"What do you call a black man with a Ph.D.? Nigger." - Malcolm X
What do you call a black boy with Skittles & tea? "Suspicious."
If you don't know the story of Trayvon Martin, here is the quick and dirty: Trayvon was a 17-year-old boy who was walking back to his dad's house on Feb. 26 after going to the store. He was followed by George Zimmerman, self-appointed neighborhood watch leader for the Sanford, FL community, because he "looked suspicious." Although he was warned by the 911 dispatcher on the phone not to follow the boy, he did. He accosted him. George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed boy who was almost half his size and trying to get away from him. (more facts on the case along with sources here)
George Zimmerman has not been arrested.
Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, and police have cited Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as an excuse for their inaction. The Stand Your Ground or Shoot First law is an extension of the Castle Doctrine, which states that the home is a person's castle & they have the right to defend it using deadly force if necessary. Twenty-eight states have this law. In addition to that, 18 states have "Stand Your Ground" which extends outside of the home and eliminates a person's responsibility to try to walk away from a potentially threatening situation. If you have "a reasonable belief" that your life and safety is in danger, you can use force to defend yourself, even deadly force.
However, in this case, that is bull. Trayvon carried nothing but snacks, no weapons. He was walking away from the man. According to ABC News, a friend was on the phone with Trayvon minutes before the shooting. She recounted the boy trying to get away from a man who was following him. Does that sound like a threatening situation to you? Only if you see Zimmerman as the threat. To pursue and harass a young man--still legally a child-- accost him and then shoot him when he yelled for help & tried to defend himself, and then claim self-defense is sickening and a slap in the face to common sense. Even sicker is that this man is being taken at his word, with barely a peep from the local police department. Fortunately, public outcry has prompted the Department of Justice, US Attorney's Office and the FBI to investigate.
Although I heard this story last week, I figured surely the police would do the right thing and arrest George Zimmerman. Yet here we are, nearly a month later, and no arrest has been made. The thing that put me over the edge was hearing the 911 calls from neighbors. Three neighbors called about the brewing confrontation, and you can clearly hear this boy calling for help seconds before the gunshot. Hearing that last desperate cry moments before his life was snuffed out broke my heart. It made me think of my cousins, nephews, frat brothers. Men who, whether they have on a hoodie & jeans like Trayvon or a suit and tie, have that unmistakably "suspicious" brown skin. So even if they are somewhere that they have every right to be, they still have to be on guard against others who feel as if they don't belong there. And yes, the same is true for black women as well, we catch hell too. But not as violently as our brothers, it appears.
This case has the potential to set a dangerous precedent, especially in the states that have this Shoot First law. If we turn a blind eye to the violence against this one black child and let it go under the ruse of self-defense it could open Pandora's Box. While some may say "This was just an isolated incident. Zimmerman was crazy, most people aren't like that" I would like you to ponder this. Despite the claims of America being "post racial" after 2008, instances of racially motivated violence, hate speech, discriminatory legislation and racially insensitive behavior in schools and places of employment have increased. Make no mistake, the monster that is racism never died, but the "fear" (of what? hmm) and hatred felt by many now outweighs the political correctness to keep their prejudice under wraps (at least in public). For some, the hatred is so potent that they would attempt to follow in Zimmerman's footsteps if they felt they could get away with it.
None of us want to believe that we live in a country that claims "freedom and justice for all" but lets a huge injustice like this occur. But how can we deny it when we've seen it before? And we see it now, staring us in the face, daring us to do something about it. So help do something about it. Along with signing the petition for Zimmerman's arrest, here are three other ways we can help bring justice for Trayvon Martin.
