Trayvon Martin and Truth About America

There are certain hard, unpopular truths about America that rarely get discussed.

1. This country was never intended to be a meritocracy, has never operated as a meritocracy. Injustice is just as much a bedrock of this country as man's inalienable rights.

2. The law has typically been used to maintain the status quo.

It's important to note these unassailable facts because in the case of Trayvon Martin, these facts are not only what led to his death, but they have also allowed his murderer to walk the streets as a free man. It's not enough to decry Martin's death as an unspeakable tragedy and sympathize with his grieving family. No, it must be noted that his death is just the latest salvo in an ongoing war against the rights of minorities, and a recent incarnation of a longstanding meme that black and brown lives are worth less.

Those who think this country is truly concerned with justice and equality must examine those beliefs under the harsh glare of a case where an armed, adult white male accosts a smaller, unarmed, black teenager for no crime, but because he deemed the youth "suspicious." This man demands that this child "present his papers" and when the child takes offense, they scuffle. This man is somehow bested by a child he outweighs by more than 100 pounds, and decides that his life is so endangered that he's justified in killing the young man. That's right, the larger more aggressive suspect who accosted the innocent bystander kills him and then claims it was self defense.

And the police have accepted this explanation.

Clearly this is not the more common scenario that typically surrounds the slaying of an unarmed black man, where a police officer in a pressure-filled situation overreacts and points to the threat of potential death. This is not the case of a homeowner protecting his property, even under the most dubious claims..

No, in this incident, a man sought a fight, found a fight and then killed a child when the fight didn't go his way. And he did it all despite commands from law enforcement to stand down. That's what makes this incident such a prime example of the injustice that dominates America. This man's actions, and the response from authorities, is driven by the idea that a white man who kills a black man has an inherent right to take that action. More importantly, a black man who is killed, probably deserves it.

Honestly, this can't be surprising to people. A quick perusal of the evening news, or the pages of your local newspaper will show that black men are violently killed at an alarming rate, typically by other black men. It's impossible not to note how these deaths are often viewed as part of the status quo, while the deaths of non-blacks, particularly whites, are viewed as a sign of the coming Apocalypse. This media quirk, it is a business decision made based on the stark realities of life in this country. Black lives are worth less.

Trayvon Martin's murder, and it was a murder, has not captivated the nation's consciousness because on a certain level, his death is to be expected. As a black teenage male, he was living on borrowed time in this country where far too many of his peers still view reaching age 21 as an accomplishment and age 30 as a miracle. Any suffering he endures is almost always going to be believed to be his fault or the fault of those charged with caring for him. It's why so many folks have rushed to defend Zimmerman's actions by providing anecdotes about their own encounters with dangerous black youth. These reactions are driven by the conscious and unconscious belief that black people, particularly the males, are inherently dangerous and sometimes need to be put down. Mistakes will be made, but the end justifies the means.

That is what is so infuriating about the situation. It's as if black people can see this obvious reality, but we're constantly being told it's all in our minds. We know what it's like to be black, and about half of us know what's it's like to be black and male. We see the tightrope we walk, and we learn from youth the consequences of falling.

But too many other folks are caught up in the American myth..

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