Isoke : Every symbol of resistance and freedom struggle gets co-opted. That is no surprise. It can even be a good thing. I even wore a black hoodie in support of Trayvon, and I never wear hoodies!
I was glad to see people of many races and economic backgrounds wearing the hoodie. I felt as if there was a part of people who recognized the injustice and the reality of race-based oppression in the United States. I saw Christians, Muslims, granola folks… everybody wearing the hoodie.
It felt good. I hope that everyone who sported the hoodie… will take that sentiment and challenge racial profiling by citizens and law enforcement alike—then translate that into sound public policy. I hope that citizens begin to call for the prosecution of police officers who abuse and kill innocent civilians… of prosecutors who railroad poor black and brown people into prison.
Charles Gallagher writes about white youth… believing that through the consumption of racialized cultural artifacts music, clothing, foods, etc. Race is understood by whites as pertaining to culture, rather than mapping onto a privilege and power hierarchy from which they directly benefit.
Why was no one smiling? Why not emphasize the youthfulness of Trayvon? America is more diverse and racially progressive than we are led to believe in the media—this is another symptom of white supremacy. Many Americans are appalled and outraged that citizens are permitted to walk around with loaded pistols waiting for something bad to happen so they can pull out their weapon and shoot someone.
Those who talk the loudest, who invoke the most fear, and who have the most money, get heard. This needs to change in our political community—and the media is clearly a vital part of this political community. Logan : The Martin case, as presented by the liberal i. It did not represent a progressive or race-critical response to contemporary racial injustice.
The activist response among non-blacks and the liberal media, in my view, was largely about righting an individual wrong. Morris : It is possible that the Trayvon Martin case will reinforce racial oppression in the United States… the typical middle-class person will conclude that we, as Americans, will not stand idly by when racial wrongs occur. The problem is that the case will be treated as a terrible anomaly that is not deeply rooted in a reality in which black life in America is worth less than white life.
He was jogging through a Georgia neighbourhood when three armed men decided to follow him in their vehicles, leading to a fatal altercation.
She pauses to dab away the tears again. She is, at least, heartened by the nationwide discussion and debate about the role of policing that has taken place. And by the change of administration. In terms of racial justice in particular, she is optimistic. Recognising the problem is the first step. Many have not acknowledged the fact that there are racial disparities in this country. They refuse to rectify the problems such as police reform, an unfair justice system, housing discrimination and mass incarceration, to name a few.
The question now is whether BLM has gone as far as it can go as a protest movement, and how to translate activism into political representation. Or Lucy McBath, whose year-old son Jordan Davis was also shot and killed in Florida, in November , following an argument over loud music. Last August, Fulton ran for Miami-Dade county commissioner, on a platform of local improvements, gun control and championing ordinary people she did not call for defunding the police.
Will she consider running again? Their work focuses on issues around gun violence, African American youth empowerment and family support. Since , for example, Fulton has hosted an annual Circle of Mothers weekend in Florida, bringing together or so mothers from across the country who have lost children or family members to gun violence.
We laugh together, we cry together, we hug together. Those mothers are going back to their communities and forming their own local circles. Fulton comes from a long line of strong women, she says. Born in Miami, she grew up with her great-grandmother, her grandmother and her mother.
They were loving, but at the same time they took care of business. They took care of the kids and they took care of their husbands. In the outcome, the trial of George Zimmerman for second-degree murder was largely stripped of many of these fundamental and searing elements. Lawyers spent three weeks appearing to tread carefully around the issues of race, the social backgrounds of the victim and defendant, and Florida's controversial gun laws.
Some of that was court ordered. Judge Debra Nelson rejected a series of pre-trial motions from both sides, excluding certain evidence or descriptions from being introduced, such as photographs showing Martin apparently smoking marijuana, or any hint that Zimmerman had racially profiled the teenager. But, overwhelmingly, the attorneys chose to make the trial legally and procedurally straightforward, relying on the evidence and conflicting statements of eyewitness and experts, especially the forensic analysis of Zimmerman's alleged injuries, to try to prove their points.
What little emotion was on display came mostly outside the witness box, such as when Martin's parents walked out during particularly graphic testimony or when Zimmerman appeared to tear up when John Donnelly, a close friend, spoke of his dedication to the community in glowing terms. That Zimmerman suspected Martin of being a criminal because he was black was never suggested in three weeks of testimony; Martin's size, weight, demeanour and attire — that now famous hooded top — were.
Likewise, the defence sought to portray Zimmerman's perceived guardianship of his gated community purely in terms of service to its residents, rather than masking any deep-seated or previously held resentment for suspicious outsiders. Observers watching the trial in a vacuum would have seen a basic to-and-fro over the physical evidence and the issues of self-defence and the right to stand your ground.
They would have been largely oblivious to the wider civil rights and social controversies surrounding it. This article is more than 8 years old. Issues of race and gun law came to the fore thanks to civil rights leaders, protests and the influence of social media.
Trayvon Martin.
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