Edwin Lyngar considers his own white privilege in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict.
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I could shoot a black kid in the street and get away with it.
I’m not proud of this, and I might have never put it into words, except for the sad, horrid feeling I got watching the George Zimmerman trial. George shot a black kid and walked. I know I could too, and with much less trouble than George Zimmerman had. I’m 40 years old, white and educated. I’m a chubby, pale taxpayer. I have no tattoos and have never been arrested and I walk around with the assumption that the police are actually here to serve me.
I could drive through a part of town known for housing people of color. I could get out of my car, walk down the street and find the first kid that looked “street.” I could insult or provoke him, perhaps by calling him a horrid racial name. The moment he responded with any kind of violence or intimidation, I could pull out my Beretta 9mm and shoot him dead. No jury would convict me.
My wife is a lawyer and she told me that Zimmerman isn’t a “perfect” example of getting away with murder, because the facts are complex. I think this case adds yet another example of a broken justice system as it applies to communities of color, as if they needed any more.
I have only a second-hand notion of how people of color feel. I was hassled by police in the very (very) small town of my youth. In small-town America, all the adolescents get hassled. Cops knew all us high school kids, almost by name. They’d ask us if we had beer in our cars and would chase us home after parties. It was about as frightening as an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard. Since I left small town America, my experience with law enforcement is the equivalent of another country compared to the experience of African Americans.
A couple years ago, I got pulled over going to the airport. It was super early and I was both tired and in a hurry, so I was weaving like a drunkard. A cop tried to pull me over about a mile from the airport off-ramp. I just kept going until I was almost to the terminal, right near where I was going. When I finally pulled over the cop asked why I waited so long to stop. I told him wanted off the freeway because it was dangerous for him. I didn’t get a ticket. If I were standing over a body holding a bloody knife, I would expect the police to listen to my side of the story while calling me “sir.”
People like me live in an insular world. I only know this because I was in the military and I went to a number of colleges and graduate schools. The military and college are the two places in our society where people really mix.
During one graduate school experience, I was walking with an African-American friend down a sidewalk in Los Angeles. We came upon a cop who had a suspect in handcuffs sitting on the sidewalk. The “suspect” looked roughed up, and the cop stopped me.
“This guy just fell flat on his face. Did you see it? I’d like to get a witness statement.”
I apologetically told the cop I hadn’t seen what happened, but my friend never even slowed down.
When I caught up with him, I asked why.
“I never talk to the po-po,” he said, blowing my mind. He has the same background I do. He’s educated, smart and middle class, yet we have totally different world views about the “po-po.” He shared with me his lifelong experience of harassment and lack of trust for law enforcement, an inescapable reality for him that I will never feel.
I benefit so much from inequity in ways big and small, seen and unseen. Next to “white privilege” in the dictionary there’s a picture of me sipping a mojito with a little umbrella in it. I feel some shame over these unasked-for advantages, and try to console myself by saying that at least I admit it.
I know many blue collar, so called “working class” white people from my time in rural America. I haven’t lived there in twenty years, but many white working-class people don’t believe “white privilege” exists. Why should they? They never see it. I know people who think Zimmerman shouldn’t have been arrested at all. In fact, my dad called me a “typical liberal” when I said, “you can’t just shoot someone down in the street and get away with it.”
Somehow the murder of this child, Trayvon Martin, has become an issue straight down party lines, with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. The self-dividing of our population is a big part of the problem, in my opinion, but I have to admit my father was right about one thing. I do think like a typical liberal in terms of fairness, and there is nothing fair about what happened to Trayvon. The worst part for me of watching the verdict come back was the painful epiphany that if I really wanted to, I could shoot a black kid and get away with it.
I could do that easy.
Photo—bradleygee/Flickr
sorry mr. lynger, i reject your premise. even if one indulges in your hypothetical, the first, and far more important question, is would you want to murder somebody? and i’m not talking an emotional reaction all of us get from time to time where we think rashly, “i could just kill so and so.” that’s human nature. that you and i and the vast majority of others don’t go beyond that and never do it . . . because you and i know right from wrong, and even amidst stressful or emotional situations don’t lose our heads is what matters,… Read more »
You’re right. You can’t just shoot someone in the street and get away with it. Even as a white man in good ol’ America. You’re reaching way too far to make your point by stating you can shoot a black person and get away with it simply because of your skin color. For shits and giggles, I challenge you to test your theory. I am positive you’ll fully regret stating this opinion while sitting in prison for your crime. You aren’t adding anything of value to the discussion by dragging out this race issue. This is a justice system that… Read more »
The larger point is that racial minorities face a completely different reality when relating to the criminal justice system. I come from the white, working class, so I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Far from it. Being born white, however poor, still confers some benefit that cannot be ignored. To correct the inequity, we have to first be willing to admit it.
Edwin– what you say is so true… In northern NJ, my ex made a turn at an intersection in a residential neighborhood…he was distracted and collided with a red sports car that was going straight…the driver of the red car was black….(he was so upset at the damage to his car since he did not have insurance)….after my ex pulled over and a police car came by, the officer looked over at us and asked if we were okay ….my ex is Caucasian and I am Asian….later, my ex told me that the officer said to him under his breath… Read more »
GZ is as white as Barack Obama so why is everyone associating this case with “white privilege”? Also, i think that if a person is old enough to drive and old enough to work legally then you can hardly call them a “child”. Jussaiyan.
It’s not about Zimmerman. It’s about how the justice system fails certain populations. And it will continue to do so until we talk frankly about it.
If that’s the case, then please explain exactly how the justice system failed a particular population in this case, because so far all I’ve seen are naive assumptions, reprehensible scripted race baiting and histrionic handwringing.
This ruling is nuts. If I want to kill someone, all I have to do is get them to hit me, then I can shoot them in self defense!
It is really easy to get someone to hit you, all you have to do is shout “Fucking learn to drive” into a car window.
The verdict just leave me filled with questions. Is this the result of the stand your ground laws in Florida? Would we get the same verdict in another state without a similar type of law? What is the law in Nevada about stalking someone and then shooting them if they retaliate? Does the Zimmerman verdict set a precedent for other cases? Is that president set just for Florida or for all the states?
The “stand your ground” language was used extensively in the final jury instructions, so I think it had to have some effect. Good question, though, Bill.
I enjoyed this article and I think it hit some really great points. It was certainly heartfelt and genuine. And my comment isn’t directed so much at this article, but rather the “coverage” of the Zimmerman case in general. The thing that kills me is that there is all this outrage over Trayvon, but none for the all the other black “children” that are dying EVERY DAY at the hands of other black children and black men. This last weekend 12 black youth under the age of 18 were killed in Chicago. Where is the outcry? Where are the articles… Read more »
Thousands die a year from violence and none of those cases get coverage. I hope this generates a larger conversion about violence. I have already heard a lot of talk about the need to reduce violence overall. One can only hope some good comes of this very bad situation.
That is EXACTLY the same as for men in general. Men, and boys, are killed far, far, far more often then women but that is not a problem in societies eyes because they are killed by other men. So it is men killing “themselves” and so not a problem. Men killing women in disproportionate numbers on the hand is, in the views of society a much, much greater problem even though the number of victims are far less. That the individual men are totally innocent victims does not matter because they are men. “Fairness” in the gender balance of killing… Read more »
So much for Counterpoint. Another shining example of diversity, Celebrate Diversity (as long as we all think the same way)!
The easiest way to get away with murder is by being a woman. In general women are given 50-70% lesser sentences for exactly the same crime. This is several hundred percent more of a sentencing discount than you get for being white. This means that you will be punished harder being a white man than you will as a black woman. The harshest punishments is given to black men and the lightest ones to white women. When it comes to murder it is extremely easy for women to get off. Warren Farrell has a chapter on it in the Myth… Read more »
I don’t think the epidemic of violence and gun deaths in America are caused by women. That said, there is WAY too much coverage and emphasis on some of these trials when an attractive woman is accused of something. It does show quite an ugly side of the news.
Examples please?
Would the Jodi Arias trial qualify?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Travis_Alexander
Very funny. Sick, and utterly reprehensible, but funny in it’s absurdity.
Neither do and I did not say saw so why are you making a straw man? The point here is that societies attitudes makes it way, way, way easier to get away with murder when you are a woman than if you are a man of any color. I would think that is a thousand times more relevant to focus on than the fact that the media focuses extra on physically attractive women charged with murder. Or for that matter that young women go gaga over terrorists and murderers like they where Justing Bieber simply BECAUSE they are killers.
@ Edwin
“I don’t think the epidemic of violence and gun deaths in America are caused by women.”
And so Johan’s point is proven. Men are 90% of the murderers in the U.S., but when looking at intimate partner killings, women are 33 – 40% of the killers. Why do women who kill choose to kill their intimates at about 12 times (if I did the math right) the rate of men. Could it be because they have a better than average chance of getting away with it?
“The easiest way to get away with murder is by being a woman.”
Nah, the second easiest way. The easiest way is to use a motor vehicle.
Any of you folks live in Florida? If so, can I come down and visit you. Talk a walk on the wild side, and watch you gun down some black folks? Just curious. Can’t really pull that kind of thing in my neck of the woods, so I thought it would be great sport if I could do it down there. Seems to be the law thereabouts. Sure we gotta set things up just so, so the law won’t attach to us, but still, seems like a blast. Lemme know in the thread k? Thanks! (sarcasm off) Anyways… What’s for… Read more »
Thanks, Evan, for proving Ed’s point!
I could get away with shooting someone too, if they were beating the hell out of me when I did it.
It doesn’t matter if Zimmerman followed Martin and confronted him. What matters is that Martin was on top of Zimmerman, punching him and slamming his head into the concrete (Zimmerman had two shiners, a broken nose, and numerous lacerations all over his head to corroborate this version of events). It was self-defense. The end.
If you cause a death by, say, by following someone and harassing a person, you are AT LEAST guilty of manslaughter. Is “no one” responsible for the death of this CHILD? If Zimmerman stayed home or if Trayvon were white, a 17-year-old child would not be dead.
The case confuses me. I still cannot believe that any random jury could somehow NOT convict Zimmerman of manslaughter: I don’t know the legal parameters, especially for Florida, but even with something like a ‘stand-your-ground’ law I thought ‘not guilty by reason of self-defense’ implicitly suggested Zimmerman had to be in fear (dire fear) for his life: So didn’t he have any reasonable responsibly to act for his safety & extricate himself from that danger before the exact second he was down on the ground and firing his weapon? Now, I’m not saying that I couldn’t be missing… Read more »
Good comment! I have talked with my wife about the manslaughter charge. She doesn’t have much to say on it. The article in the Atlantic on the jury instructions is very informative on this bit. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/trayvon-martin-and-the-irony-of-american-justice/277782/
Thanks for the link- the article in the Atlantic said in one part: “The danger… need not have been actual; to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance of danger must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force.” I think it speaks volumes to societal preconceptions in this case that a teenager (specifically, an African-American male teenager) confronted by an (armed) adult could be used in that circumstance to justify those criteria. Moreover, (and this is… Read more »
No you are guilty of manslaughter if you don’t have self defense. Zimmerman has a few things you don’t in your hypothetical. 1) He lives in that neighborhood you are leaving your white enclave to go to an area you have no business in to start something 2) Zimmerman had previously phoned the police regarding Trayvon, which tends to indicate that he had no intention to go gun down a black person. In your hypothetical that is apparently your objective 3) Zimmerman passed a lie dectector test and submitted to questioning to the police for 5 hours the night of… Read more »
Thank you Ed for your honesty. It is a shameful thing that has happened, horrifying and heartbreaking.
Yes, Khadija. Horrifying and disturbing. I should not be “grateful” for being white, yet I am. All of our children should have the benefit that my, pasty white, kids start life with. Thanks for reading.