Whether or not one agrees with the verdict of this tragic case or not (I certainly don't), it brings up a much bigger issue in this country that should have been eradicated in 1776 when we declared our independence. But it wasn't. We held men and women of color in slavery to serve us until 1865. In 1964, America decided that the color of a person's skin no longer mattered, and had zero basis for judgement.
I can not lie and say I've never walked home alone late at night and had an inkling of fear in seeing some "thugged out" men in my vicinity. It has been engrained in our culture that men of a certain color and certain dress are up to no good. They're robbers, rapists, and generally violent. They deal drugs and steal cars. They're all the same. It's in the media. It's in our upbringing...in America.
I lived in Oakland as a teenager, and I was driving through a West Oakland warehouse district for band practice one night. I was probably 18 years old. I was stopped at a red light when a police car pulled along side my car. The office asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for the light to change. He told me to just drive through it because I wasn't safe just sitting there abiding the law. In case you are wondering, yes, the officer was a white male.
It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that my father told me about my family history. My grandmother was adopted into the colored side of the family. Being biracial in the 30s was not acceptable, and her white family gave her up to the black side. I never knew this detail about my grandmother growing up, and it never crossed my mind that some of my family had darker skin than me. Most of my family would actually tease me for being so fair. When my father finally told us about our black side of the family, we shrugged it off like it was no big deal. We're a multi-racial bunch...whatever.
Young people growing up in the melting pot of cultures that is southern California, I had ethnic neighbors. Black, hispanic, Indian, Asian. They were people we said hi to on the street. They came to birthday parties. We rode bikes and went to the park. We were friends. We were human. So, the news of my family also being ethnic did nothing to arouse me.
It just meant nothing to me. It didn't make me better or worse. I think my dad thought it might have meant something to us, but he grew up in a different time.
People want to pretend that this is not about race, but I beg to differ. I'm well traveled in this country, and I would go as far to say that most of it is still racist. Cities are still segregated by design, even if the law doesn't allow the enforcement of it. Many Americans are still outwardly racist and ignorant. Those that aren't just pretend that it's not an issue or live in some segregated community where they don't have to be bothered with people of color.
To say that George Zimmerman did not look at Trayvon Martin, racially profile him, follow him even after he was told not to by emergency operators, and then shoot him because he mistook a pack of skittles for a weapon is absurd. This was an act of racism. This was an act of ignorance. Maybe Trayvon did fight back in the wake of being followed by a stranger. We'll never know the details. But tonight a racist man walks free because a racist jury could not see that George Zimmerman did anything wrong by shooting and killing an unarmed teenager because that teenager was a black male.
The message that jury sent to the rest of the country says that Trayvon Martin must have been doing something wrong because he is a young, black male. The message that jury sent to the rest of the country was that it is okay to shoot a black person because they make us feel unsafe. The message that jury sent to the rest of the country is that we are still so deep-rooted in racism.
America, the free....
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - United States Declaration of Independence; July 4, 1776
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