Trey Smith
How can you get out of your truck against police advice, instigate a fight, get your nose bloodied in said fight, shoot the person you were fighting with, and claim self-defense? If anyone was defending himself, wasn't it Trayvon Martin?There is a prevalent disease in our society that far too many choose not to acknowledge out loud. If you listen to white leaders as well as everyday citizens, you will hear them say that we live in a post-racial era. Bigotry has been thrown on the dustbin of history. The color of a person's skin no longer matters.
Would police have been so forbearing had Martin confronted and killed an unarmed George Zimmerman?
Of course, the most pressing question is this: What exactly was it that made this boy seem "suspicious"? The available evidence suggests a sad and simple answer: He existed while black.
The manner of said existence doesn't matter. It is the existing itself that is problematic. Again: Sometimes, they do not see you.
That's one of the great frustrations of African-American life, those times when you are standing right there, minding your business, tending your house, coming home from the store, and other people are looking right at you, yet do not see you.
~ from The Case of Trayvon Martin -- When Others Choose Not to See You by Leonard Pitts Jr. ~
Not only is this a lie, it's a damn lie. Even worse, the people who spread it KNOW it's a damn lie.
How else can we explain the veiled, yet overt, vitriol toward this nation's 44th President? He's a foreign-born or Muslim or Nazi or socialist usurper, they cry. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin, they wink. Bullshit!!! That's their main objection. You know it. I know it. They know it.
It is one thing to be vilified as President; it's another thing altogether to be murdered for no other reason than the color of your skin. That sure looks like what happened to poor Trayvon Martin. Even if it is later proven that there were extenuating circumstances surrounding Martin's death -- I view this as doubtful, but... -- there are more than enough similar incidents to Martin's that should leave no doubt in anyone's mind that racism is alive and well.
I had a friend when I lived in Salem, Oregon, who recounted to me the numerous times he was stopped by the police for doing NOTHING MORE THAN DRIVING WHILE BLACK. On almost every one of these occasions, my friend was in a "white" neighborhood and the assumption by police too often is that a black person in a white neighborhood must mean the black person is up to no good.
It didn't matter that my friend was an esteemed member of the community. It didn't matter than my friend was a much beloved educator in the local school district. It didn't matter that my friend was a trusted adviser to the mayor. And it didn't matter on one occasion that my friend was in route to meet with the Governor of Oregon at the Governor's request.
No, the ONLY thing that mattered in the eyes of the police was that he was a black man driving a nice car in a white neighborhood. As Pitts writes above, they saw my friend's blackness without seeing him.
Ive always had some doubt as to if it is even possible to have a completely tolerant, multicultural society. The fact of the matter is, humans have evolved to stick to their own kind, and to distrust those who are different. Going back to Avenue Q "Everybody's a little bit racist". Racism is almost natural. Probably everyone is racist at least at the subconscious level. Still, it doesn't justify violence. Would the world be better if everyone lived in a homogenous society where everyone stuck to their own kind?
ReplyDeleteI live in a very multi-cultural place; the key to harmony is balance and tolerance. No one here in Hawaii is really in the majority, and even the populations that are small, proportionately, have a voice. Indeed, sometimes people have axes to grind, and usually with some justification, but by and large there is harmony. Everyone acknowledges and celebrates their ethnicity. Even ethnic jokes can be made if they are made with love and not hate. Oddly, the people that most often find Hawaii "racist" are white people who come here and have trouble realizing they are not dominant in the culture and have attacks of ethnophobia which encourages behavior that they then perceive as racist. In the end, you get back what you project. The more you have an us and them attitude, the more it manifests in your own consciousness.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in time one comes to see that all Chinese/Japanese/Korean/ Filipino/Polynesian/Black people do NOT all look alike. In fact, I have come to be able sometimes to see why other people might think all white people look alike.
We have saying here, "Lucky you live Hawaii," and it applies to all aspects of the culture. I feel VERY lucky for so many reasons. And to the point of the post, we tend to see Obama as a black man of mixed heritage...and it doesn't matter. We've had governors who are Japanese, Filapino, Jewish, Hawaiian and white...and our Congressional delegation tends to be Japanese. We acknowledge it, joke about it, talk about, and move on.
That's Filipino....
DeleteBaroness,
ReplyDeleteYou make several excellent points! To bad more of the world doesn't reflect the attitudes of Hawaii.
It's called the Aloha Spirit.
DeleteNot that all is idlyllic, there is a nasty "tradition" in some schools called "Kill Haole Day." Haole is caucasian , or foreigner. But this is now understood as a "hate crime" and steps have been taken to stop this kind of attitude. However this might be understood when you know that white landowners and government for many years banned Hawaiian language and other cultural traditions (like hula). There is an upsurge in interest in the old ways and language today and some schools are conducted as Hawaiian language immersion insitutions and of course there are any number of federal programs to encourage education and rights of native Hawaiian people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Haole_Day
And one other Hawaii comment...some years ago I knew a blonde from Chicago married to a black Marine Sargeant who was stationed here. He was about to be relocated to Georgia. She was really reluctant to go. "In Hawaii, no one cares or notices, but Georgia...?" Oddly, in Hawaii it might be more "controversial" to have a Chinese marry a Korean or Japanese than a black/white intermarriage.
ReplyDelete