What people do afterwards is another thing entirely. I'm supportive of the 'No Justice, No Peace' sentiment, 'Fuck The Police,' and the efforts by activists to take our forever-unjust racist 'criminal justice' system to task. However I read what some strangers are saying now, about 2 months after Trayvon Martin's killing, and have to cringe.
George Zimmerman is a Hispanic white male. His mother is Peruvian and people who associated with him are alternately white or hispanic white. This means that they(and he) have pale skin and some history of spanish-speaking in their households. Here's how this racially motivated murder has been rendered by some people:
WHITE AMERIKKKA STOP KILLING OUR BLACK BABIES!
I just have to invoke white privilege here while I've still got a little bit of it. Have I ever personally donned a white hood/hoodie, broken into a black families house in the cover of night and strangled a black baby to death? Is there any current lynching campaign that the KKK or another racist terrorist group is waging while the authorities do nothing? Is Zimmerman a part of any covert or overt racist groups? No...since Zimmerman wasn't a police officer yet.
Who is killing the most Black People(or, rhetorically 'babies) in America? Black People. It's not because Black People are inherently violent or wired differently- it's because the greatest proportion of violence is intra-racial. White on White, Black on Black, on and on. As a broke White Male, I've been the victim of property crime 4 times at the hands of Black People, but I didn't say BLACK AMERIQUA STOP TAKING MY STUFF! Well, I did, but only in my head for like 10 minutes.
None of this changes that our police state, prison population and justice system are fundamentally racist and unjust. I'm not denying that Zimmerman is a racist Goon who probably would've ended up doing this to another Black Person even if he had spared Martin. What I am weary of, is framing matters in an 'Us vs. Them' way, leading ultimately to Yakub.
I'm not a White devil. A Black scientist didn't graft White People from Black People as a 'warrior race' that got out of control. You know that. This is clearly stupid bullshit whether or not it helped or helps empower certain Black People. Casting all Whites as devils is just as stupid as asserting that a White Person like me is helping 'perpetuate the systems that lead to white supremacy and racial profiling and ultimately to an Hispanic-American authority-loving goon to 'identify' as White and go around hunting Blacks.' Or whatever.
The 'We Are All Trayvon Martin' campaign and the 1,000,000 Hoodies campaign is brilliant Activism on Trayvon Martin's behalf. Claiming that every single white person is inherently, unavoidably evil, hateful of blacks and conspiring against them is bad science and bad policy. It leads, in it's worst moments, to race riots. Which are much less fun to be in than they are to watch on YouTube. Arrest Zimmerman. I just live here.
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