We mourn Trayvon Martin, the young African American who, armed only with candy and a soft drink, was shot dead for the offense of "walking while black."
George Zimmerman, the man who shot him, has not been arrested, apparently protected by Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, which "authorizes" anyone to shoot someone whom he or she feels is threatening.
This surely is a test of our faith. Faith, the Bible tells us, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For decades, African Americans risked their lives if they walked in certain neighborhoods. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., however, had a different dream. And he helped build a movement to achieve the "substance of things hoped for."
Now we must choose: We will decide if Trayvon Martin's death is a moment, or becomes the spark for a movement. We can't bring him back. But we can make his voice louder in death than it could be in his short life.
Emmett Till's murder sparked a movement. After he was brutally beaten, his mother put him in an open casket to show the horror that he had endured. Although he was crucified as a warning to others who might demand freedom, his murder gave some the courage to join the civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks remembered. When I asked her why she decided to risk being beaten, jailed or worse by refusing to move to the back of the bus, she said, "I thought about Emmett Till and couldn't go back."
When King was assassinated in Memphis, it triggered a 40-year journey of progress, culminating in the election of an African American to the presidency.
Yet, that achievement is misleading. Athletes are cheered by fans of all races. Oprah Winfrey is trusted by viewers across lines of race. In a shining moment, Barack Obama is elected. But behind the klieg lights, we have a long way to go. The action in the spotlights has blinded us to the realities Trayvon Martin's tragic death exposes.
African Americans are still too often victims of vigilante justice. African Americans are more likely to be arrested, more likely to be charged, more likely to be jailed for a nonviolent offense. A private, profit-making prison-industrial complex now lobbies for harsher sentences -- and minorities are disproportionately the victims.
African Americans were more likely to be steered to risky subprime loans, more likely to pay high interest on auto loans, more likely to find it hard to get financing for businesses.
Over the past 30 years, opportunity has narrowed. Incomes for non-college-educated men fell, as labor unions were crushed and the exporting of good jobs undermined wages. More young people, disproportionately minorities, found themselves priced out of college or forced to go deeply in debt to gain the education they earned.
We must go from moment to movement and struggle to gain the substance of things hoped for. What do we hope for? A fair and healthy start for every child. An end to Stand Your Ground laws and vigilantes. Quality public education for everyone. Full employment and an end to discrimination that results in an African-American jobless rate twice that of whites.
Given the realities beneath the klieg lights, we need a new Kerner Commission to report on the status of race and discrimination in 21st century America. We need a renewed Civil Rights Commission that issues an annual report detailing our progress -- or our regression -- in racial relations.
We have to decide. Let us take a moment to grieve for Trayvon Martin, whose life was so brutally taken from him. Then let us move from moment to movement, and revive the struggle for a more perfect Union.
Follow Rev. Jesse Jackson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revjjackson
Jamie Arpin-Ricci: Gangsta Saint? St. Francis, Trayvon Martin and Hoodies
Right now; he was "shot dead" for walking up to a man who was following him, punching that man in the nose, then jumping on top of that man and repeatedly bashing his head into the sidewalk. That man happened to have a gun in his pocket and didn't wish to be brutally beaten any longer.
That's a well documented case of child sexual assault and police cover-up to help get it going.
The alleged victim: African-American
The alleged rapist: Caucasian
The corrupt cops: Caucasian
The corrupt chief of police: Caucasian
It too has failed to make it in the national media the way so many cases involving children of color do.
The United States military power and economic strength is declining yet this guys calling for a renewed civil rights movement? look things still might be bad but its not nearly as bad as it was 50-60 years ago.
right now we just need to fix the economy. and Jackson until i see you addressing black on black crime and the gang issues that you have in the black community, you shoukld be quite.
Jesse obviously hasn't read the FL statute. It doesn't say anything like that.
You are correct. But now, after all of the struggles of the civil rights movement, blacks risk their lives almost exclusively by walking through a black neighborhood. Why did you march? For this?
According to 2010 FBI Statistics (links below); 90% of black homicides were committed by blacks.
According to these same tables, while blacks make up 13% of our population, they committed 48.7% of all homicides and 55% of robberies in 2010.
"Reverend" Jackson, what exactly are you doing to fix this problem? Why exactly shouldn't we be suspicious of black males if they commit nearly half of all homicides and over half of all burglaries?
Here are you links from the FBI website. Easy to read and understand, even if they make you uncomfortable:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/table-43/10tbl43a.xls
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/tables/10shrtbl06.xls
If you had performed that simple task, you would have seen statistics for white and black alike.
You would have seen that yes, I DO have "statistics on white people." The stats show that while whites comprise 72.4% of the population, they committed 49.3% of murders and 43.3% of robberies. Both percentages MUCH lower than their population.
The stats (from the FBI) also show that while blacks comprise 12.6% of the population (from the 2010 Census Bureau), they account for 48.7 of murders and 55% of robberies. Both MUCH higher than their population.
So any reasonable person can see that it might be smart to be suspicious of certain groups of people; based on the statistics from the FBI.
The voter suppression acts,the immigration laws,the attack on woman,the attack on budgets...the common thread throughout this is the political right-wing.........
The coalition of the various organizations will be instrumental in denying the right-wing a further foothold in our politics....
We can get upset when another race does something but we don't raise hell when it's one of us and that has to stop. C Delores Tucker was the only person in a leadership position that spoke out against it.
We are all leaders in our communities and need to act like it. The media. Look at our image in the media. That image is shown around the world. When rap music came out it wasn't filty, it was postive. There was a reason why the record labels introduced gangsta rap on the West Coast. At the same time Reagans Ira-Contra Affair had something to due with an increased influx of drugs and guns in the Black community. Then you had Bob Johnson, who was a lobbyist for the cable industry and the chosen one to be the 1st Black to own a Black station for Black people. All was good with Donnie and Sherry. Gangsta Rap came along, no other station played this filth but BET. Non of this was a coincidence, it was by design.
My point is, see how Black people are used to bring destruction to their own people. Willie Lynch is alive and well because WE, not THEM, WE won't let him die.
You are living in the Land of Oz. Brother.
You tell me. What do the stats say about who is committing murder in the US?
The core issue with this tragedy stems from the fact that Zimmerman deviated so badly from the Stand Your Ground law.
Whatever his motivations, the fact of the matter is that Zimmerman acted as an aggressor. Zimmerman stalked Martin. Zimmerman closed distance when he was told not to. Even firearms boards, usually bastions for castle doctrine advocates, are coming out largely against Zimmerman.
It was a bad shoot. Zimmerman made some bad decisions for which he should pay IMHO; but motivation matters little to me. It could be racism, it could be fear, Zimmerman could have thought he was an Martian for all I care. Zimmerman instigated the confrontation and then shot someone. That is not defense. If a racist shoots someone in a legitimate act of self defense, I'll stick up for the racist.
Defending a bad shoot undermines legitimate acts of defense.
In my opinion, centering the debate on Zimmerman's motivations is the surest way to set Zimmerman free. If you want Zimmerman to pay - question his decisions and actions.
But pummeling a person is not?
Zimmerman didn't have to follow him. He didn't have to confront Martin. He had no cause other than suspicion.