Ever since I heard the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case there has been a heaviness weighing on me which is almost inexplicable.
I have never had an event not directly related to me or my family affect me this way. I have read the commentary, listened to the comments and the rhetoric and it was one article written by a 16 year old Jmar Reid that asked the question that hit home. Jmar asked "fight or flight" does it work for me. And for the first time in my 57 years I realized i do not feel safe. I do not feel should harm come to me or a family member or friend that justice would be served. If the jury identifies with you or the victim you may stand a chance at having justice served but if you have the misfortune of being a person of color those chances are slimmer and slimmer.
The full realization that someone could follow me or my children or my grandchildren, and decide in their own (sick) mind that we are a threat and shoot us dead in the street and it would be okay scares me. In reality they don't even have to be following me, maybe they don't feel safe because I walked into their store just before closing or, maybe it is just the two of us on the elevator or in a parking lot and they feel threatened. Right now I feel like they could shoot me and it would be okay because 6 women in the state of Florida decided that stalking and taunting or groundless fears for ones safety are grounds for a murderer to claim self defense and shoot an unarmed kid or maybe a woman or maybe an old man. Such a verdict gives free reign to those that did not carry through on their thoughts and desires to shoot first and lie later only because they feared the law or, the justice system. Six women decided that if you are the only one left standing with no clear witnesses then you can get away with murder. But I think this only works if the person left standing is white.
There are statements and assumptions and personal biases that juror B37 made and asserted in a publicized interview that make me sick to my stomach every time I hear them... White witnesses are credible, black witnesses are not. She identifies with the murderer calling him by his first name and states "his (the murder's) heart was in the right place". What the hell does that mean his heart was in the right place. The right place to do what contrive a situation that would allow him to shoot an unarmed kid. She went on to state that "he got ahead of himself" doesn't that sound like murder without malice and, isn't murder without malice the second piece of criteria needed - after a dead victim- to convict someone of manslaughter. It just makes me so angry that this juror now sums up her reasoning to be more or less, "that boy" her reference to Trayvon, is dead and nothing can bring him back so, why mess up this man's life. After all he is an upstanding white man who has only shot a black kid. And oh, they (Rachel and Trayvon's ) are products of their environment and can't help what they are. The murderer is from decent people... Mind you Trayvon's father and fiancé lived in the same neighborhood as the murderer... so what environment.
I am just so frustrated and there is so much inside of me. It irks me that at this point in time folks want to ignore the fact that racism is rampant in this country. That justice is served based on the color of your skin and not the facts of your crime. I have to ask, like Jmar Reid, what is the worth of a black boy or black man's life in this country. What is the worth of a Black Person in America...
This will be continued.
1. http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/07/19/a-16-year-old-asks-just-how-worthless-is-a-kids-life/)
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