Zimmerman first called 911 on February 26, 2012 and said that he saw a suspicious character walking around in the neighborhood. The 911 operator told him that the police was on the way and that he shouldn't do anything. He didn't do that. Instead he got his 9mm pistol and went to confront the suspicious character. This story ended with 17 year-old Trayvon being shot in the chest and killed by Zimmerman.
The police arrived later and they took Zimmerman to jail for (get this) "investigative detention". After questioning him he was free to go home.
End of story.
Trayvon Martin
I immediately asked myself, "well what's was Trayvon doing?". Even I am so polluted and stuck in the mentality of the status-quo that the first question I ask is what was the victim doing wrong? He was guilty of walking in the neighborhood of his father's fiance with a small amount of cash, some candy, and an iced tea while, of course, right after sunset.
Then why would Zimmerman shoot him? Well he saw someone in his neighborhood that he didn't recognize and he thought he was keeping his community safe, but I don't think this is the right question to be asking. What do we call it when an armed person shoots a defenseless person who is not threatening or attacking you?
Murder
George Zimmerman
Then why is Zimmerman not in jail? Zimmerman told police that it was all self-defense and the police released him because there were no grounds to disprove his claims. Now this is the right question.
You mean to tell me that a 28 year-old white man with a 9mm handgun was defending himself from a 17 year-old black boy who was armed with a bag of skittles and a Nestea? Even after the 911 dispatcher told you to not confront the suspect and stay in your home? And not only did he disobey the dispatcher but he approached the victim and shot him in the chest? I call Bullshit Sanford Police Department.
If it we flipped the colors around in this situation, there is not doubt in my mind that Zimmerman would be getting butt-raped by pointy end of a broken broom (that may be a little too descriptive). Trayvon didn't approach Zimmerman. Zimmerman approached Trayvon. Black people and black men especially have to prove their innocence before they can be released. Apparently white men in Sanford, FL have to do the complete opposite. The police must prove that the suspect is lying in order to arrest and charge that person.
I know critics will instantly say that this is isolated incident, that I am inciting hate, and that I am only increasing racial tension, but they said the same thing about every black activist to ever roam our nation. I'm not saying I'm MLK (hehe). I am just a man with a keyboard, but you can only spit in my salad so many times and tell me that it's dressing.
Black people have been taken advantage of and mistreated ever since the first African arrived in these lands. Black households only bring in half of the money of an average white household. Whites make-up 70% of the nation and Blacks make up 12%, yet Blacks outnumber Whites in prison 9 to 1. Not to mention a third of all black children have lived in poverty compared to 13.5% of white children.
The Little Rock 9 in 1957
These numbers are appalling. It reminds me of why Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. didn't get along. MLK wanted little black boy and white girls to play together without looks of scorn among the community and for the most part, people can say that's the times we live in now. Malcolm X, however; did not want the same thing. He wanted segregation. He thought that Black people could better prosper if we disenfranchised ourselves from Whites. That Blacks live, trade, and govern themselves. That Blacks wouldn't have to worry about incidents like Trayvon Martin because we wouldn't be afraid of each other like how the Whites aren't afraid of fellow Whites now.
We went with Martin Luther King's Dream instead of the philosophy of Malcolm X. Was it the right decision? One could easily argue that the most powerful man in the world is a Black man, but the equally true counter argument is the weakest, abused, and taken for granted person in America is without a doubt a Black man.......
Or a Mexican! Lol
I love white people and know that this one man doesn't represent you guys as a whole.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you tomorrow. MLK
So.. I wouldn't call Zimmerman white.. HOWEVER, I do bet if poor trayvon was white, chances are great that he'd still be alive.
ReplyDeleteRacial tension is SO alive in the South.. and it's interesting, because before I moved to the South, I thought the "war" was over. I thought we were all equal.. And as small kids, we all played together.. you, marcus, me, justin, toni, khadidra, neal... I'm sure I could keep listing neighborhood kids, I won't. But as we hit middle school, I noticed most of my black friends' parents didn't want them playing with me.. You know personally the 3 children of the parents I'm specifically talking about. One's mother was terrified because her son had a crush on me, and it was as if it would have been the worst thing in the world had he ended up with a white girl.. she sent him to an all black college to "fix" that.. The other two were girls.. and I remember hearing one's father tell her that "that white girl could NOT use his phone." And then by high school age, I noticed the kids' practically segregated themselves..
That was a HUGE lead in.. but ahem, anyway - Those reasons, HUGE reasons why I wanted my children raised in Maine.. because up here, people are entirely innocent to the fact that this racial tention so strongly still lives.. That "equality" thing, actually exists here. Mind you, most of us are white.. however we're getting more colorful as the years go by.. and yet there is still no racial tention.. Actually.. It's kind of reversed.. In the South, it seems as though a black man having a white woman is some sort of.. accomplishment.. Here a white woman parades her "rare" black guy around as if she's the most special person in the world.. and if she has his child? She DAMN well is going to tell every. single. person that her baby is MIXED. Not white. Very interesting is the sociology differences between these two places..
ANYWAY, it's BS. And The South still has a LONG way to go.. and that's honestly on BOTH sides... I'm glad my children will never know that truth...
Very true statement. I always understood how the black parents our parents age were skeptical of whites because look at the times they grew up in. My dad was 12 years old when MLK died (1968). He can very well remember how the South was. How he couldn't eat at certain places or associate with certain kids. What I never understood was why the Whites disliked us Blacks so much. I mean they did the worst thing another human could do to another and yet they Southern Whites treat Blacks like we did something wrong. We were fortunate enough to avoid the stereotypes of SC, but they are there and are very strong.
ReplyDeleteHere is to hoping our generation and our children will change it. Because we are only old enough to realize its BS, not to have actually lived through the real stuff.
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