The Million Hoodie March in protest of the death of Trayvon Martin was today, so it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the injustice of his death.
The details of Trayvon’s death are simple: Trayvon Martin, carrying Skittles and an ice tea for his little brother, walked to his father’s house in a suburban Florida neighborhood. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, thought he was suspicious and called 911; the dispatcher told him that police were coming and not to pursue. Martin was found, unresponsive and unarmed. Zimmerman, claiming that he was defending himself against an unarmed teenager with his semiautomatic handgun, has not been charged with a crime.
Picture from the Million Hoodie March: a young black boy with a sign that says “Am I Next?”
This is the sort of world we live in. The kind of world in which a kid, a seventeen-year-old kid, a good student, someone who is planning on going to college and becoming an aviation mechanic, can be shot and killed for going to buy candy at a 7-11.
Why?
Because he’s black. Because a black boy walking alone isn’t just a kid out to get candy. He’s “suspicious.” He’s “up to no good.” He’s “on drugs.” He’s a “young black man who appears to be an outsider,” whom are definitely the sort of people we have to be on the lookout for, because we know that all black men are criminals. Clearly.
I grew up in Florida too; I know people who went to Trayvon’s high school. But I can go buy candy without fearing for my life, simply because of the color of my skin. You want privilege? That’s privilege. The sure knowledge that I’m not taking my life into my hands by walking outside. That should not be something that I should feel lucky for. That should not be fucking special.
Sean Hannity wants to know if the Trayvon Martin killing was just a “horrible accident.” NO. Trayvon was not asking to be murdered by his refusal to cooperate; even if Zimmerman were a police officer, he shouldn’t have killed Trayvon for simple refusal to cooperate, but he wasn’t a fucking police officer. If you see a strange person following you, and it turns out he has a gun, guess what? You’re going to not answer their questions, and you’re going to run the fuck away. That is normal human person behavior. That is not a fucking death-penalty offense.
The death of Trayvon Martin is only the most extreme example of the endless oppression of black men within the American criminal justice system. From stop and frisk to driving while black, from mall security guards that assume that black boys are thieves to the prison-industrial complex, black men are endlessly assumed to be criminals, to be drug addicts, to be violent, simply because of their skin color.
And when racism comes to its natural conclusion and ends in the death of an innocent black boy… well. The police are automatically biased in favor of the non-black shooter instead of the black corpse. Witnesses reported that the police were biased in favor of Zimmerman; the police assume that it was self-defense. Dude, in America we have these things called “trials.” If it were truly self-defense, then Zimmerman can present the evidence about such in his trial. Since there are tons of questions about whether “a high school student with no criminal record decides to attack a dude for no reason” is more plausible than “a racist fuckhead assumes a black boy is criminal,” you can let the jury decide. That is what they are for.
But, man, it’s just a black kid. Who cares when a black boy dies?
Not racist America. Black men are ultimately disposable. Black men don’t deserve safety, or security, or justice. As a culture, we don’t care about black men. But, as radical as it may seem to racist fuckheads like Zimmerman and his defenders, black men are human beings. The security of white people from the imaginary threat of young black men who are outsiders is trumped by the security of black people from actual people with actual guns actually attempting to murder them.
That phrase “young black men who are outsiders,” which Zimmerman apparently used as a Neighborhood Watch leader to describe the sort of people good (read: white) people ought to watch out for, is striking to me. Because in our society black men are, all too often, outsiders. They are the racialized Other. They don’t have the same basic human rights– to, for instance, not be murdered. Forever a threat, forever suspicious, forever a suspect, continually having to prove that they are not criminals just because of their melanin content.
Right now, across the country, millions of black parents are tucking their sons in and wondering if their child is next. Right now, black parents are sitting their sons down to tell them how to interact with police and with men with guns, and that if they do anything that even begins to look like they might attack they risk finding themselves dead.
Fuck. That. Shit.
One more thing about the Martin case being a perfect storm for getting public attention– Zimmerman wasn’t a policeman.
What is clear is that the “Stand Your Ground Law” is a legal mess.
Yeah… my link, above, offers the case of a South Carolina squatter shot under the SYG law.
He didn’t die, so you didn’t hear about it.
>:(
Culled from a series of ongoing articles in the ‘Tampa Bay Times’ and other sources, the following is a similar tragic story, which reads as a mirror image of the Trayvon Martin shooting, except there is detailed testimony from eye-witnesses. Make of it what you will. http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/aftermath-of-deadly-shooting-in-valrico-leaves-community-bewildered/1124429 Valrico is described as an unincorporated census-designated place in rural Hillsborough County, Florida, with a population of 6582 at the 2000 census; a median income of $53, 314 and median house/condo price of $170,109 in 2009. Racial/ethnic makeup: 59.3% White; 20.5% Hispanic; 10.5% Asian; 7.4% Black; and 2.3% Other. Valrico, Sept. 26, 2010.… Read more »
One thing I’ve been hearing a lot about has been the ‘stand your ground’ laws that would potentially make Martin’s murder legal. I wonder how it would go down if a black person tried to claim self-defence under these laws if they killed a white person?
@f: We really need a lawyer to interpret laws to know what they mean. Sometime things like “deprive of the right of honest services” means “take a bribe”. Now just from standard English, we can look at this as “A if B”. A only applies if B is true. B is “he or she reasonably believes [lethal force] is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.” So if they are using normal English and not legalese, then you can only use… Read more »
I’m also incredibly depressed by the extent of the racist comments about George Zimmerman, the worst being (and I’m not going to use their language) “let the blacks and the Latinos kill each other).”
I just put this up at Ethecofem:
http://www.ethecofem.com/trayvon-martin-and-why-black-males-distrust-cops/
I also submitted a modified version at Good Men Project.
@daelyte, I’m not sure you’ve understood me. I was making the point that stand your ground did not apply to Zimmerman as a defence, whether or not Trayvon assulted Zimmerman, not that Trayvon should be considered (or not considered) to have been acting in self defence.
As you said “It says: “A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked…”
If chasing Trayvon is treated as an assult, then Zimmerman is engaging in unlawful activity, and duty to retreat applies.
Hey, synchronicity.. just posted this, about our local rally:
http://daisysdeadair.blogspot.com/2012/03/rally-for-trayvon-martin.html
South Carolina also has a “stand your ground” law… are you surprised? 🙁
@Lamech, in Florida, there is no duty to retreat. Check it: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/floridas-self-defense-laws-and-the-killing-of-trayvon-martin/254396/ and http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/03/stand-your-ground-and-trayvon-martin/254444/ There are numerous comments from lawyers in both threads about how Florida’s self-defense laws work. People are allowed to “stand their ground” in any public place and still claim self-defense. As Jay said on this thread, it almost restores a dueling or Wild West type of ethic to public spaces – I can’t help but think SYG laws cause a major increase in legally justifiable homicides that should never have happened under the self-defense laws that have been the norm for a very, very long time… Read more »
@daelyte: “including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”” While not a lawyer, I would think that if one can safely retreat, the use of deadly force wasn’t necessary. Also this law is very weird since it only applies to people who are attacked.
@jnakabb: Ah, my mistake, thanks for the correction. I wonder if police are more likely in general to hear a more violent interpretation of an ambiguous utterance, or if that was the result of their bias towards the speaker as the perpetrator.
Really, anyone could have done so in all 50 states.
@Jared: “if Zimmerman was acting unlawfully then “Stand your ground” does not apply.” Actually i think it does – Trayvon would have been within his right to stop Zimmerman using deadly force. These laws cut both ways, at least on paper. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0700-0799/0776/Sections/0776.013.html It says: “A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes… Read more »
Just to be clear, I’m not intending to imply any such doubt remains in my head. I do not believe Trayvon Martin was anything other than an innocent teenager.
noah: … The total certainty where some of the Fox commenters are saying he was in a gang was enough to make me wonder if there was something I’d missed, but there’s no evidence for that at all, is there? It’s just an assumption that got thrown into the echo chamber and came back as truth…
@minuteye: Sadly, the case you mentioned was a New Zealand one, not Australian. Also, police were much more likely to hear the worst (as opposed to the civilian experience of the same recording).
Unfortunately, we too, have a deeply embedded sense if distrust and racial othering that sees men of colour disproportionately represented in our prison population. Fortunately, we don’t have “stand your ground” laws, and it’s illegal to carry an offensive weapon (even in ‘defence’).
So sorry that the US had to experience such a tragedy to polarise public opinion.
You know what’s sad? I just recently saw my mother and she told me that she doesn’t like me to wear hoodies because she’s afraid something might happen. And if a cop stops me, stop and raise my hands and don’t give them a reason. Walking while black- still kind of scary in America in 2012.
I’m just gonna leave this right here: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/20/trayvon-martin-a-little-thug-ghetto-monkey-fox-news-readers-set-new-high-water-mark-for-racism/
Ever since this happened last month, I’ve been struggling with how to deal with this. I signed one of the early petitions, but I don’t live in florida: Why should they listen me? I’m not even black, and it has made me feel sad and helpless. There may be a Florida law that has been broken, but until recently it’s looked liked legalized murder. Some poeple are roused to action buy stuff like this. I just end up feeling hopeless, sad, and broken.
@Schala, I found and promptly lost an amazing blog post by a Black woman who noted that back in her neighborhood, what it meant to be a boy was that one had a very high chance of dying before adulthood, and what it meant to be a girl was to constantly be warning the boys and mourning them when something went bad.
Really heartbreaking
@ Druk But look at what a perfect storm of innocence was required here to get, not even a trial, just an audience. The innocent possesions, Trayvon’s being a minor, the familial backstory, the corroborating phone call to demonstrate that Zimmerman had been outright stalking Trayvon before leaping out against police advice- Please forgive me trotting out the negative stereotypes, but if he’d been twenty-one, carrying a joint, and on his way to visit his white girlfriend, would we have heard anything about this? Trayvon’s being recognized not just because of how he was wronged, but because he died in… Read more »
@ f Yes! It really illustrates how double-down stupid these “stand your ground” laws with no responsibility to retreat are. If Trayvon had somehow managed to beat Zimmerman to death with his bare-hands, instead of getting in one or two “Help me! This guy has a gun!” blows, he’d be alive and evidently innocent right now in the eyes of Florida law. (I doubt he would have gotten such a luxurious benefit of the doubt and not been arrested at the scene.) It’s like Florida is trying to ressurect the concept of trial-by-combat. Talk about a Success Myth; win or… Read more »
@f: Yeah, being told what’s supposed to be on an audio recording has definitely been shown to bias what people hear. There’s a well known case study of an Australian murder, where a piece of the 911 call was contested: it’s either “I can’t breathe” or “I shot the prick”. Which alternative people hear if you play them the call depends on what you tell them before playing it. I haven’t listened to Zimmerman’s call myself, but the issue is problematic enough to hope that a trial doesn’t come down to the evidence of its contents.
Thanks, Ozy.