder of a black boy using the same tired racial code words and lies. Will the American justice system do that to a white man? Will that message be sent? Or will black folks receive one more reminder of what our lives are worth, and what the lives of our children are worth?
Time will tell.
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43 comments:
Racism doesn't teach us that black boys are suspicious, they are dangerous, they are frightening, they are criminal, they are evil.
The heinous senseless shootings by blacks that we read about every single day, day and day out and from coast to coast teaches us that. You pretend as if you are unaware of the huge problem in black areas with violence and stealing. If anybody is to blame for the negative attitudes that whites have towards blacks it is blacks themselves. Black behavior speaks for itself. I’m not saying this shooting was justified or not for I do not have the facts but for a white person to be on edge or cautious around a black teen is rational behavior for we all use what information we have in order to protect ourselves and we all know that black teen youth are the most violent group of people in our society so blame them for your poor image.
*Sad* story, Big Man. Sounds typical of ANONs to post such a cowardice response. So basically, because he's black and there is crime in various areas through out the US of A. It's fine to kill another human being based off a sterotype. Really smart *not even close, good thing you are anonymous* wouldn't want to take ownership of your words.
I truly hope George Zimmerman lives his life everyday thinking of that night. May it haunt him for the rest of his life. He will reap what he has sown-most definitely!
Is there anyway to bring justice, or is this a cold case due to no eye-witnesses? *truly a shame*
Everyone who agrees that Trayvon deserves justice should sign this position: https://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-murderer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin
Anonymous 1
I hope you really believe what you wrote. I hope you really believe that the actions of other black people completely unrelated to Trayvon Martin are what led to his death. I hope you think that way so that the the next time you are required to pay for the actions of someone who shares the same skin color as you don't even consider complaining.
@First anonymous. You dumb fucking fuck. If you somehow think that ignorant black people doing ignorant black shit justifies the killing of ANY black person ANYwhere then please do not set foot in MD or DC. Because if I see you, I'm going to remember the plethora of white males that have kidnapped and murdered (and sometimes chopped up) children, or just went on some batshit killing spree for no apparent reason. I have two kids, and given the fact that statistically speaking WHITE men are far more likely to abduct and harm my children I'll be sure to put a bullet in your fucking head you racist cunt, and see if I get away with it for some hair brained generalization derived from years of treating books as table levelers instead of tools to learn from. Please do us all a favor and die you fucking inbred hick. Or better yet, do us a favor and run your big dumb mouth in public so we can identify you and break your fucking jaw.
I hate people who stereotype and entire race off of the hand full they have heard about. This is the exact reason why racism will never fire out. Why affirmative action will always exist. I'm going to pray for the clueless. Only God can judge US. I'm a successful American of darker skin. I'm not a threat to society but have been harassed by the police for the color of my skin. My car done home have been checked because of my color and how expensive they were.... black people are done wrong on a daily basis. Rest in heaven Trayvon you made out out. Of this well.
Willie Lynch<<<<300 yrs later it's the same bs we're just not in shackles and in fields picking cotton this is a perfect example of modern day slavery smh "Land Of The Free Huh" smh sad story my heart goes out to his loved ones
If tables were turned, I doubt the police would say they're holding off on arrests to wait for a fair investigation just like they did Troy Davis and they barely had any evidence in his trial but Casey Anthony is just living "The Beautiful Life"<<<(her tat that she got when her CHILD was MISSING) and they had more than enough evidence to prove that she killed her offspring (you do the math) Racism is based on law
Let’s keep posting, keep tweeting and keep facebooking about this. Let’s get the word out about this travesty of justice to as many people as we can. Sign the petition on change.org: http://www.change.org/petitions/prosecute-the-murderer-of-17-year-old-trayvon-martin. Here’s another link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/family-of-trayvon-martin-_n_1332756.html
If you tweet and follow anybody famous, tweet the links from Huffington Post and Change.org to them. Post the links on your Facebook. Let’s use the Internet and do some good. If we can get the news station to pay some attention to this story, that would be awesome. Here is Chief Lee’s email address: Bill.Lee@sanfordfl.gov Let him know how you feel.
Lets stop talking about peace and just take over our land. The first people to walk this earth were black and crackers have been trying to destroy all proof of that. When will we unite as a race and take back control of our world? All honestly they should be scared, we are overall the strongest race. We cannot co-exsist so what next? Destroy ot be drestroued....
Mr. Anonymous you make no sense... If I saw you right now I would knock you out... White/ spanish people do the same s**t black folks do.. They steal, they rob, they kill... How many black people you see going into a school or somewhere shooting up a place... NONE.. its the white people. But no one seems to look at them different. YOU ARE A COMPLETE FOOL...
You are probably as stupid and uninformed as what you have written... IT'S PEOPLE... LIKE YOU who are the reason this young baby won't ever go to college... wont ever perform some breakthrough surgery...won't ever get married... YOU ARE THE THREAT!!
[I Stay Woke] #GeorgeZimmerman, the man who murdered #TrayvonMartin in cold blood, has a criminal past:
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/man-who-shot-killed-teen-sanford-neighborhood-has-/nLPgL/
(Me = White father of bi-racial kid, grew up in Oakland surrounded by everyone of all races and seeing racism in forms large and small from some surprising corners, and still work in Oakland as a coach, youth leader and street-level care provider. Now you won't have to guess.)
1) As the poster above mentioned, it seems that George Z. may not be so squeaky clean after all, which is one of the reasons quoted for letting him stay free. If true, this will show a lot on the part of the Sanford police.
2) I have NO IDEA what Tray was wearing, what he said or anything else - so this is in response only to 'Anonymous" above. When I was a kid, we always knew who the bad guys were and it had nothing to do with their skin. We KNEW them by experience mostly, because we were outside so much more and stayed close to our own neighborhoods. But we also KNEW them by what they wore and how they acted. Think about the White "greasers" from the '50's, the rough guys of the '60'd and '70's - they all dressed a certain way, almost like a uniform. They dressed to scare, to intimidate. If a kid dressed nicely, generally they were viewed in at least a somewhat different life. Where I live in Oakland now, ALL kids - even the ones I KNOW are good - dress to intimidate, to scare. The "cool" thing to do is to dress as if you are gangsta, which only exacerbates the problems that already exist with racism. You now not only have a "scary" young person of color, but one who dresses in imitation of the real gang-bangers who truly are scary. It is harder to tell the difference these days.
This is not an excuse for anybody acting out-of-pocket like George Zimmerman did. Not at all. I only post it as one small example of a small piece of the pie that makes up this whole thing we call "society". There are so many of these problems in Oakland and elsewhere - all we can do is demand justice and proper action from everyone involved - the police, the George Zimmermans, the kids and the parents. But the funny thing is, when kids ask me "why are those old folks scared of us" and I respond "have you looked in the mirror lately", a lot of them actually get it. Sometimes they only need someone to say it in a language they understand. Sometimes, talking does more good than anything else.
Do please understand that I'm not blaming Tray - quite the opposite. I have no idea what he was even wearing. No, it's not the kids' fault either. It's just that, as a society, we've lost our way on so many levels. The cops don't understand the very people they police. The government seems more concerned about it's own bureaucratic rules than actually solving a problem. The kids look to what is "cool" now in ways that create additional hurdles - and they already have hurdles enough. I'm just horribly frustrated. Too many of the kids I work with end up like Tray at someone else's hand - or in prison or dead for something they really did do themselves. Sorry for venting. Personally, I had brief visions of finding dear old George, walking up beside him, and then suddenly feeling "threatened" and needed to defend myself. But then I would be part of the problem, I guess. G'nite, all.
How many white people do car jackings?
My house was broken into three times , each time it was a no white !
Stay on the fucking topic. A grown ass cracker killed a kid he could not intimidate. He was wrong, plain and simple. Regardless of race, you pay for your mistakes. I want street justice. Let him stay free!
The reason Martin was shot is because he was sitting on top of Zimmerman repeatedly punching him in the face. The eyewitness said, and Zimmerman said to the cops, that he was calling for help while Trayvon punched him in the face. That's a life-threatening position, and in Florida a reason to use deadly force.
If you go to Trayvon's FB page, which is easy to find, you'll see pics of him with sagged pants as he flips the bird to the camera. Also another pic in which the words "Made Nigga" have been added.
I think this was a kid from Miami who looked and acted like a hard thug, and when some doughy white guy dared to ask him if he lived in the gated community, he attacked and threw a beatdown.
Don't start fights, boys and girls. Avoid conflict. Don't act like a thug. Be polite.
Interesting LenP. According to reports Zimmerman was instructed by 911 dispatch to WAIT for actual officers to arrive. Are you suggeting Martin walked over to Zimmerman, who simply complying to the dispatcher's order to not engage, yanked him out of his car and started beating his ass?
@ LenP- So bascially, you are blaming the victim in this scenario for something that should not have happened.
Zimmerman was the attacker-remember that.
Martin was minding his own business walking back from the convenient store.
Do you see, where you are at fault in your rationale?
Probrably not, you make the assumption that wearing thug type clothes means, you are asking for a death sentence?
*How absurd!*
LenP
As the two posters above me noted, George Zimmerman defied police orders and initiated contact with this young man.
The young man did not bother him. Nor do you know how their contact escalated into a physical confrontation. You don't know what Zimmerman said or did to create that situation. What you know is that once it happened, Zimmerman was getting his ass whipped, and thus was justified in killing the boy.
So, to recap, Zimmerman called the police on a young man who was walking his father's neighborhood. Zimmerman defied police orders and physically confronted this same young man. Zimmerman engaged in a fistfight with this young man, and began to lose that fight.
Zimmerman shot this young man.
There were a lot of mistakes here, and I don't see many of them being made on Trayvon Martin's part.
Reminds me too much of the moment my own son went from being a cute black kid to almost being hauled off to the police station a couple blocks from our house for the crime of walking back home from a local corner store with a steak-and-cheese sandwich and an Arizona iced tea.
Thank God he pretty much asserted the necessity for an adult guardian (as a 16 or 17 year old at the time) and the cop's attitude changed when he saw I was a white man. The world shouldn't be that way, though.
First excellent article. No need to add a word to what you said, there's nothing debatable about this.
My only question- IT'S BEEN 3 WEEKS, WHY ISN'T EVERY BLACK LEADER AND CITIZEN DOWN THERE PROTESTING, LIKE THE LATINO COMMUNITY WHEN ARIZONA PASSED THEIR IMMIGRATION LAW?
This is Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadu Diaollo (sp?),Emmet Till, Eleanor Bumpers,ad naseum. What the hell us do our civil rights leaders, black citizens have more important to do right now?
Forgive me however, I am a bit confused. Reporters keep reporting and people keep commenting that Mr. Zimmerman is "white" and on here someone called him a "white cracker." If I am looking at the correct pictures, Mr. Zimmerman by all accounts looks hispanic and looks nothing like the "white crackers" I grew up with. What gives? If we are going to be so outraged shouldn't "we" be reporting or writing the "Truth!" We can't be one sided when wanting justice or the truth!!
He could be a white Hispanic.
Most likely he was initially described as white by police, plus his last name was Zimmerman, so people ran with it.
Okay, so how does a guy with all of this below, get a job as the quote 'Neighborhood watch Captain" to begin with??? Could it be they knew he was prejudiced, very prejudiced, and approved of it??? In Florida, I have to say, a lot of these neighborhood associations are very openly prejudiced. I believe this guy committed blantant/open/ premeditated murder, and if it were any other law abiding area of the country, there would be no question he would already be in jail. This case is actually more blatantly racist than anything I've seen in yrs. There is no justification for this man to still be free. And I'm a white male BTW..
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=5782626
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=1021230
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=4033680
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=4033684
http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=5797428
Terrible story. I really hope the victim' family get justice, REAL justice!
Sir. You are an insensitive jerk. Your way of thinking is more dangerous than a skittle yielding child.
See, I am angered by this kid getting killed by this man. But I am even more angered at the double-standard I am hearing coming from the black community, including this blog!!
The blog post starts out with "...it's the name of the latest victim of America's racism...." NO!! It is NOT "America's racism", it is George Zimmerman's racism!! HE was the perpetrator of this crime, not me. HE was the one who racially profiled, stalked, and murdered this child in cold blood, not me! I am calling for his head too, but guess what? I'm a white guy, so AUTOMATICALLY I am a racist asshole and treated accordingly.
SO, next time you see a white guy and you automatically think whatever-it-is-that-you-think, remember that assuming that the white guy is racist is the EXACT SAME THING that you are claiming is an injustice. You cannot have it both ways. Racism does flow both ways!
Now, someone go get Mr. Zimmerman and bring him to justice.
If the police transcript is authentic this is the most chilling public murder of a black child simply another scapegoat and victim of color reminding black men and women to stay down down and in their place. Makes me want to vomit. No sad tragedy here, clearly socially sanctioned killing of the other.
No Anonymous.
It is not just Zimmerman's racism. It's America's racism. Zimmerman is a product of an America that see black people as threats. He was taught to think like that, it didn't happen magically, it was the product of specific actions.
You are upset because as a white man people think you're a racist. You count that as a double standard and it upsets you.
It upsets me that I have had the police pull a gun on men because they thought I was suspicious while doing my job simply because a white woman thought I was a danger. And to have that same police officer humiliate me despite being told of his mistake because he didn't like my attitude was only the icing on the cake.
You are exactly right that assuming a white person is a racist is the same as the police assuming black people are threats. Which one happens more frequently and with more horrible results? And yet, which one has you really upset?
I think that the the white man who did that dumb shit should get his head blown smooth off on life the fukk I'm black and I'm proud nd dht shit he pulled he better pray dht niqqas ain't at his head karma can b a real bitch nd I can't wait for it to Kum back nd bite him in his ass ! The feds is just as much of a bitch as he is for not makein him serve hell of time let a black person kill a white dude den hit the police wit the same excuse dey gone b quick to give a niqqa life FUKK THE POLICE ! ( IN MY BOOSIE VOICE) FREE MY NIGGA EARLY NEVA LATE.! SO THA POLICE ND THA WHITE TRASH CAN SUCK MY DICK ND DIE QUICK BITCH
The dude is Mexican, not white. All of y'all need yo get your facts straight before saying anything. AND another thing, all of y'all saying this shit about whites and blacks are making it a race thing.. so honestly YALL are the racist ones. Grow the fuck up!
No one shot the white kids in school that dressed in ALL BLACK with BLACK FINGER NAILS chains, tattoos, piercings, and colored hair....Why??? Cause that guy usually ended up shooting up the school his damn self!! Either way it goes the BLACK MAN in AMERICA will ALWAYS be public enemy number 1 with or without a hoodie. America frequently has a problem recognizing perception vs. reality
Lenp
You are an ASSHOLE of the highest order! How in the FUCK is it self defense when that pig Zimmerman started the whole damn thing!! He had NO business harassing that kid it was HIS fault and it was his fault he was getting his ass kicked! When you start a fight you can't bitch about self-defense because you got your ass kicked stupid!
The man was Hispanic and he had black friends everyone keeps saying white and cracker that just shows racism works both ways and it's wrong all the way around.You're so hung up on making this a race thing the obvious has slipped you by, what's the obvious here you might ask?Simple a man killed another man when he had no business doing so.Try to leave the race thing out of this you can't say that man was a cracker he was half hispanic! Come on people why don't yall break it down to all the micro races that was in him also? Funny how the president was 1/2 white 1/2 black and everyone says he is black, but yet zimmerman was half white half hispanic and he is a white cracker huh? Your hidden agendas shine in my spotlight people!
Are you kidding me? The number one killer of young black men is another black man. Why is no one protesting that? Is it because the shooter isn't Hispanic?
Have you heard that a witness has come forth saying they seen Trayvon on top of Zimmerman beating him up? It's also been reported that Zimmerman had lacerations on his face.
My deepest sympathy to Trayvon Martin's family. Paranoia in America continues to escalate, and the innocent will continue to shed their blood for our paranoia. Grab your family and friends, and watch the movie, CIVIC DUTY, with actor Peter Krause; a modern day example of the dynamics of racism using profiling.
i think the whole thing is a bunch of malarkey and anonymous since you want to say so much about it go complain to the president or somebody stand up for us blacks since you are not the but hole you said you were and stand up for yourself too so blacks will change the way they think of you according to this blog
The truth revealed: Zimmerman is African American. Why don't the black leaders speak out against the appalling levels of African Americans violently preying on other African Americans?
Once again, we have a perfect example of black people jumping on some bull shit. So do you STILL believe that racism killed Trayvon....you know despite the evidence that supports he instigated the altercation? Do you still believe that Zimmerman is an angry white guy roaming the streets looking for black kids to murder....or do you see him for what I see him; a hispanic. When are black people going to wake up and recognize that they have a cultural problem and that the only people roaming the streets looking for black kids to murder....are other black kids.
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