I'm going to ask you a question. What if Trayvon Martin was YOUR child?
Oh I know, I know. Some of you can't imagine it. Because of the privilege that you may not even be fully aware of, you think this will NEVER happen to you. You can't imagine YOUR child ever being treated like a worthless piece of meat. So you don't really put yourselves in the shoes of Trayvon Martin's parents, and you don't TRULY feel the pain of Trayvon Martin's parents. You go on with your lives, knowing that this will NEVER happen to me. But just for a moment, imagine if this happened to YOUR child:
YOUR child is walking home from going to the local convenience store to pick up some Skittles and an iced tea for his/her younger sibling. You live in what you believe to be a "safe" neighborhood. A gated community.
YOUR child, who is only 17 years old, is followed by a 28-year-old. He/she is scared. The adult is following him/her. YOUR child runs. The adult pursues him/her. There is an altercation. YOUR child screams for help. And YOUR child is shot in the chest.
The police department does a cursory investigation.
The police department tests YOUR child for drugs and alcohol, but does not test the shooter.
The shooter is released because he claims self-defense, although he is the one who pursued YOUR child, and he is 100 pounds heavier than YOUR child, and it was YOUR child that was screaming for help.
The police department waits THREE days to inform you that your child is dead. YOUR child is laying in the morgue dead.
The police department withholds 911 tapes that provide important evidence.
The shooter is not a registered neighborhood watch captain, but a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch captain.
The shooter has been told not to pursue YOUR child, but ignores the orders and continues to pursue YOUR child. And this shooter is not a police officer, nor a registered neighborhood watch captain, but a regular citizen.
How would YOU feel?
Now if you don't already feel empathy for Trayvon Martin's parents, your blood must run ice cold.
But there is the additional element of racial animus in this case. George Zimmerman had a history of calling 911 46 times and being obsessed with looking out for young black men in his neighborhood. He stated in the 911 tapes that Trayvon was "up to no good" (he was walking home from the convenience store) and that he looked like he was on drugs. Then he also stated that "they always get away" and there is a portion of the tape that sounds like he says "f**king coons".
Why didn't the Sanford Police Department arrest George Zimmerman? How is this police department complicit in this case? Is this their brand of southern justice? If George Zimmerman had been black and Trayvon Martin had been white, would George Zimmerman have been arrested? (I think we all know the answer to that.)
A million people have signed the petition to fully investigate this case. This is about justice. In the public school system, we say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. We recite the words, "with liberty and justice for all". Those words do not ring true if things like this still happen in America.
If you don't care about this, and speak out about it, who is going to speak out when YOUR child is marginalized in some way? What if your child ended up being killed because he or she was gay? Or lesbian? Or disabled? Or disfigured? Or for some other reason? And what if no one cared?
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case
As I follow the media coverage on the Trayvon Martin case, I am disgusted by the inaction by the Sanford Police Department. I am glad there is now a federal investigation into the case, and I pray that charges will be filed against George Zimmerman.
Not surprisingly, FOX News has only one article covering this story. I guess it doesn't fit with their narrative that everyone has the right to own a gun.
Thank God for social media. If it were not for social media, no one would have known about this story. But because millions of people have been so outraged by this case, it has become a cause, and people will not be quiet about it until a full investigation is done and justice is served.
For those who think racism no longer exists, I think it is sad commentary on our society that a young black 17-year-old boy cannot walk home with a bag of Skittles without being considered suspicious. I find it pathetic when people assume that if you are a young black man, you are automatically considered suspect, but if you are a young white man, you are automatically given a pass. I am irritated beyond belief when there is a newspaper story about a black person committing a crime and tons of comments are made about how ALL black people are thugs, yet when a white person commits a crime, it's attributed to his mental status, not his race. Ever. And the gun rights defenders continue to scream about the 2nd amendment. Even when something like this happens.
How about the white sergeant who killed all of those Afghan civilians? The narrative is still about wondering if he was mentally stable, trying to find an excuse for why he did it. How about those civilians who died? What if an Afghan soldier opened fire on a bunch of white American civilians, including women and children? Would Americans be trying to find out if he was mentally stable? Probably not. They would want him executed. Just saying. No one would care why.
Today on the Thom Hartmann radio show, there was a great discussion about how the NRA and the media panders to the fear in white men, and as a result there's this love of guns in this country, which has resulted in deaths of innocent people. There's even a law in several states in which a person can "stand their ground" and can kill someone if they come into their home, and they have a feeling that they're being threatened. Is this a law that gives white people a license to shoot young black men if they feel "threatened" by them, without threat of legal action? And why do I have the sneaking suspicion that if a black man felt threatened by a white man, and shot him, the law would have no problem arresting that black man and charging him with a crime--and the "stand your ground" law would not ever come into play? Anyway, from witness accounts, Zimmerman was NOT the victim here--Martin was the one crying for help, and Zimmerman was the one on top of Martin--he had a good 100 pounds on Martin.
Not surprisingly, FOX News has only one article covering this story. I guess it doesn't fit with their narrative that everyone has the right to own a gun.
Thank God for social media. If it were not for social media, no one would have known about this story. But because millions of people have been so outraged by this case, it has become a cause, and people will not be quiet about it until a full investigation is done and justice is served.
For those who think racism no longer exists, I think it is sad commentary on our society that a young black 17-year-old boy cannot walk home with a bag of Skittles without being considered suspicious. I find it pathetic when people assume that if you are a young black man, you are automatically considered suspect, but if you are a young white man, you are automatically given a pass. I am irritated beyond belief when there is a newspaper story about a black person committing a crime and tons of comments are made about how ALL black people are thugs, yet when a white person commits a crime, it's attributed to his mental status, not his race. Ever. And the gun rights defenders continue to scream about the 2nd amendment. Even when something like this happens.
How about the white sergeant who killed all of those Afghan civilians? The narrative is still about wondering if he was mentally stable, trying to find an excuse for why he did it. How about those civilians who died? What if an Afghan soldier opened fire on a bunch of white American civilians, including women and children? Would Americans be trying to find out if he was mentally stable? Probably not. They would want him executed. Just saying. No one would care why.
Today on the Thom Hartmann radio show, there was a great discussion about how the NRA and the media panders to the fear in white men, and as a result there's this love of guns in this country, which has resulted in deaths of innocent people. There's even a law in several states in which a person can "stand their ground" and can kill someone if they come into their home, and they have a feeling that they're being threatened. Is this a law that gives white people a license to shoot young black men if they feel "threatened" by them, without threat of legal action? And why do I have the sneaking suspicion that if a black man felt threatened by a white man, and shot him, the law would have no problem arresting that black man and charging him with a crime--and the "stand your ground" law would not ever come into play? Anyway, from witness accounts, Zimmerman was NOT the victim here--Martin was the one crying for help, and Zimmerman was the one on top of Martin--he had a good 100 pounds on Martin.
The only crime Martin committed was walking around a white neighborhood while being young and black and having a stupid moronic policeman wannabe like Zimmerman see him.
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