I've really struggled as a writer to talk about the tragic shooting of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, who has still not been arrested or even charged. While media discussions swirl about so many other issues, for me it boils down to a central point that, according to 911 calls, Trayvon Martin was viewed as "suspicious" by Zimmerman simply for being black. And that basic issue, the scary look at how race can dangerously shape perceptions with deadly results, is what has struck me to the core.
You see, I have a black son.
Back when we lived in Florida, my husband and I became foster parents to a young black teen who needed a home. He joined us when he was 16 and we quickly built a family together. While he may have long ago grown up and moved out, he is still part of our family and always will be.
It is his face that I see when I see Trayvon Martin. The face that I drove to school every day. The face of a son that whose tie I tied for prom. The face that we laughed and cried with. I cannot even begin to fathom what Travyon's parent are going through -- trying to imagine their pain chills me to the bone.
This death, and the injustice of the response, should chill us all. The shooting, and the ugly racial attitudes that appear to have led to the targeting of Trayvon, should make us all take a step back and really examine the tough issues at the heart of it all.
To be blunt, seeing the world through my son's eyes was a huge teachable moment for me. I had no clue what it was like to be a young black man in America today. While I liked to think of myself as 'evolved and aware' of racism, the day to day experience of having women clutch their purses when my son walked by or having security guards follow us in stores was still shocking. I even watched a bank refuse to open an account for my son until I came in with him. Long talks with him about the suspicion and danger faced by people of color on a daily basis gave me insights not only into his experience, but into my own position of blind privilege as a white man.
And that's the point -- I still don't know what it's like to be a person of color in America. I never will. But I can open myself to the thoughts, feelings, and struggles of others that are different than me and accept their life experiences that I can never fully understand.
While America could be having this very same teachable moment by listening and accepting the life experiences of others, of people like Trayvon and my son, it seems we're not. Here in Illinois, for example, Rep. Rich Morthland (R-Cordova) has said that while Trayvon's killing was a 'tragedy,' he intends to reintroduce a "Stand Your Ground" bill, similar to Florida's. But the refusal to learn from, or even listen to, the experience of black Americans goes far beyond tone-deaf politicians -- it's all of us.
It's never an easy thing to talk about the ugly side of our society. Shining an uncomfortable light on things like racism, social injustice, and ingrained bias make us see the faults in ourselves. We see our failings, no matter how 'evolved and aware' we think we are, and it hurts. But that pain is nothing compared to the pain Trayvon Martin's parents feel at his death -- or the pain that every parent feels as they have to look into the eyes of their child as they try to explain the hate they will always face simply for the color of their skin.
Admitting the role we all play in creating the atmosphere that led to Trayvon's death is hard, but it is a small step in trying to learn and change. We owe all our kids, and each other, at least that much.
Follow Waymon Hudson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/WaymonHudson
Rev. Larry Hollon: Trayvon Martin and the Muted Voice of the Mainline Church
Catherine Meeks, Ph.D.: I Am Standing My Ground
Wyatt Troia: Justice for George Zimmerman
SYG laws have nothing to do with this except that anti gun freaks are using the case to try and further thier goals. SYG laws only remove the duty to retreat when faced with great bodily harm...in self defense.
IF and only IF Zimmerman is charged with a crime that precludes his ability to claim self defense and the law doesnt apply.
The law of the land gives everyone the right to defend against harm in EVERY state self defense is legal and the use of deadly force for self defense is LEGAL and always has been.
Try actually READING the law instead of making assumptions based on falsehoods and yellow journalism.
Also try going to a poor neighborhood dressed in your white shirt and tie and see if your reversed prejudice protects you from a mugging or maybe even being killed because of the way you are dressed
1 Zimmerman might the person with an ended life and Tray would be defending himself in court for killing a judge’s son. Trying to explain that he was acting in his right to ‘stand his ground’.
2 Tray may have successfully been able to arrest Zimmerman for armed assault as a citizen with the ‘stand your ground’ law. And Zimmerman might be the one defending his actions.
Or they could have both just communicated to each other without the hostile fear driven testosterone and just gotten to know each other a little bit so the next time Tray was traversing the neighborhood Zimmerman might be there to watch Tray’s back or share a bag of Skittles.
Instead the entire community is ready to refight the confrontation and do what the two already did to themselves. Which is essentially what got us to this situation in the first place.
Truth to reality is we have to embrace our future as a diverse people and know that homogeny of color and culture are a weakness for a country not a strength. We succeed because we are a free people who have a unique set of ideals compared to the rest of the planet. We dare to do it the right way and for that we have great responsibility. We should all wrap our arms around that burden not just for ourselves but as Americans.
Glad you can see the world through our eyes.
DTracy
Check out Abner Louima, James Byrd, James Chamberlain.
Second, the Facts are clear that George Zimmerman acted in self defense. Trayvon was banging
Zimmermans head on the cement.
The Police have the facts, and acted appropriately.
Please do your research.
Those people that populate spain, are they not white?
You say he was deemed suspicious merely because he was black. We don't know the thoughts of GZ, we do have the 911 call. He mentioned he looked like he was on drugs. What does that look like? I can't comment on what gz thinks that looks like, but hopefully your statement isn't based on nbc's reporting of the 911 call. :)
We do not yet know if Zimmerman determined that what he saw in Tray was suspicious is based on his skin color or his behavior.
Skulking around in the dark on foot in a neighborhood you're not typically living at, while talking to your girlfriend on a headset from a distance can appear to be 'unusual' behavior from an overly cautious snoopy self promoted security activist.
I can't talk to my wife on the phone and walk at the same time, myself its too demanding and if I were wearing a hoodie I'd be hard to see I who I was talking too with each paused step. I can that it might appear as a homeless person talking to the halucinations from mental challenge and drugs. I see it everyday where I work.
What's bizarre is the questions, the provocational demand for 'who are you ?' type aggressive pursuit went from testosterone filled posturing to physical confrontation in lightening speed with little to no dialogue between the two involved.
Is that where Sanford is now ? No dialogue just inyour face aggression and defiance ? Has anyone thought that if Zimmerman would just had been more overtly polite and communicative and/or Tray would have been more vocal verbal and accomodating to the questioning this whole thing would have went very differently
Common sense and logic will lead the thinking person to say to themselves, "Well, THAT'S not suspicious in and of itself, so WHAT could possibly have made someone think he was suspicious?"
Trayvon did not have a duty to be polite to some weirdo who was following him for no reason, especially after he had run for a period of time, thought he "lost him" and then was confronted by the same person he had been trying to get away from.
Stop. Think. Put yourself in his shoes. Really. Pretend it was YOUR son walking home when some guy in an SUV started following him. Pretend YOUR son got scared and ran, only to find that this same stranger had gotten out of his SUV to pursue him, caught up with him less than 70 yards from the house, and confronted him.
Where is your humanity? Trayvon Martin had turned 17 only two weeks before - I have children, and at just-turned-17, they were all still just kids. Was Trayvon perfect? No, but he was college-bound, volunteered with the local youth football team, had a girlfriend, liked videogames and talking on the telephone, just like all teenagers. Take away his skin color and paint it white, then honestly ask yourself if you would be defending Zimmerman's actions.
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Would anyone dare tell a victim with a history of being raped, she should keep an open mind to hearing a man belittle and disrespect a woman right before he allegedly rapes and kills her as she was walking home and later claims self defense!
Well, at least thank you for having an open mind to at least attempt to understand what it feels like to already be at a minus before the race even begins ( no pun intended)
Assimilation was the worst thing we could have done.
We set ourselves up for failure by focusing too hard on melding into your world instead of creating a stable world and experience for our own people.
Separate but equal would have done us more good economically. But we all know that we wouldn't have been equal, just separate.
I understand you dont give a shit anymore, but the privilege you have to just go along and carry out your day, was built upon the backs of the blacks who built this country and then were regulated to a cycle of poverty that continues 5+ generations into the present.
You should have a historical context and empathy for that.
Its hard to "straighten out a race" that is being held back by 400 years of institutionalized racism.
How do you think you would fare if you had to push a bolder up a hill but the guy next to you doesn't and runs by you with no heavy lifting to do and shouting "I'll see you at the top, just work hard and you'll get there!"
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If some of you decide that I am playing the race card (which I believe really means Uppity N********.) when I stand on a street corner trying to flag a cab in NY. The driver cannot hear my British accent he does not see that I have been educated in three countries, What he can see is my colour.