[caseengaines]

This thread is pretty old (and dead, I'm guessing), but since this came up in a Google search I did for myself, and since I have a spare few minutes, I'll respond. Full disclosure, I haven't read all the comments on this thread, but I read the first page or so and then skimmed through the rest. I haven't the time or interest in going back and looking up usernames to respond to specific points, but I feel it somewhat important to weigh in.

First, thanks to the person who shared what I wrote (and properly attributed it, too!). I think it's important to post things for debate, and I'm glad so many thought this post important enough to reply to it.

As some of you have noted, I did write this before the Zimmerman verdict was read. I was incredibly dejected while glued to the television at the lack of worth that was shown to Trayvon Martin. As someone who works with teenagers (I'm a high school teacher in addition to being a "professional" writer -- which, by the way, I'm sure many actual professional writers would laugh at the comparison of me to them, but whatever…), I was really disturbed by the way that a black teenager and a "white Hispanic" (as some in the media called him at the time, I believe) were considered equal in the court of public option in terms of physical strength and capacity to kill, despite the fact that one was armed and was mentally prepared for a confrontation and the other was not.

I know that some of you out there have claimed I've played fast and loose with the facts, and you might think my previous sentence does also. I didn't, and that sentence doesn't. I'm not sure how carefully you all watched the trial, but I watched it pretty regularly. Again, I teach high school, so last summer I had a lot of time on my hands. The point of the post was not to relitigate the trial, but instead to talk about my perspective as a black guy who no one would ever describe as being a thug (remember, my "professional" writing career includes books on Pee-wee Herman and A Christmas Story), but often times I am viewed as a thug from strangers on the street -- much like many on this thread have jumped to conclusions as to my intent in writing this.

Perhaps instead of attacking the messenger, either me or the person who posted this, you should consider the message. What I wrote wasn't for profit or propaganda, it was simply my truth. You can disagree with it, I suppose, but it doesn't make it any less true.

What I think is funny, and what I always found funny, is that the benefit of the doubt was (is?) given to the content of George Zimmerman's character and his intentions on that evening, but Trayvon Martin, a teenager, was cast out by those same folks as a degenerate ticking time bomb. No benefit of the doubt there, just like the person who thought they had stumbled upon the great "gotcha" behind this post when a quick Google search brought up my website and bio, thus discrediting what I had written.

Thanks for the time,
Caseen Gaines