So yesterday George Zimmerman got arrested for second-degree murder, is currently being held in protective custody at the Seminole County jail, awaiting a court appearance.

I find that this tragedy of Treyvon was terrible and horrible but why did it take so long? Its sad that its 2012 and the race problems are still that, a problem.

Even in this tragedy we have to look at the race battle within ourselves.

That is not the only thing that I need you, my readers to see. I am proud that everyone in the country that supported Treyvon went so hard and went so well on what they stood for between photos of people in hoodies, or videos that were inspirational for others. On the flip side I am disappointed in the individuals that decided that because it was a violent crime they must be violent back. Its not something I like seeing. Below is a video of a YouTuber that showed the struggle and both sides of what I am sure people who felt something for the case went through.

I know today I am showing you a lot and kinda descriptive on how I feel but its just that I am so tired of this happening and like women and birth control I thought it as a matter that was settled.

I personally am happy that George Z. got arrested and that the matter is going to be settled but with the momentum of nothing wanting blacks to be executed that the race as a whole should work together to prevent it. Prevent balck on black crimes.

The shots heard round the world. Unarmed Florida teen shot and killed by a self-appointed ‘neighborhood watch’ maniac. Yes, we were all horrified when the media first rained down upon us with the ‘details’.

Now, the reality.

To paraphrase the original reports broadcast all over the place:
Zimmerman: “I’m following a suspicious male. He looks black”

WRONG

The producer from NBC was fired for his handling of media releases. Now, mind you, this is a company that prides itself on unbiased news reporting, as do most major news spewers.

Why was he fired? He created false hype. Hype attracts viewership. Viewership sells commercial space.

This producer did NOT ‘report’, he CREATED.

Taken directly from this article, please read it, but here’s the important part. the part you’ve all heard and been OUTRAGED by:

NBC had aired an edited version of Zimmerman’s call from the night of Feb. 26. It was trimmed to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered that Martin was black. But the deleted portion had the dispatcher asking Zimmerman if the person was “black, white or Hispanic.” Zimmerman responded, “he looks black.”

Did you hear about that one? Probably not. It didn’t get page one press. This type of inflammatory media abuse rarely does. Should you be outraged over THAT? The SuperMediaCynic sure was.

Experts have analyzed the voice in the cell phone call, begging for help just before shots were fired. The family of Treyvon says ‘it was definitely Treyvon’. The family of Zimmerman says ‘it was definitely George”.

Then come the ‘experts’

The ‘voice analyzing experts’. The claims are that a voice is like a fingerprint. That fact has been documented – in real time – NOT on crappy cells phones from 10 feet away. I mean, really?

Another news tidbit, hyping the ‘amazing analysis’

“The human voice is like a symphony, each voice is unique based on the type of instruments played and skill of the musicians playing the instruments. Similarly, the human voice is created using many physical components, the lungs, larynx and wind pipe. These exit the body through the mouth involving our tongue, teeth and lips,” Primeau said.

“As forensic experts, we do not have the proper tools to arrive at a positive ID to conclude the voice is Trayvon yelling for help,” Primeau said. “By process of elimination, both Tom and I agree the voice yelling is not Zimmerman. That is our opinion.”

As a neighborhood watch guy, George Zimmerman has never shot anyone before. He’s been toting and concealing his gun (in cooperation with the Florida Gun Concealment license that he possesses – and that you and I could easily get as a Florida resident) for years. Has he ever used it? I don’t know that one. He’s never been arrested for using it.

Was Zimmerman an irrefutable guardian of justice. Pffft… hardly… he had a record of some violence (against cops, even) against a female, and some various speeding offenses. Enough to cast a shadow on his glistening intentions.

Lest I skew a blog, USNEWS, MSNBC reported

Yes, the death of Trayvon was a horrible outcome to a situation that, in all likelyhood, could have been avoided if Zimmerman had ONLY stood back, allowed police to act, and been a neighborhood watcher instead of a neighborhood bouncer.

It’s simple enough to point the finger at Zimmerman. He killed someone. That’s admitted, on record, case closed. Moreover, he killed an unarmed young man. No questions there.

Was Treyvon dangerous? Who knows? He was a teen. It didn’t look to me like he was an imposing, dangerous threat. Many teens in America are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I seriously doubt he was a threat to society.

If he had a juvenile record, you will never hear about it – juvenile records are always sealed.

His family would know. Yet they stand behind Al Sharpton (former hairdresser turned Reverend) as he spews racist platitudes. Al Sharpton is a fundraiser. Please realize that. When Al shows up anywhere, trumping for anyone, make no mistake he is there more often for face time. Al never has had the facts before his outrage. Does Al care about the facts? Well, surely he cares about the death of a young, unarmed teen. We all do.

He also cared about Tawana Brawley. Please feel free to Google THAT name to get the REAL Al Sharpton.

Was the shooting of treyvon a shocking piece of violence against a teen? Obviously. However, would it get the kind of media microscoping had it not been an apparent racial incident? um… no…

As the SupremeMediaCynic writes, the smoke is still clearing in the Treyvon Martin case. Horrible tragedy? Hell, yes. The shooting of ANY unarmed person, young or old, black or white, is something that can easily be avoided. I don’t speak of anti-gum amendments (no, I don’t own, and never have owned a gun of any kind… aisde from cap guns when I was 6), I speak of cooling hot heads. Take a moment… even run away. Violence is very very rarely unavoidable. It takes 2 to tangle.

Statistics are not great for young black men in America. When it comes to teen violence I quote the Children’sDefenseFund.org:

More than half of the males 15 to 19 killed by firearms in 2007 were Black. Black males were more than five times as likely as White youth and more than twice as likely as Hispanic youth to be killed by a firearm.

Forget Zimmerman and his wacky self-righteous guardianship. Forget about the evil, much-maligned ‘hoodie’. The SupremeMediaCynic asks the bigger sociological questions have to do with the outrage over THAT statistic blatant inequality.

The Cynic would also like to steer people towards the ‘Right to Conceal’ and the ‘Stand your ground’ laws in Florida. Let’s solve problems at the root. Use this as a lesson and make adjustments to make sure this never happens again.

With a jaundiced eye,

SupremeMediaCynic

But the segment edited the call to make Zimmerman sound like he was engaged in racial profiling.

Now NBC is launching an investigation according to Erik Wemple of the Washington Post.

In the edited audio that went on the air, George Zimmerman sounds like he thinks Martin is up to no good because Martin is black.

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

Read More at Business Insider

I was looking over this popular meme a friend had posted on Facebook.  It showed Marilyn Monroe in a bathing suit next to some anorexic model in a bikini and said “which would you choose”?  I honestly replied that I would “choose” neither since they are both vapid women who used their looks to acquire fame rather than their brains.  I believed I was just honestly answering a question posed by a friend.

However I had opened some floodgates of anti-hipster hatred misdirected at me.  I was called a “typical hipster” for saying something against the norm.  Since when is it only “hipsters” who disagree with the status quo?

Then just a couple days ago while commenting on the Rick Santorum video where he may or may not have used the N-word I tried to weigh both sides fairly and said that the evidence given is not enough to assume he was trying to utter a racist word.  This time I was called “contrarian” for trying to play devil’s advocate.

So here’s my dilemma.  I am an argumentative and questioning person by nature.  Not by some recent drive to “be trendy” which, by the way makes no sense which is exactly why I despise hipsters.  I am always trying to be fair in my judgment of others and get alarmed at how easily most of society will take sides in an issue without full evidence.  Like with Treyvon Martin.  We weren’t there.  We only know what little evidence has been linked to the media.  So pretending to know “for sure” whether one is guilty or not makes no sense to me.

In my opinion, a hipster s someone who despite their own opinion or morals, will take the minority opinion or root for an underdog just because they hate being with the “in-crowd” so much that it drives them mad. They are the type of people who will pretend to stop liking a band once it becomes popular. This, is not who I am.  I like what I like.  Sometimes it’s something trendy or popular and sometimes it’s not.  I believe anyone who really knows me for more than one day would be painfully aware of how varied my taste is.

So why is it that I am constantly met with labels like “hipster”, “hater” “contrarian” when in reality I am just being 100% honest in my opinion?  Do people honestly believe that any opinion beyond the majority is driven by some outside desire to be a “cool outcast” rather than personal taste?

I don’t hate indiscriminately anything which is popular or fun.  I  love Harry Potter, but I hate Twilight.  I love SkyRim but I hate Halo.  I love Metallica but I hate Amy Winehouse.  These are just matters of personal opinion and taste.

I really wish there were a succinct way to explain myself when people lob labels at me so indiscriminately, but I usually am so shocked by their blind judgment that I’m too stunned to reply. But the bad side of this is that I do find myself voicing my opinion less and less.  Perhaps that is the goal of these people to begin with?

Many shouted “No justice – no peace!” Others carried signs depicting the names of Martin and Viola Ganer, a 57 year-old African-American women who was struck by a pick-up truck. The suspects in each case have not been arrested.

Murphysboro resident Sasha Word displays a bag of skittles and a can of tea in remembrance of Trayvon Martin. In addition to Word, residents from southern Illinois marched to show a force of solidarity for the Martin family. Martin was shot by neighborhood watch coordinator, George Zimmerman in late February.

©  Eric Ginnard Photography 2012

The world has been inundated by the story of Trayvon Martin. The tragic case of a seventeen year old who got shot after apparently deciding to take a short cut at night behind some townhouses in a gated community. A community Martin had went to so he could live with his father for awhile. The seventeen year old’s choice of routes appropriately raised the suspicions of George Zimmerman, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer driving by. He stopped his truck and tried to get Trayvon’s attention to find out what he was doing but Trayvon ignored him and kept on walking. Details not widely mentioned in reports of the incident is that this all happened at night and in the rain and that the gated community had been burglarized several times in the proceeding months. All of the this is pretty much without contention. It is what followed that is being hotly debated.

In an abbreviated version, based on Zimmerman’s recollection of events and the 911 tapes, he called police and let them know what he was seeing. He told the dispatcher he was watching a suspicious person which looked like he was on drugs and was up to do good. When Trayvon tried to run away George tried to follow which the dispatcher suggested he not do. George said okay stopped and subsequently lost track in of Trayvon as he ran away in the dark. As George got back to his truck Trayvon popped up and confronted George asking him if he had a problem. He then, according to George, punched George in the nose knocking him to the ground and jumped on him. While on top of him George said Trayvon reportedly started to bang George’s head on the pavement (from the grass police said he had on his back part at least part of him or even all of his body was on grass) and said he was going to kill him. This is when George said he feared for his life and reached for his gun and the shot rang out that ended Trayvon’s life.

Trayvon’s family’s version and the one getting all the media play is a bit different. To paraphrase it Trayvon (often shown as a slight child in a picture from when he was thirteen) was minding his own business when George chased him down and shot him like a dog. An account that is filled with all the anguish and anger that comes with losing a child to violence.

The versions are more then a bit different but the fact is the police report does say George had a broken nose and injuries to the back of his head (also confirmed by his neighbors as well as backed up by medical records) and grass on his back.  This seems to be collaborated by the police footage (despite ABC’s claim) that shows an apparent wound to the back of the head. A witness also states Trayvon was on top of George. Other video showing Zimmerman with developing black eye and slightly misshapen nose also seem to back up George’s story as does the fact the funeral home director stated publicly that Trayvon’s body had no injuries except the bullet wound (which confirms he was not the one being assaulted). There is little doubt that George was attacked based on the evidence. Of course there are also the famous phone tapes that purport to show someone screaming help before the shot that ended Trayvon’s life (Parents first said it wasn’t their son then said it was, others including George’s parents say the screams were Zimmerman’s of course there is also the possibility of them coming from a third person observing the events. No definitive answer on that as of yet.). The truth is even with the police report, the phone records, George Zimmerman’s injuries and all the other physical evidence there are still many questions left unanswered.

No matter how this matter ends up it is a tragedy. The fact that the media has helped hype it as some sort of racial incident has only compounded it. George, a Hispanic, comes from a racially mixed family with black relatives and hangs out in a racially mixed crowd. His father claims he has even mentored black youth and more recently it was reveled George was the driving force behind getting justice for a black man assaulted by the son of a white police officer. Not the profile of a racist. In making a non-racial tragedy into a racial incident the media is setting up the possibility of even more violence and at a minimum plays into the hands of bigots of all races.

What the media is doing is what it always does in these types of scenarios, adding fuel to the fire. Some outlets were initially even claiming George shouted racial epitaphs at Trayvon, a charge that has in no way been substantiated. As the media even now continues to inflame racial passions the facts slowly coming out are showing that the tragedy likely had nothing to do with race.

The hypocrisy of the media in hyping this is unfortunately par for the course. When there was an outbreak of groups of black youths attacking random white victims last summer the media acted predictably. The crimes, if reported at all, were reported with little mention of the race of the attackers and the victims. The setting on fire of a thirteen year old for being white was similarly underplayed. One can also count on the violence happening within black neighborhoods to be ignored. At the same time if a black person is attacked by someone white or presumed to be white all hell breaks out. In the media’s eyes murders involving blacks only count if the victims is black and the perpetrator is white. Black people killing black people is of little concern and neither is a black person killing a white person. It seems that there is an unwritten rule that black on black and black on white crimes are to be covered up and ignored while white and black crimes are to be exploited to the fullest.

Unfortunately the media coverage of this event misses one big point. As tragic as Trayon’s case is the bigger tragedy is the bloodbath happening in minority neighborhoods everyday. A bloodbath that is being fed by feelings of hopelessness and despair. Feelings that have their origins in exactly the type of divisive rhetoric now coming out of the main stream media and so called black civil rights leaders.

No matter the circumstances the Trayvon story is a tragedy. That his death has been so exploited by the media and men like Sharpton and Jackson only makes it more so.

A responsible media would of reported the facts and downplayed baseless accusations. It would of tried to report the facts and avoid the type of exaggerations that inflames racial tensions. The modern main stream media is of course not responsible and this is of course not what happened. The media saw a chance to play on racial tensions and jumped at it. The media splashed white guy kills black youth across the world, the fact he was Hispanic was omitted until the alternative media called them on it. Even then he was called a white Hispanic, white was too key to the narrative to let it go.  Exaggerations and specials on racial issues followed further inflaming the racial tensions. Of course helping things along were the usual race baiting suspects, namely Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  A pair that has done nothing to fight the epidemic of black and black violence but never seem to pass up a chance to whoop up racial passions. A cynic, or a realist, might believe this is due to the fact they both have gotten rich exploiting racial divisions.

This is all nothing new, the left leaning main stream media is always too quick to say damn the facts and go forward with their predetermined narrative. Remember the Duke lacrosse players or how about Tawana Brawley? Even the recent shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords was exploited for political gain despite the leftest leanings of her insane killer. In this case if tensions rise and more blood is spilled the MSM as well as Sharpton and Jackson will see it as a call to exploit the situation even more.

The reason for such deep and blatant hypocrisy can be found in one of the main ideas that drive progressive liberalism. The idea the the world is made up of opposing dichotomies. From their viewpoint the world is made up of exploiters and the exploited, a viewpoint that leaves little room for individuals. In essence they cannot see the trees for the forest, or at least their preconceived view of the forest. Individuals to them disappear into a fog of race, sex and preconceptions. In their world the rich nearly always are exploiters of the poor and whites exploiter of blacks, there is no room for any other narrative. Anything that does not fit their worldview is ignored and individuals become irrelevant. Black on black or black on white violence is just violence but white on black violence is inevitably racist and exploitative.

Their worldview also leads them to label all that oppose them as supporters of what they see as the root causes of the world’s problems. In this paper thin way of thinking conservatives who stand in their way are also somehow responsible for things like the Trayon Martin tragedy. They cannot afford to dig deeper or think of people as individuals because to do so would be like pulling the string on a knitted sweater. Their whole world would unravel.

It is likely that the tragedy of Trayvon Martin could of been avoided if Trayvon had took a more normal route home or if George Zimmerman would of called out less threateningly and identified himself as a member of the Neighborhood Watch (something as of now no one knows if he did). It could of also been avoided if Trayton would not have resorted to violence, something he probably had been conditioned to do. In the end this tragic story seems to be the result of a clash of attitudes and circumstances that spiraled out of control and nothing more.

The Conservative Mind

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If this made you think pass it on

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.   Edmund Burke  (From George Zimmerman’s Web Site)

For those interested in more facts on the incident they may want to check out these sites:

Video of Zimmerman reenactment

A full profile of George Zimmerman done by Reuters.  A most read for those who think they know George.

Police photos of Zimmerman after the fight

Police Report including an eye witness saying Trayvon was on top of George going MMA (mixed martial arts) on him.

John Lott analysis of Media and prosecutor 

Z6mag has a good run down on more facts on this case but does dwell a lot on Trayvon.  Has link to 911 audio.

CNN interview with Miami Herald Reporter about Trayvon

Hannity’s interview with Zimmerman’s father

The affidavit from the prosecutor

Zimmerman speaks to parents of Trayvon

Trayvon’s family attorney speaks about apology

Fox News report featuring head wound and statement from 911 witness.

George Zimmerman’s Web site (currently off line)

Alan Dershowitz interview on Fox News regarding case.

Latest information:

George Zimmerman’s Head Wounds Directly After Police Arrived

Wounds noted by medical officials the day after his altercation with Trayvon was ”closed fracture” of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head and a minor back injury.  Bascally what the medical report states in layman’s terms is George was beaten up. (The ABC report can be found here.)

Additionally Trayvon’s autopsy has been released and besides the death wound only notes bruising and broken skin on his knuckles.  Something that again is consistant with George’s story.  This is not to mention a witness statement saying Trayvon was on top going MMA on George. The evidence released to this point has led Alan Dershowitz, an outspoken critic of the Zimmerman affair, has now declared George is innocent and charges should be dropped.

As most are aware Zimmerman was charged with murder in the 2nd degree. Basically what one who murders someone but doesn’t plan it ahead of time is charged with. His bail was set at $150,000 dollars which he was able to post after some days of trying to raise money.  He was rearrested because the how he got the money to make bail was not mentioned.

Since then the Eric Holder’s justice dept. has hinted at possible hate crime charges.  Hate crimes in and of themselves are questionable (click here for more on that) but against Zimmerman it seems even more so.  To charge George, who is himself partially black and has spent substantial amounts of time mentoring black youth and being an activist within the black community,  with a hate crime is absurd.

The initial assessment by this site was that this was a clash of attitudes that got out of control. The evidence seems to point more and more to the attitude being Trayvon’s more then George’s.  It is hard to blame a kid for taking things too far and being at least partially responsible for his own death but denying facts does no one any good.  It is also become evident that the case against Zimmerman is weak to say the least.  Certainly George could probably of done something different that night and probably wishes he did but the evidence points to Trayvon as the initiator of the violence that ended in tragedy that night.

To summarize, Trayvon was shot in the chest at close range while, according to witnesses, he was on top of George and beating him and slamming his head into the ground. This all happened near George’s truck on a rainy dark evening. George and at least one witness says he was yelling for help before he finally resorted to shooting Trayvon, an act that took Trayvon’s life but might very well of saved George’s.

The prosecutor on the other hand says Trayvon was yelling for help just before George, who had tracked him down, shot him.  This seems to suggest that it was premeditated murder.  Maybe this all is meant to insinuate that the second degree murder charge is somehow a break for George who could of been facing murder one.  Of course if Zimmerman really did shoot Trayvon as he begged for help then he would be a monster deserving of the death penalty.  The problem is the prosecutors claims seem to go against the evidence and in reality they are trying to bolster and overcharging of the case.

The Prosecutor’s Case for Charging Zimmerman

The prosecutor’s report sets up a scenario where George followed Trayvon and confronted him. This confrontation it implies led to a fight where Trayvon was killed.  The case reportedly is based on three things (although there may be facts not reveled to anyone yet):

1.  The Prosecution claims the screams are Trayvons based on his mother’s statement (although his father initially said they were not).  [There is also a unofficial report from a purported expert that says the screams are not Georges but this is not part of the affidavit.  The prosecution also does not mention George's statement that says he was calling for help and that his parents, relatives, and neighbors all confirm it is his voice they hear calling for help on the tape]

2.  The prosecution claims George followed Trayvon after he was instructed not to do so and confronted Trayvon (this is an often repeated claim but according to George he said okay to this request, clearly heard on the 911 tapes. He also says he subsequently lost track of Trayvon as he ran away.  He does admit to walking down the same sidewalk between the townhouses as Trayvon but Trayvon was long gone at that point and was no where to be seen, according to George. George’s justification for walking the same sidewalk was to go to the front of the building and get the house number for police.)

3.  The mind set of George noted by the fact that he said these “assholes always get away.”  (not noted is the fact the community had been repeatedly victimized lately and this is what George was talking about)

The prosecutor also has mentioned before a conversation that Trayvon purportedly had with his girlfriend that night. Of course hearsay is inadmissible in court let alone third hand hearsay so why she mentioned it is questionable. In the bond hearing they also referred to unspecified inconsistancies in George’s statments with George denied.

The truth is none of this really adds up. Either the prosecution has a pile of evidence that no one has seen or this is a political move by the DA office. This is an opinion shared by Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz.

In his most recent comments on the subject Dershowitz has now stated publicly that the prosecution of George Zimmerman is immoral and stupid.  In the interview on Fox News above he has even said the prosecutor should probably be seeking a lawyer as she has without a doubt broken the law.  Additionally the evidence in the public domain is piling up and none of it is helpful to the prosecution.  In fact everything so far seems to point to Zimmerman telling the truth and likely his innocence.

If this ever goes to court the prosecutor will have a lot to explain.  Like why she thinks a person with no wounds but a mortal bullet wound and bruised knuckles would be screaming help and a person with multiple wounds from an assault was not.  Also if George was following Trayvon how did they end up at George’s truck? If George continued to follow after he agreed not to by saying okay to the dispatcher instructions not to follow then why was he at his truck getting ready to head home (which is where he told the dispatcher he would meet the cops). The truth is the prosecutor’s statements and the storyline she presents (as sketchy as it is) seems very strangely disconnected from the physical evidence, something she has made no attempt to explain.

The only real evidence to support the prosecutor’s case so far is the mothers claim, which the father initially disagreed with, that the screaming is her son’s. Even this is a case of he said she said as George’s parents make the same claim. There certainly are things the prosecutor is holding onto but the affidavit is very weak and goes against all the evidence in the public domain. Maybe there is blockbuster evidence no one knows about but it seems unlikely at this point besides this indictment is so weak it is likely to be thrown out before a court case begins.

It could be they are trying to avoid a riot by doing a dog and pony show. Pretending to go after George and slowly releasing information over time to quiet the naysayers before eventually dropping the case.  On the other hand there is also a real possibility that, as Professor Dershowitz suggested, this is just a way to railroad a plea out of Zimmerman for blatantly political reasons. In other words the tragedy continues on.

What can we do to not let the disillusionment and pain, the anger and frustration, eat away and destroy us?

Please read the article I wrote to find out more on Trayvon’s wrongful death….it’s what I could do, to begin.

On February 26, 2012 in Sandford, Florida, Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black boy, was gunned down by George Zimmerman, a middle-aged man of Caucasian and Hispanic descent. But, as we know, Zimmerman was not arrested. Instead, around midnight on that night of February 26, 2012, the State’s Attorney was called in to meet the Chief of Police, and Zimmerman was let go…without a single picture being taken of his nonexistent “bruises” or the recording of key witness testimony.

Fast foward to over one month later, and Zimmerman–with a history of managing to evade convictions after arrests and a father who is a retired judge…hmm, you do the math–has not been arrested.

Indeed it has already been universally aknowledged that witness Mary Cutcher’s testimony was squelched and her reputation smeared because she did not see Zimmerman ”standing his ground” or any other sign of “self-defense.” What she saw was an out-of-control man murder a young boy.

And she has no idea why George Zimmerman is free.

To be Black in America, it seems, is to risk being shot at any second of any day of your life–and to know that your killer will most likely get away with it.

This is not right. This is not fair. This is not who we are as human beings in any way at all.

And it is only getting worse.

The vicious smear campaign launched by the Florida state law enforcement and prosecution offices against Trayvon Martin since the beginning of this case–and transmitted by certain right wing politcos and deep-pocketed allies with a vested interest in upholding the racist status quo–is growing even stronger. This campaign, citing rumors of everything from “evidence” of Martin’s alleged “attack” on the completely unbruised, completely athletic Zimmerman easily twice Trayvon’s size to “evidence of a an empty baggie of marijuana” found on school premises (never mind just how you tell an empty scrap of plastic once held pot, never mind the fact that cannabis is legal in over 16 states, on the ballot in 20 others, and accepted by nearly ever major politician–blue or red?)–are specifically designed to discredit Trayvon. This campaign is designed to make it seem as if Trayvon deserved to be shot.

And just like every time someone applied this argument to rape victims when I was in college, “this Oh, she was asking for it logic,” still makes me sick to my stomach.

Trayvon Martin did not deserve to die because he, like all of us, wasn’t perfect and may have acted like a 17-year-old-boy from time to time.

Trayvon Martin deserved to live because he was a human being, plain and simple.

Online media watchdog, The Huffington Post, affirms that new evidence has been uncovered by ABC news which is “inconsistent with Zimmerman’s recently leaked statement to police” that Zimmerman ”was in a death struggle with Trayvon” before shooting the child in the “chest in self-defense.” 

To be even clearer: This new video evidence–in which Zimmerman has no bruises, blood, or torn clothing–directly contradicts Zimmerman’s earlier statment in which he “told investigators that Martin jumped him from behind, punched him in the nose and pounded his head into a sidewalk, according to a police report first described by the Orlando Sentinal,” finishes HuffPost.

Agrees the New York Times in condemnation of Zimmerman and the Florida legal system: “It is hard to resist the thought that race matters here, for who believes that, had an adult African American male killed a white teenager under similar circumstances, the police would have taken him at his word and so declined to arrest him?”

Indeed.

But the worst slur on Trayvon by Florida’s campaign yet?

That because of an “increase in crime in Zimmerman and Martin’s neighborhood”–the accepted racist assupmtion being, of course that these crimes must have been committed by young Black boys–Zimmerman was actually in the right by being proactive and shooting any young black boy he saw, no matter what. But the problem with the ‘Law of the Pre-emptive Strike’ that Zimmerman’s generation of men has learned from our culture in recent decades is that this ‘Shoot First and ask Questions Later Doctrine’ in no way prepares you for what will happen when your stereotypes prove to be wrong.

I say it again: to be Black in America is to risk being shot at any second of any day of your life–and to know that your killer will most likely get away with it.

“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on,” Martin’s girlfriend said. “I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.”

Because, as a young Black boy minding his own business who was living life and enjoying football, family, school, and his girlfriend (who was on the phone with Trayvon while he was shot and whom the police have yet to speak to!) clearly Trayvon Martin was up to no good.

Clearly, he deserved to die.

Clearly, the state of Florida is better without “another one of those #&^&#%s” to worry about, after all–or isn’t that what Zimmerman’s call to the police–when they told him not to get out his car and run after the poor boy and kill him–says…even in the highly edited version released to the public?

In this one, you can still hear Martin screaming for help in the background.

So, one wonders: just how much does this new campaign by the state of Florida to discredit Trayvon have to do with prejudicing the pool of possible jurors…should this case ever be allowed to get that far?

And, in the state that said the votes of black folks don’t count, a state in which the killer is still free 33 days after shooting a young black child, can we even expect a fair trial?

And how can you even trust any “evidence” by this law enforcement system–or even hope for a fair review by it’s “justice” system, which has proven to be a “system of injustice” more often than not already?

The state of Florida owes every single African American–every single Black parent and child–an apology for refusing to take any action against a known killer who could be extending his violence into a serial hate crime spree–if he hasn’t already. Because I do wonder if this was the first young child of color Zimmerman chose to hunt down, and I wonder, too, if these familes could sue the state for putting their lives in “grevious bodily harm” and denying them the “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

It worked against the tobacco companies and got something done.

Because at this point, if I was a parent Florida, I would fear for the lives of my children, my nieces and nephews. I would take my children and run. Otherwise, when their faces showed up onscreen as Zimmerman’s next victims, I would not be able to live with myself. For if, at any given moment I think about my little brother, who looks exactly like Trayvon, I will tremble in fear at the thought of someone gunning him down because of the color of his skin. And when I think of all the many people and pressures that have already tried to destroy him, my other siblings and myself because of our race…when I think of all the other countless Trayvons in America whose murders have–and still are–being swept under the rug….

I can only think of how sometimes the injustice in this world is too much to be believed.

I think, too, of what we can do to not let the disillusionment and pain–the anger and the frustration–eat away and destroy us?

And so we ask: Even if Zimmerman is arrested, how will Florida next bend the legal system to make sure that he is not convicted?

Because if there’s one thing the state of Florida, like a lot of other parts of America, knows for sure, it’s that Black life is of no value–that to be Black in America is to risk being shot at any second of any day of your life.

And to know that your killer will most likely get away with it.

 ****Sign the petition to get justice for Trayvon here! And, if you can stomach it, watch this news compilation on the most recent evidence the Florida police are hiding…and what has developed on the Trayvon Martin case so far. Sad, sad, times. We must “be the change you want to see in this world.”*****

If you were watching television and on the screen an advertisment comes up and encourages you to turn off the television, then more than likely, you’re just going to either ignore the message or
change the channel. Now imagine that someone stands directly in front of the tv, you’d be more liable to act or at least pay attention to what’s going on. My point is this: no action will occur until action is taken. Am I encouraging riots? No, violence is never the answer to anything and I think one innnocent life is enough. We need to go back to basics, boycotts, sit-ins, stand-ins, prayins, whatever-ins, but we need to MAKE OUR PRESENCE KNOWN. For those protesting, keep doing what you’re doing. You are the key to our empowerment. In this day and age, our economy can’t afford a boycott. So give them one. Trust me, once the Almighty Dollar is involved, things happen. The city of Sanford is not going to act just because a few hundred protesters demand them too. They will, however, act because their economy has gone belly up, the government is pressuring them to, and the fear of being removed from office is immientent.

I’m a white woman living in Montreal so it goes without saying that I never experienced racism directly. I grew up in a relatively liberal family but in conversations with my parents as I was growing up, I detected some racist undertones (with my father much more than my mother). I want to clarify here, I don’t believe my parents to be racist in an open and extreme manner. They don’t think that a black person is somehow inferior to a white person. Having said that, I think it would bother them if I brought home a black boyfriend. I also think my father would be much more bothered by it than my mother. I actually had this conversation up front and out in the open with my mother when I was a teenager: what would she think if I brought home a black boyfriend? She gave me the answer that everyone should give: it wouldn’t matter as long as he treated me well. I remember feeling that her answer seemed to have come a little too quickly and automatically. I pressed her and asked again if it really wouldn’t bother her. She responded again that it wouldn’t but then hesitated and said something along the lines of “I would always worry that the cultural differences would affect how he might treat you.” That took me off guard. What cultural difference? All of my black friends at school had grown up in Montreal just like I did and it bothered me that my mother assumed that because their skin was a different colour that they somehow had different values. Thinking back on this, I realize that Crommunist is right: we all have racial biases.

Having grown up in a metropolitan city, I think I have less biases than some people. I know some people who do a double-take when they see an interracial couple and that kind of thing doesn’t even cause a blip on my radar. I am a woman so I get tense walking around at night and having a man follow me (much in the line of thinking of Schrödinger’s Rapist), but I’m not any more nervous if the man following me happens to be black (or hispanic, arab, etc). I think my bias comes more from the fact that I don’t notice injustices as much as I should. As I was looking around my office today, I noticed that out of about forty of us, I could only see one visible minority (hispanic). That’s pretty sad given the fact that my classrooms were much more racially varied but until I actually consciously made myself look at it, I had never noticed. That’s where I am biased (there may be more ways I’m biased but that’s the one I found that jumped out at me). I don’t notice these injustices. And you can’t fix what you don’t realize is broken. So I think that raising awareness is probably one of the most important things we can do. I also think that it’s important to realize what our own biases are. That way, we can actively try to work to correct them. For example, if I’m ever hiring, I will make an effort to correct the lack of visible minorities in my office.

I am saddened and quite frankly disgusted about what happened to Treyvon Martin. I’m not an idiot and I know there is still blatant racism still present in our society. It doesn’t make it anymore sad when things like this happen. That Treyvon got shot and killed merely for being black in what some asshole decided was a white neighbourhood is tragic. That the asshole in question didn’t get arrested is abhorrent. I am so angry because it’s looking like this guy is going to get away with this without even so much as a slap on the wrist when we all know that if the positions had been reversed and Treyvon had been the one with the gun, he would have gotten charged in twenty seconds flat. That’s not acceptable. We should not stop bringing these injustices to light until they don’t happen anymore.

That can’t be soon enough.

As some of the discussion in previous posts on race explores, it’s very easy to point the finger at familiar terms such as “race” or “class” when I feel that “trust” among us as individuals and a community is the element has to be considered. Many of us have been led to believe that people outside our blood family are not to be trusted, and that people will likely take advantage of us at every opportunity given the opportunity.

Obviously I generalize, but I believe that most will agree that some degree of suspicion is common in our experience and training about survival in today’s world:

Don’t trust the cops.
Don’t trust the people.
Don’t trust people wealthier than you.
Don’t trust people poorer than you.
Don’t trust people of other religions.
Don’t trust business people.
Don’t trust customers.
Don’t trust women.
Don’t trust men.

Messages like these were often unspoken rules that I assimilated to, and doubt that others are immune to these subtle but ever-present messages we send each other through how we behave and talk to each other and the messages we consume in our media.

The thing is, I’ve had so many places in my life that informed me through experience that people are very much worthy of trust…in fact, we don’t get what we need in life as far as diversity of human interaction and experience without it. Further, people want to trust and be trusted. When you watch a movie, who do you generally gravitate towards and root for? Is it the self-serving bully who takes advantage of those weaker than them or the noble champion who grows through their hard-work and challenges to move higher and higher in their understanding?

So pulling back to the recent news events that I mentioned above(and I welcome others brought forth as examples of a point, please share a link), who are the people who are part of the story? Are they stories of “saints” and “monsters” who are essentially “black or white” characters with no gray area to them or are they individuals with challenging environments that they navigate and make mistakes(sometimes gravely serious) from their vantage point? Can we easily put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, say, in the case of someone like George Zimmerman? What is his story? What was he taught about at home about who and what he can trust? What pain shaped him into the character that committed this act? …it’s possible that his past has a good deal of sadness and pain to it. Do you know any young folks like Deryl Dedmon, John Aaron Rice and Dylan Butler? Is there something you can do now to assist in them making different decisions as they grow?

I’m not trying to excuse inexcusable actions, mind…I’m just trying to look beyond the emotional response to an act that is easy to engage, and think about we can go about the business of preventing the sadness that come from acts like these by healing ourselves and those around us.

We. Need. To. Trust.

Continue Reading

March 21st, 2012
11:59pm

Status Update:

There is a whisper growing that I want to address before it turns into a distortion of the Treyvon Martin case at hand. There will be people who tell you this is not about race because Zimmerman is Hispanic. Here’s what there is to know about how Black vs White plays out per the racial ambiguity of “Hispanic” people: Hispanic/Latino is an umbrella term for Spanish speaking people *from* South/Central/Caribbean/Latino American countries. It is important to know this distinction in order to understand just because you were born in Argentina and speak Spanish, that doesn’t speak to your RACE or in some cases even: Nation. There are Hasidic Jew communities in Argentina, there are Chinese communities in Cuba, etc. Historically Latino/Hispanic people are largely *OF* African, European, and/or Native Indigenous descent. Some of us are more African than European (Sammy Sosa, Tego Calderon), some of us are more European (Marc Anthony, Fidel Castro), some are more Native Indigenous (Selma Hayak, Roberto Duran). And while racism in our “Latino” nations plays out differently than it does here in the US, it occurs there enough that YES amongst ourselves Latino people recognize there are White Latinos and Black Latinos; racism plays out the the effect even, that some of our darker Latinos go all out to deny we have Black Blood and some of our lighter ones go all out to deny we have White blood (thus there is hatred for each other, and there is self hate; much the same way we have here as a mixed race society). Zimmerman is a WHITE man, he is a WHITE Hispanic. Some will want to blanket this fact to say, he is a human, color doesnt matter.. well.. it did that night.. and Treyvon’s plight will not be subordinated to our discomfort with dealing with race! Zimmerman killed a black man because he was black. He is as good as a skin head or a kkk member, to, me!

The moment I found out vigilante killer George Zimmerman was “Hispanic” I foresaw an opportunity for reactionary apologists to dismiss the Treyvon Martin murder as one without racial implication.

Race is an uncomfortable issue in our cultural discourse, as we’ve all been conditioned to reject racism as ‘un-american’. And because when people refuse to confront a reality, the result is an atmosphere of denial, denial is what I expected.. And despite an overwhelming recognition of his death being over the color of his skin, over the course of the past few days, denial, isn’t something I’ve been able to completely avoid observing.

For one thing, I am behooved to point out that Treyvon Martin was murdered over NBA All-Star weekend. That was a month ago. Yet it is only within the past few days that we’ve seen an uproar over what is increasingly seeming to become American society’s worst nightmare: reminder that racism is not only still with us from out of peoples mouths, or individual actions.. but that it still permeates and plays out within the ranks of our trusted authorities in government and law; that it still dictates to us whose lives are valuable and whose lives are expendable; who we can expect will be afforded a status of privilege and who will be exploited in our society.

Let’s not play this down to Zimmerman alone. The greater tragedy in all of this is THE STATE’s reluctance to take action; which speaks in overtones, to a justice system which still favors the interest of white middle and upper class communities over the lives of Black Americans. Had the roles been switched; had Zimmerman been a Black man and Treyvon Martin white, there is no doubt Zimmerman would be defending himself from behind bars.

Had Treyvon Martin’s family remained silent, like many families do.. dejected to accepting the conclusion that hell, he in fact did happen to be in a neighborhood ‘he wasn’t s.u.p.p.o.s.e.d to be in‘ thus, there no reason to waste money on a lawyer for a case that would be thrown out… (as many do); We wouldn’t be talking about Treyvon Martin today (AS WE FAR TOO FREQUENTLY IN THE FACE OF AN INNOCENT BLACK MURDER, ARE NOT SO MUCH AS AWARE ENOUGH TO!). Meaning, there would be a Treyvon tomorrow, and the day after, and we’d have no power to stop this tide of genocide which happens beneath the breath of the few fortunate African Americans who ‘make it’ and provide “land of the free” fodder for hypocritical rightists who spew racial epithets behind the wheel yet fold their hands with an arrogant brow against charges of racism.

If it weren’t for we, THE PEOPLE; Treyvon’s family; activists and ally lawmakers, everyday people on facebook and twitter (white, black, asian, latino) we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And some people rather prefer it that way! …The rest of us, for better or for worse kind of understand “it” to be what it is, and either avert to the latest on Snooki’s pregnancy, or scream out into the night, not with visions of grandeur as to what hollering and protesting might do (we know that tomorrow there will continue be Treyvon Martins; if you grew up in the ‘other America’ you know that!) but with an unwavering commitment to continue to fight; to resist, to insist, with our fists in the air or fingers on the keys, primed on reminding ourselves there is more work to be done.

Denial, doesn’t live here…

But it is still here. Reeking of a certain death in the room, that doesn’t so much point to the body of a 17 year old boy as it does the intention of police who stood over his body to take his killer’s alibi at face value without further investigation; their motion to test Trey’s body for drugs and leave it unclaimed for two days while the untested man who took his life (a convict with assault on a policeman to his record) walked free and till this day carries his gun; the continual refusal to arrest him despite tapes which show HE to be without a doubt the aggressor, the stalker, the initiator of a struggle documented on the audio of Martin’s girlfriend’s phone records to come in the midst of a conversation with a boyfriend she would later find went dead on the line for walking through a gated community with ice tea and skittles in hand. A death, which reeks of the first two officers on the scene being the same two officers present for a controversial shooting some years back, one with the same racial implications, yet without the same public backlash; a death reeking of a police captain whose son walked free following his attack on a homeless black man, until the story (it was recorded) went viral and as is the case today, the public demanded justice. This certain death, reeks a state governor who hasn’t said a word in the victims defense. Reeks even, of a fellow black man in all his influence in voice, with an authority vested by the millions of black people who put hope in him to if not turn this historical scenario around; to address it, at the highest rank in the universe… remaining relatively silent on a modern day lynching.

Denial, thwarts the integrity of even the most righteous of us in this, our nation of the ideal.

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Status Update:

The fact that the state has gone the extent they have to protect him, and the fact that the overwhelmingly white American community he did the bidding for in FL have been his collaborators invites us to consider that despite his ‘ethnic’ otherness, white Hispanics today can/are/will continue to pass and generate institutional racism. There was a time when Irish whites were not accepted by Anglo whites, same for Italians when they first came and many other ethnic white groups. But that’s precisely how “whiteness” came to formation… a communion of the various fractioned white groups into an identifiable hegemony. Their skin. <Bacon’s Rebellion. It is the specific moment in US history in which the elites recognized they could no longer relegate marginalized whites to the same status as blacks. And it is by all historical indications, the seminal moment in history marking the birth of the term “white”. Before Bacon’s Rebellion, white as a ‘race’ is not found in any historical journal or manuscript so much as identifying a “white” people within a nationhood context. In the same manner Irish Americans, Jewish Americans, Italian Americans attached to ‘whiteness’ then, white Hispanics in America attach to it now. And they look down on Mexicans for their indigenous pronounced features, etc. They are the new white

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It always smooths’ it’s way in does denial; prevents us from having the whole conversation. Keeps us from understanding and leaves us to approach dealing with future events, from a perspective which remain incomplete per the past. Different events, same circumstance; that’s where we’re at. Moving stuck.

Sensational moments in history have taken shape. We can reflect on them and determine that they’ve no doubt had an impactful influence on the world today. But racism is not a phenomenon which perpetuates itself in a vacuum; it’s not something we whether to the good or the bad, engage in some sort of social lab. It is a personal, social, institutional, material, spiritual, human condition we can for the most part challenge ourselves at a given moment to be accountable for; but cannot with a contemporary campaign of any nature eradicate.

And in order to check it we’ve got to be willing to identify it in balance and recognize the multiple prisms through which light on an event like the murder of Treyvon Martin, projects from.

Barack Obama’s election has for many ‘liberal’ whites even, symbolized generation towards a post racial society. When a Treyvon Martin is shot are liberal whites willing to re-assess and challenge the notion that the rise of a black man into a position of power *over a system whose mechanisms regulate the potential for post-racism* will bring change? And will whites in doing so, start by showing all cards?? Or will we revert to our privilege, give a tear and a few bucks, but plead five on what WE can do short and long term, in our everyday lives to transform the system?

There is a possibility George Zimmerman walks free, and the State will pose: on the grounds that he was not out of compliance with the neighborhood watch laws designed to give communities like Sanford, THE SOVEREIGNTY to police themselves. Will progressive blacks reflect on this and this time go beyond relying on promising politicians as usual, in a move towards designating THEIR OWN sovereign rights in the same vain: replacing the occupying force of municipal police with gun carrying citizens; ensure that if nothing comes of the death of Treyvon Martin in terms of justice for him and his family, that the very same institutional constraints on his ability to be afforded such.. be capitalized upon to represent justice on broader terms??

Ultimately, where our white citizens take it from here is a question for white citizens to answer. Where our black citizens go.. that’s a question for our black citizens.
And this isn’t something anybody needs to be told riiiight? This is something we already know?

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Status Update:

What is important to note against the many complexities of race ANYWHERE is that EVERYWHERE that there are African blooded descendants of slaves, there is a “social contract” against them. And what i mean by that is, regardless if it was the Irish who came and were called niggers they soon recognized Blacks at the bottom of a construct (hierarchy) which existed in terms of political/economic access. And so not to be the nigger any longer the Irish attached themselves/appeased to the white skinned folk who came before them. This is the same thing that happens whenever ANY group comes here, including Latinos (notice many who say they are “not black” listen to the context.. what they are saying is they are not “American Black”, and the way they conceptualize a distinction is by noting stereotypes. subconsciously though the intention is to prove to whites and non blacks that they have potential to be ‘better’ than that) people come here and automatically “know”. Even continental African immigrants come and assume that attitude. So when you refer to it as a kind of psychosis you are not kidding, it is so embedded in our culture it is in the air. And there is a reason for why this contract exists.. as i stated in an earlier post, the system (national and even global) that we live in today (material international market capitalism) evolves from direct beginnings with the exploitation of resources and enslavement of people in Africa. You can literally do research and you will find there is a class distinction between Africans who migrated around the world BEFORE the 1400′s (for them to have done that they practically had royalty and today even some of their descendants carry affluence) and African people who migrated here on their own AFTER the 1800′s (perhaps not as royal as the pre 1400 African migrants, but in many cases statesmen and their children or business people); in contrast to Africans who date their blood to the African slave trade (stripped of everything from language to record of existence, recognized as property, broken from family) a broken family is a big deal, it is to start over from scratch, a stripped name, you cannot follow it back to some inheritance in the old country. etc. And so African Americans of slave descendancy who began to own the name “negro” did so in and of itself as a notion of micro-nationhood.. to identify one another as those sort of ‘lost people’… it is not until waves of consciousness came along that blacks who identified as Negro began to question why they were doing it and resist that term, but there remains even today a double consciousness and youve heard everyone from the honorable Malcolm to Tupac allude to their people as Negro or Niggas. This same phenomenon happened in all of the Americas. My great-grandfather who is my grandmothers Black side, it is told to us “came from an orphanage” my great grandmother who just died last year and was white as an eastern European Slavic woman it is told to us had a grandfather who supervised a plantation (not in those words.. my grandma more like translated it this way: he would ride on a horse and manage over the farm). Here’s the whole negro matter in Latino context.. I can trace back and be clear that my great grandmothers side had some class distinction, had some kind of status. So far as my great grandfather it is very murky and perhaps because he strayed from his larger African family thus bringing little remnant of African culture in our home. He was the first light weight boxing champion of PR so him marrying a “white” Puerto Rican woman and having mixed little babies who knew nothing of such slang as “Mojeto or negrito” etc. not a big coincidence; surely most his friends were white Ricans who accepted him for his athletic status etc. But why didn’t they accept with that, his slang & other nuances that he hid and destroyed; didnt invite into my grandmothers tongue, etc? Because he was a “negro” and he knew it. To say that Zimmerman is “Hispanic” and to have that encompass the Treyvon Hernandez’s Treyvon Ortiz’s Treyvon Rivera’s of our lands, is a flawed analysis. I can actually put it much more easier for you: When I say there are white Hispanics and there are black Hispanics, you can be sure the Black Hispanics understand what i mean

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The morning after I posted a status to seed a discussion for not only Latinos, but for Blacks and Whites as well; an MSNBC guest analyst saw the need to remind it’s mass of viewers that “Zimmerman is Latino” and hear this: that “this is not a Black and White issue, this is a Black and Brown issue.”

I want us to reflect on what such a statement infers…

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My war is with George Zimmerman and every George Zimmerman at our barbecue; those of us who CHOOSE to distance ourselves from Black society and strive to ‘make it’ by attaching to whiteness.. It is our George Zimmerman’s who, in their quest for acceptance internalize a hatred for Blacks and overcompensate to the tragic ends we see in Treyvon Martin’s murder.

I’m pretty much exhausted at my attempt to explain how a ‘black_brown conflict’ perspective is objectively skewed. You can read my status updates for a holistic context around how so.

…But I will pose the following:
I identify as Brown because I embrace solidarity with my African heritage and blood; because my spirit embraces remembrance of the native indigenous ancestry of my lands.
And I will continue to be Brown, because of that. It is something I embraced the power to choose!

In all my light skinnedness (having been confused for everything from greek to arab)… It is not a CHOICE I have always made.
As much as it a choice, Treyvon Martin, never had…

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RIP little Brother.

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- Tr