I
am about to make some people upset with me but my prayer and
desire is not to ignite anger towards me but to make you look at the bigger
picture. If you find anger in your heart for me, I pray that you take that anger and you channel it to something positive. Perhaps conversations with your family, your church, your community...now.
The
recent events surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin are tragic. This child's
death was terrible.
The
circumstances...heartbreaking.
The
911 call...I couldn’t listen; the transcript was enough for me to realize that
the last seconds of this child's life were filled with fear and perhaps the ultimate
realization that he was not going to see his family again...all because of a
snack attack for skittles.
George
Zimmerman isn't an evil man (I don’t even think the guy is a racist)...what he
is, is a man who based a life changing decision-on a stereotype. He is a man
that was trigger happy...overzealous and really when it comes down to it…immature.
You can add idiot for good measure. Why? It has been reported that George did
the right thing, he called 911 and then when the dispatcher told him to stand
down he didn’t ßidiot. Let’s say Martin was armed…that’s it. Let’s just say
Trayvon was actually casing the home with intent to rob and harm those inside…so
you run outside? Call me what you want but I’m gonna stay inside…hiding…in a
closet…with a screwdriver…whispering on the phone-but I digress.
Along
with all being trigger happy, overzealous, etc, unfortunately for him (I am
sure this is the first time he ever would think this)...he is white. Now being
white might be helping with the fact he hasn't been charged (along with being a
resident of Florida but I will get into that later) but other than that...right
now...being white is killing him. He being white is the only reason this case
has made national news. Yup, I said it. Many people want to use
scenarios saying what if Martin was a white boy and Zimmerman was a black
man...but let's flip it and say what if both parties were black? What if Martin
was slain by a black Zimmerman. Do you know what would look like...another day
in a major city.
Click
on this link…I’ll wait (but come back!).
Where
is the rally for them? Where is the hashtag twitter trend for them? Now some of
these killings may have been associated with lifestyle but not all (especially
not that six year old baby).
WAIT!
Please! I don’t want you to walk away and feel as though my heart doesn’t weep
for this family because yes this could happen to anyone. As someone who has
lived long enough to see injustice and how warped people can be. I have also
seen my share of pop up causes. Actions…where we are like pitbulls on a new
kitten...jaws locked and grip super tight and then poof- nothing. So my question is what happens next? We
march. We wear hoodies. We call white people devils. We have the family on
every major media outlet and George Zimmerman get’s charged. He goes to trial.
He gets convicted of murder (well probably man 1). Zimmerman goes to jail and
then…what? The intra-racial crime rate for Blacks and Browns will still be
higher than the interracial crime rate.
Are
we going to use this child for “likes” and “reposts” on Facebook or retweets on
twitter? Are we going to have real conversations about Black Men in America,
with our Black Men and Boys? Nope, we won’t. And that is also a tragedy. We are
going to make Trayvon Martin the 2012 Troy Davis (NO ONE talks about him
anymore). Trayvon will be the 2012- JENA 6. And then next year or even later on
this year…we will be talking about something else. It’ll be over.
On
another note (and one that is increasingly getting notice) the state of Florida
and its voters are just as to blame as George Zimmerman with this Florida “stand
their ground” Legislature. They should have known this was going to stir up
controversy and since its inception it has…just not on this level. Welcome back
in the news (again) Florida!
Lastly, I
wonder how many people know if the “castle doctrine” is in their state?
Could
they become the next person to fall victim to this Swiss cheese holed legislature?
Well let me help you out…
