On Saturday, DC became one of the
latest sites for protest rallies across the country on behalf of Trayvon
Martin, the unarmed teenager slain by self-appointed vigilante neighborhood
watchman George Zimmerman. As we all
have become painfully aware, Trayvon was only carrying candy and an ice tea when he was gunned down.
The rally in DC had a consistent,
strong undertone-justice for Trayvon’s killer and demands that he be put under
arrest and made to stand trial in a court of law. One speaker after another noted that if the
situation had been reversed, a thorough investigation would have been done and
Trayvon would undoubtedly be in jail now, waiting to be arraigned on
charges. Others blasted the justice
system that allowed this tragedy to take place, the profiling of black men,
especially young black boys and vowed to continue to protest and demonstrate
until Zimmerman is brought up on trial.
But on what would have been the 100th
birthday of the late civil rights activist Dr. Dorothy Height, few speakers at
the rally brought up what seems to be unspoken and unanswered s in our
community. Why do we not have the same
type of outrage that we have for Trayvon when another black life is taken by
another black life? Why do we have a culture
of calling people snitches and threatening individuals who cooperate with law
enforcement when there’s black on black crime? Why is it
seen as “acting white” when black kids want to and do well in school, want to
go to college and want to better their lives? The ironic thing is that some
folks out here protesting Trayvon’s murder might have saw him as acting white
in any other context had he not been murdered because he was an A/B
student. But because he was a good
student and a good kid, that made him a “perfect victim” in contrast to what we know about his killer,
who apparently had more than one run-in with the law and wasn’t exactly scholar
material.
What will happen after the days and
weeks when Trayvon’s murder is no longer a leading topic on Twitter, when the
investigation is closed and hopefully Zimmerman is tried and convicted on
second degree murder charges? Will
Trayvon’s murder and the resulting activism be a flash in the pan or the
beginning of a mentality change in our community? Will we start demanding a stop to black on
black crime and hopefully reverse the cycle that leads to the prison industrial
complex? Will we stop the no snitching
and gang culture that decimates black lives? Will we hold ourselves accountable to further our education and keep
improving ourselves-even when it’s hard, when it seems like there is no way out
and even in the face of racism? Will we volunteer and work to better our
communities and believe there is nothing too small or too little we can do
towards that goal?
Will we start taking our community
and lives seriously so that if there is another, God forbid, Trayvon Martin and
George Zimmerman situation, law enforcement and the justice system will feel
compelled to their jobs and not profile and make terrible assumptions and
judgments like they did about Trayvon?
This is our world. What will you do?
This is our world. What will you do?
I hope there's justice and people truly learn and grow from this tragedy.
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