Over the past month, conversations about race have found it's way through tragedy back into our living rooms and Facebook pages. From a very young age in this country you are taught not to see color or mention it for that matter -- and that silence has proven deadly.
Color matters.
Continual conversations on race matter. Why? Because race and specifically racism are a part of our past as a nation and a part of our present. Unless we authentically begin to address and acknowledge it's covert and overt existence it will be a part of our future as well.
When we deny race we deny the very essence of ourselves and do those who experience racism daily if not hourly a disservice by playing the "color blind" card.
Many would like to believe that race doesn't matter. That we as a country have moved beyond disliking others because of the color of their skin and instead feel free to despise people for the content of their wallet. This is not the case. Trayvon Martin, the young black boy, hunted, and gunned down, was killed in his "gated community" not on the "streets". Regardless of his family's "class" which allowed them to take their kids snowboarding, fishing, and provided them with a home in a suburban gated area, their young black boy was still gunned down -- their economic status did not change George Zimmerman's or society's perception of a young black boy in a hoodie.
Currently, the media is trying to tell a new story. Not the one of an innocent boy killed, but instead of a "self appointed" hitman assaulted. They have begun to question the character of this young man.
When Natalie Halloway went missing -- did America ask why she left her group of friends? and if she was drinking?
We don't vilify the victim -- unless of course they're black and regardless of how painful this statement is it is the truth. If you can recite just one name of a young black child who has gone missing and there was a national outcry that ensued please tell me.
Change comes when you make it. Those who write the stories are the ones that tell our collective history. Don't let the media recreate Trayvon Martin's tragic case to exonerate the actions of an animal as "self defense". Keep writing, sharing, and tweeting the truth -- until we address racism and examine it's many manifestations we will never reach our potential as a country or as a people.
Follow Danielle Moodie-Mills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DeeTwoCents
Those who perpetrate elitist separatist ideals are apathetic and wiould like for everyone to shut up about it so they can mire themselves more deeply in supressing and opressing people of color.
They want us to all behave as generic 'Americans', void of any culture, embarassing history or controversy that would make them feel self conscious.
*Mention or discussion of race or culture is not tantamount to racism. There is actually a difference.
What would your parents have done if you did any of the things above? Just one of them; before you turned 18?
None of this justifies what happened to Trayvon. But still; where were the parents?
Could any of this been avoided had the parents been more involved in the life of their child?
If what Zimmerman says is true, and right now there are witnesses of the fight, and the police report of his injuries are consistent with him getting punched in the nose and his head bashed into the sidewalk; then why should he allow himself the get beat to a pulp?
Or if what Zimmerman says is true (a big if), then if Trayvon hadn't confronted Zimmerman, punched him in the nose, then repeatedly banged his head into the sidewalk, "none of this would have happened?"
16,000 blacks killed by blacks last year
40 to 50% of crimes, rape, robbery, theft, murder are committed by Blacks.
The prisons are full of Blacks.
Where is the reporting on This?
Wake up People
Class matters also, the amount of money and social status someone lives matters as well.
None of it should but there are plenty in this country who are devoted to ensuring that there is a separation between classes.
Clothing matters. If some pencil neck white dude in a 3 pc suit rides the subway reading a newspaper you would not immediately think, he's a serial killer but he might very well be one. Some gangland decorated hispanic with a loud headphone set might not be a gang member, he might be just into that genre and be class president. You don't know. You don't have time at first glance to find out, we all have lives so we make snap judgements and keep going about your day. But if you dress like a duck you should have the common sense God gave you to know you'll be treated (initially) like a duck. Word.
I'd like to think I could wear whatever I damn well want and not be treated adversely but that's not reality now is it ? That's more like Disney Land.
I'm not saying Trayvon looked like a young gang, I dont know what he looked like. I don't know what Zimmerman looked like. But if you haven't thought about it yet you're not being honest with yourself.
People of color are more likely to be arrested far beyond their % in general population. This might prove that they are scary and worth profiling. The problem is that they outnumber whites in jail because they are profiled.
If all things were equal, a lot more white college kids would be in jail for using drugs and hence profiled as scary.
I agree with your statement. Why do you think that happens ?
Not that long ago my step daughter was arrested for possession of a tiny bit of marijuna while at a traffic stop. She's as white as snow and she was treated the same as anyone. She spent the night in jail. When we went to her appearance the court room was filled wall to wall with young people of color. Not a single one of them had the most basic educational functionality. They did not display any desire to exercise modest discipline and appear with the proper paperwork. They just showed up with excuses and attitude and baggy pants. And shortly there after went to jail. It was 8 full hours of watching uneducated people get shuffled from hall way to hallway and then to jail. Mostly from failed compliance with rudimentary legal requirements, nothing more. Those who had displayed discipline and a desire to do better the Judge released.
From a different perspective others would call it a self-fulfilling prophesy. People looking for something tend to find it regardless of whether it's really there.
That is a strawman argument that attempts to excuse if not amelioriate stereotyping. So why didn't stereotyping occur when Babyface Nelson or Al Capone reigned in the criminal world? Why aren't young whites who mimic the so-call gangsta behavior stereotyped?
In order for behavior to be considered stereotypical, it first needs to be stereotyped, and that is done by the observer based on their objectives and/or biases. In other words what people perceive as stereotypical behavior of young black men is not an attribute they accord to themselves. The sterreotyping ALWAYS STARTS SOMEWHERE ELSE. It would be more logical and valid to say that stereotyping doesn't kill, but attitudes that stereotype do.
And that's precisely how we arrive at the current discussion for why Zimmerman saw someone with a hoodie whom he didn't know, yet they were determined to be suspicious with absolutely no basis.
Whatever happened, he was not attacked with the ferocity that he stated.
Trayvon's death is a tragedy. The police not doing a through investigation and not trying to bring all the facts to a grand jury is an injustice. Some of the calls for the accused mans blood are a travesty.
The fact is by going with you could say that she precipitated her own death. Then America would howl that isn't right, don't blame the victim.
I agree that a more recent photo of Trayvon would have been more representative, but come on, this conspiracy theory. What's Trayvon's appearance got to do with the facts of this case, anyway? If he was uglier and meaner looking, does it mean he deserves to die more?
The president was just putting a personal touch to the story. Trayvon was somebody's son, and he's saying he felt the parents' pain. It's disgusting the rightwing have to twist that simple statement in that way.
As to the magnitude of this, this isn't just a murder. It's not just someone shot somebody. That kind of thing happens hundreds of times a day and nobody would notice. This was different because the police let the known shooter go without much investigation. Yes, the potential injustice is very significant. If you know that we now live in a country where YOUR SON could be shot and the police would just let the shooter go without much fact finding - how would you sleep?
Not overblown at all, if you understand what this is really about.
For some inexplicable reason your comment to me regarding the early Chinese immigration was removed. I was going to say to you:
In my opinion the Chinese are far and away the most fascinating ethnic group to come to this country. Much of value can be learned about discrimination, endurance, and just downright being human by studying their early experience in this country.
I spent a lot of time in China and they too have issues with minority groups of their own. The government even has some special policies to protect them. One such group are those of from Xin Jiang province who darker skinned and have a reputation for criminal activity like robbery and picking pockets not that Han Chinese don't also do these things. They seem to be poorer not that Han Chinese are not poor, it's just that their particular social status seems to stand out because they stand out.
If this all sounds familiar it's because it's the same problem facing black people face in America. They stand out so people start matching them to whatever negative stereotype they associate with those people. If they were Italian, Jewish, German, for example they would blend in with under the "white" umbrella.
I don't know what point you were trying make but I just wanted to point out how common the issue of ethnic bias is all over the world. We started off as warring tribes that merged to build nations. We absorbed or in the place of blacks, kidnapped people from other nations to form this nation. Every nation has had to deal with bigotry between competing ethnic groups.
As far as the most fascinating ethnic group to come to America, I don't think it's Chinese but I am biased.