"This is America and the killing of Black people is just not considered a crime.
After 1955, the sweet face of Emmett Till, tortured to death in Mississippi by angry white men, haunted anyone with a conscience. Now we have the face of Trayvon Martin to remember. This is America, and that much has not changed.
And we have to deal with the fact that his killer was not even arrested. Not even arrested....
This is America, and whole sections of people are assumed to be criminal. It is called profiling — but it is really the ingrained standards inherited from slavery, Jim Crow and a whole structure of white supremacy. This is America, and armed white men are presumed to be innocent, justified and not a danger to their community. That too is a racial profiling — that envelops the militant racist like a protecting shield.
This is America. And when Black boys are murdered by angry white men, the authorities treat it as a tragic accident, not a crime."
— Kasama's Mike Ely
if i recall, the killer was not white, but hispanic. in such a racially-charged discussion, i believe this fact is important.
ReplyDeleteThis is not about bad people but a bad system, freebones. And it's not about George Zimmerman, it's about Trayvon Martin, a boy who was murdered.
ReplyDeleteright, but i see this being made into a white-vs-black issue everywhere. i agree that is about a bad system, but then why is everyone misrepresenting this racially?
ReplyDeleteRecommended, freebones:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timwise.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-white-denial-and-the-unacceptable-burden-of-blackness-in-america
"Oh, and when you abuse that ill-gotten authority and take the life of a young black man in the process, you don’t get to be taken seriously when you swear that your actions couldn’t have been racist because, after all, you’re Latino (this being the latest fanciful insistence of Zimmerman’s family). Dear merciful Lord, what is that supposed to prove? Racism is not about the identity of the person acting it out so much as those upon whom it is acted, and for what purpose. There were black slave owners in the South, after all, and what of it? American slavery was a racist institution because it subordinated people based on racial identity, and was predicated on the notion of black inhumanity and white supremacy. That there were some black people who bought into both sets of lies does not acquit the institution of the charge of racism, nor those among the African American community who participated in it. So too, that there are persons of color (or at least partial of-color ancestry) who are just as anti-black in their thinking as many whites, pathetic and heartbreaking though it may be, means nothing. And in the case of Latinos like Zimmerman (affluent enough to be a neighborhood watch guard in an upscale section of greater Orlando, surrounded by whiteness in every way), that he would have internalized the norms of white racism — perhaps even consider himself white for all intent and purposes, as do a disturbing number of Latinos who so often feel compelled by the lure of whiteness to ingratiate themselves to the larger power structure — should surprise no one."
Not to make excuses, but when Zimmerman said (something to the effect) "they always get away with it" he might have been referring to 'rotten teenagers', though I doubt it. Let's ease up on the racist rhetoric for a bit and focus on the issue of justice for a crime, clearly committed, that of murder of a defenseless young man.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the rhetoric that's racist, it's the city, state, and country where a young black man can be killed for absolutely nothing and for THREE WEEKS nobody gives a shit. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteMore worthwhile reading:
ReplyDeletehttp://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2012/03/murder-of-trayvon-martin-and-twenty.html
i don't mean to say this isn't a racially-based crime. it clearly is. i'm saying that i see a lot of "white people black people" talk, and i don't think that is the point. the point is that plenty of groups can be racist in various ways. this is classic racism, and is by far the most widespread in america. as the quote says: it isn't a racial issue because a "white" person is involved, it's a racial issue because a black person is the victim, and he would not have been if he were not black.
ReplyDeletealthough, a sociology-student friend of mine today told me that many hispanics identify as "white", as the quote says, so that is an interesting little tidbit.
i just want to be clear that i don't disagree that the reasons for the poor treatment of this case are racial, i just think it's interesting how george zimmerman is being used as an example of the typical white mentality, when some people might disagree as to what his ethnicity is, and also might disagree that he represents the average white man either way.