I have met george zimmerman

[angiefox10]

https://fbcdn-photos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1044638_10102793228324929_2126992060_a.jpg

"My brother is a tall, skinny, black kid with an athletic build who frequently wears a hoodie, often with his ear buds in. Sometimes he does this in a beautiful cul-de-sac community where he does not live, but my relatives in Delaware do, where all the houses look the same and there are only a few streets. All the backyards connect without fencing, and sometimes he’ll go for a walk down the street, or through the grass, sometimes at night, oblivious to who may be seeing him, wondering what he’s up to, while he's ignorantly and blissfully listening A$AP Rocky.


He is Trayvon Martin.


And as I’ve read and watched and discussed this case to anyone foolish enough to get me started on the topic, and although I, like many people, have occasionally been frustrated by the ways in which the media has characterized this case (George Zimmerman’s race, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), the witnesses (like Rachel Jeantel, who has been beaten up on by not only the conservative media, but also the black community, the Twitter citizenry, and the defense and prosecution lawyers, even when they’ve tried to show her deference), the importance of the verdict (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant) and the potential of race riots after it is delivered (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), I am almost embarrassed to admit how amazingly personal this case is to me as black man who will someday have black children.


That is because my brother is Trayvon Martin, and my future children are Trayvon Martin.


The indisputable facts of this case: George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator with a license to carry a concealed weapon, was accustomed to being on red alert after a series of burglaries by young black males who plagued his gated community. On the rainy evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw a potential perp -- a young black male with a hoodie who was talking through his ear buds to a friend on the phone -- and Zimmerman called the police as he had done half a dozen times before in the weeks before the incident.


Instead of remaining in his car, he got out and followed the teenager, even though police told him that an officer was on the way and they didn’t “need” him to do that. The teenager continued to travel away from Zimmerman, who continued after him. Eventually there was a confrontation, a fight, and the teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot by a single bullet through his heart. Zimmerman has maintained that Martin was beating him up violently against the concrete, and that the killing was in self-defense.


And, believe it or not, the fact that Zimmerman can even claim self-defense, or the fact that anyone, regardless of race, can claim self-defense in a situation even tangentially resembling this one, is the most disturbing and terrifying aspect to me.


Defenders of George Zimmerman say, he had a reasonable reason to identify and suspect Trayvon Martin considering the recent burglaries. Getting out of his car wasn’t illegal, nor was ignoring the suggestion of the police dispatcher! Certainly nothing is wrong with asking someone, “What are you doing around here?,” and if, at any given moment, he had a reasonable fear for his life, then he had a legal right and responsibility to protect himself.


I have walked into restaurants and rest stop bathrooms where I have instantly been aware of my blackness, only because everyone else around me is. I have walked into places where people have literally whispered and pointed, without even the slightest bit of shame or covertness, to their companions at me, the lone black person in the establishment. I have had relationships dissolve because of parents who were “concerned” about what people might say about the black guy.


Me. The Old Navy cargo shorts and silly t-shirt rocking, flip-flops all day, every day, during the summer wearing, me. On the Cosby scale, I’m about six shades darker than Lisa Bonet and six shades lighter than Malcolm Jamal Warner. I’m Mr. I-wrote-a-book-on-Pee-wee-Herman-and-frequently-listen-to-the-Spice-Girls-and-the-only-hoodies-I-own-advertise-either-the-college-I-attended-or-the-musical-theater-show-I’m-directing-at-my-full-time-job.


But, you see, I’m Trayvon Martin. And if you’re a black male, regardless of your age, your height, your weight, how dark your skin is, what you’re wearing, and what you’re listening to on the device in your pocket, someone somewhere is seeing you as Trayvon Martin.


Even if you’re carrying a package of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, just trying to continue your phone call and get to your father’s house to watch the NBA All-Star game with your little half-brother, you are Trayvon Martin.


And nice people who know me personally, hopefully, will shake their heads in confusion at this and will say, “Well, that isn’t fair! If they only knew you, no one would ever be afraid of you.” And, of course, that’s the point and the problem. Because if I can cause someone to feel nervous, concerned, or uncomfortable while they’re eating in a restaurant, then it doesn’t require a leap of faith to understand why George Zimmerman assumed that the teenager walking around his neighborhood was a threat.


But what I think is equally disturbing is that I can understand, and by extension, at least to some extent, accept the decision of George Zimmerman to notice Trayvon Martin and make that 911 call in the first place.


When I walk into a convenience store late at night, especially if I’m the only person there besides the employee, I’m amazingly aware of how my presence might make him or her feel uncomfortable. I consciously try to smile and look pleasant. Sometimes I even go so far as to have my debit card in my hand before I reach the counter so I don’t have to reach in my pocket and run the risk of causing any alarms – literal or figurative. When stopped by a cop (which, especially when I was a teenager, would happen all the time), I sat patiently with my hands on the wheel, and gave clear and non-threatening verbal warnings before I made any movements.


“My registration is in my glove compartment,” I’d say. “I’m going to take off my seat belt, open my glove compartment, and go get it for you, sir.”


One time on the New Jersey Turnpike, as I was driving back to college, a state trooper and his partner stopped me for speeding. After I gave the verbal warning and got the okay, I reached into my glove compartment.


“Rolling papers?” he asked.


“What?”


“Are those rolling papers?” There were about five super-flat packets of Stride gum in the back of my glove compartment.


I pulled them out and put them in the trooper’s hand, which he inspected with his partner as if the two of them had never seen a pack of gum before, and I was let off with a warning and sent on my way.


And as I drove away, I took those packets of gum and threw them in my book bag. How stupid, I immediately thought, for keeping them in there. I should have known they looked like rolling papers.


It wasn’t until I got back to my dorm room that I was amazed that in that encounter, I somehow felt guilty, like I had done something wrong for having gum in my car. There are people who will argue that if only Trayvon Martin had declined to hit George Zimmerman after he was a) hit first, or b) approached, or c) followed, depending on which version of the story you believe, or if Trayvon hadn’t been wearing that hoodie, despite the adverse weather conditions, he’d still be alive. Sure, he wasn’t guilty of anything really, but he could have made life easier for himself by maybe not acting or looking so, I don’t know, bla—intimidating?


This is a significant part of the underlying concern a lot of people, particularly black people, have with this case. It isn’t enough that Trayvon Martin was killed with nothing more than a cell phone, a photo button, a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and a package of Skittles on him, but then insult is added to injury when it’s insinuated that he somehow, inherently, deserved it for walking-while-black in a gated community that happened to have previously been plagued by black criminals. Somehow, for a lot of people, it wasn’t George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon ended up killed because, as we “all know,” Trayvon was sort of asking for it.


You put on a hoodie and you know what baggage comes with that, right?


This case will, frighteningly, come down to whether or not the six jurors believe that George Zimmerman was justified in his fear. Another way of asking that is, of course, whether or not those six jurors, if placed in the same situation, could imagine themselves reasonably drawing and acting upon those same assumptions.


Is it impossible to imagine that? Of course not. But that’s precisely the problem.


Because as I think about what certainly occurred that evening, and what likely did, even if I give every single concession to George Zimmerman’s contested version of events (ie: Trayvon hit him first, Trayvon pushed Zimmerman to the ground, Trayvon beat him up, Trayvon saw the gun –- which is amazingly unlikely in the blackness of the night with the weapon concealed, but let’s just say that happened), I can’t help but think to myself:


Good. Good for you, Trayvon Martin, for doing what I would hope to God my brother would do if he was walking down the street with a package of Skittles and was followed and confronted by a man with a decade of life and 70 pounds over him.


Because what people don’t understand about this unfortunate situation is that I feel some degree of fear when I’m doing nothing wrong, like in the restaurant, rest stop, and convenience store, and my very presence causes someone to feel afraid.


And if you aren’t safe with a package of Skittles, walking around your family’s cul-de-sac in Delaware, wearing your Old Navy flip-flops, then when are you ever safe? If you find yourself approached by some stranger, why can’t you run from them without it being assumed that you’re fleeing the scene of some crime you’re destined to commit? If you’re a teenager and confronted by an adult you perceive to be creepy, why can’t you fight for your life? Stand your ground?


And why, if you get killed after all of that, would people say it must have been your fault?


A lot of people don’t understand that. They think black people see race in everything and Al Sharpton should have just minded his business. Trayvon Martin was a hood and George Zimmerman did what any responsible person would have done. Justice was already served, they say, and a verdict finding Zimmerman guilty of anything would some sort of de facto reparations –- an example of white guilt and a bone thrown to the civil rights movement.


And that’s only because they haven’t walked a mile from a 7-11 back home in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, like so many other people have.


As University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb wrote, “We live in an era in which the protocol for addressing even the most severely bigoted behavior very often includes a conditional apology to the offender—a declaration that he has made a terrible error, but is, of course, in no way racist—and, eventually, an outpouring of support for the fallible transgressor, victim of the media and the ‘race-hustlers.’ We grade racism on the severest of curves, and virtually no one qualifies.”


That’s true, which is why I think questions of George Zimmerman’s racial views are irrelevant. Labeling anyone a racist is a futile argument, especially since it amounts to nothing. I have never seen someone effectively convinced that a person is a racist. It’s a judgment that’s impossible to be talked into or out of.


But I offer this. Just a few hours ago, Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who I believe has genuinely been a relatively reasonable person throughout this trial, took to CNN to give his first interview since the two sides rested their cases. He was asked by the anchor what he thinks George Zimmerman’s life will be like if he’s acquitted.


O’Mara, with a stone face and look of genuine disappointment in the truth embedded in his answer, said that Zimmerman will never be safe. He’ll always live his life in fear. He will never know when a “crazy person” (his words) will kill him.


“Everyone knows what George Zimmerman looks like,” O’Mara said. “He doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like.”


And this was said without even the slightest hint of irony. The irony jumped out of my television, into my living room, pointed at me, and laughed in my face. And I called it “sir,” and I apologized for even noticing it in the first place. And it shot me in my heart and made me come to my computer and confess my truth -- that I have met George Zimmerman.


Zimmerman doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like, but everyone knows what he looks like?


Which, of course, is fundamentally different than George Zimmerman knowing what “they,” – those many, many Trayvon Martins out there – look like."


Caseen Gaines


https://www.facebook.com/notes/case-gaines/i-have-met-george-zimmerman/10151681580949484

[zonerboy]

Great post! Interesting perspective. Makes a person think. (which is not such a bad idea in these days of "bumper sticker" mentalities)

[gomoho]

My reply to this person is as follows - I wish he had the opportunity to respond back.

I am truly sorry for your pain but have to ask you (as a 63 year old white female) if when I look at the statistics and see that young black man wearing hoodies and their pants hanging off their butts are killing each other and committing crimes why I would not be suspicious? When I see young white males taking on this gansta persona I am just as suspicious. It is the image they are trying to portray that brings the suspicion - not the color of their skin. Why isn't all this animosity and hate Sharpton and Jackson are spewing being directed to help these young black men instead of making the racial divide even greater?

There was a recent Pugh poll done that revealed blacks believed themselves to be more racially prejudice than white people. When Janelle said under oath that she didn't believe "creepy ass cracker" was offensive she said no. Trayvon called Zimmerman a "******" and that was okay. If this is how young people are thinking doesn't that lead to them believing they are being profiled, when in fact they are doing the profiling?

This is an extremely difficult topic and I hope I don't appear as insensitive to what you are saying. My daughter has recently married a black man and I am grateful they will not feel the prejudice couples from my generation suffered, but I also know they will face battles I probably can't even imagine. But as long as we allow race baiters to benefit from what they do it will never heal. We need honest dialogue not hateful rhetoric.

[Happydaz]

Vigilante justice is often suspect. The fact that Zimmerman did not follow the police instructions to not get out of his car and follow the person he saw was not a good thing.

I can only imagine what it is like to be a black man in America. You would have to be aware of how certain actions you might take at times could be misconstrued. Things are certainly much better today than they used to be, but that doesn't mean everything is perfect now. The whole situation is sad. An unarmed young man is dead and another young man had to go through a criminal trial. Zimmerman felt he was doing the right thing, but getting out of his car and following Martin was not a good move. We do live in a great country. Where else can you have these discussions? We are not perfect, but most of us try to do our best. I love the USA and I believe we will continue to become a better place to live.

[Avista]

https://fbcdn-photos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1044638_10102793228324929_2126992060_a.jpg

"My brother is a tall, skinny, black kid with an athletic build who frequently wears a hoodie, often with his ear buds in. Sometimes he does this in a beautiful cul-de-sac community where he does not live, but my relatives in Delaware do, where all the houses look the same and there are only a few streets. All the backyards connect without fencing, and sometimes he’ll go for a walk down the street, or through the grass, sometimes at night, oblivious to who may be seeing him, wondering what he’s up to, while he's ignorantly and blissfully listening A$AP Rocky.


He is Trayvon Martin.


And as I’ve read and watched and discussed this case to anyone foolish enough to get me started on the topic, and although I, like many people, have occasionally been frustrated by the ways in which the media has characterized this case (George Zimmerman’s race, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), the witnesses (like Rachel Jeantel, who has been beaten up on by not only the conservative media, but also the black community, the Twitter citizenry, and the defense and prosecution lawyers, even when they’ve tried to show her deference), the importance of the verdict (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant) and the potential of race riots after it is delivered (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), I am almost embarrassed to admit how amazingly personal this case is to me as black man who will someday have black children.


That is because my brother is Trayvon Martin, and my future children are Trayvon Martin.


The indisputable facts of this case: George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator with a license to carry a concealed weapon, was accustomed to being on red alert after a series of burglaries by young black males who plagued his gated community. On the rainy evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw a potential perp -- a young black male with a hoodie who was talking through his ear buds to a friend on the phone -- and Zimmerman called the police as he had done half a dozen times before in the weeks before the incident.


Instead of remaining in his car, he got out and followed the teenager, even though police told him that an officer was on the way and they didn’t “need” him to do that. The teenager continued to travel away from Zimmerman, who continued after him. Eventually there was a confrontation, a fight, and the teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot by a single bullet through his heart. Zimmerman has maintained that Martin was beating him up violently against the concrete, and that the killing was in self-defense.


And, believe it or not, the fact that Zimmerman can even claim self-defense, or the fact that anyone, regardless of race, can claim self-defense in a situation even tangentially resembling this one, is the most disturbing and terrifying aspect to me.


Defenders of George Zimmerman say, he had a reasonable reason to identify and suspect Trayvon Martin considering the recent burglaries. Getting out of his car wasn’t illegal, nor was ignoring the suggestion of the police dispatcher! Certainly nothing is wrong with asking someone, “What are you doing around here?,” and if, at any given moment, he had a reasonable fear for his life, then he had a legal right and responsibility to protect himself.


I have walked into restaurants and rest stop bathrooms where I have instantly been aware of my blackness, only because everyone else around me is. I have walked into places where people have literally whispered and pointed, without even the slightest bit of shame or covertness, to their companions at me, the lone black person in the establishment. I have had relationships dissolve because of parents who were “concerned” about what people might say about the black guy.


Me. The Old Navy cargo shorts and silly t-shirt rocking, flip-flops all day, every day, during the summer wearing, me. On the Cosby scale, I’m about six shades darker than Lisa Bonet and six shades lighter than Malcolm Jamal Warner. I’m Mr. I-wrote-a-book-on-Pee-wee-Herman-and-frequently-listen-to-the-Spice-Girls-and-the-only-hoodies-I-own-advertise-either-the-college-I-attended-or-the-musical-theater-show-I’m-directing-at-my-full-time-job.


But, you see, I’m Trayvon Martin. And if you’re a black male, regardless of your age, your height, your weight, how dark your skin is, what you’re wearing, and what you’re listening to on the device in your pocket, someone somewhere is seeing you as Trayvon Martin.


Even if you’re carrying a package of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, just trying to continue your phone call and get to your father’s house to watch the NBA All-Star game with your little half-brother, you are Trayvon Martin.


And nice people who know me personally, hopefully, will shake their heads in confusion at this and will say, “Well, that isn’t fair! If they only knew you, no one would ever be afraid of you.” And, of course, that’s the point and the problem. Because if I can cause someone to feel nervous, concerned, or uncomfortable while they’re eating in a restaurant, then it doesn’t require a leap of faith to understand why George Zimmerman assumed that the teenager walking around his neighborhood was a threat.


But what I think is equally disturbing is that I can understand, and by extension, at least to some extent, accept the decision of George Zimmerman to notice Trayvon Martin and make that 911 call in the first place.


When I walk into a convenience store late at night, especially if I’m the only person there besides the employee, I’m amazingly aware of how my presence might make him or her feel uncomfortable. I consciously try to smile and look pleasant. Sometimes I even go so far as to have my debit card in my hand before I reach the counter so I don’t have to reach in my pocket and run the risk of causing any alarms – literal or figurative. When stopped by a cop (which, especially when I was a teenager, would happen all the time), I sat patiently with my hands on the wheel, and gave clear and non-threatening verbal warnings before I made any movements.


“My registration is in my glove compartment,” I’d say. “I’m going to take off my seat belt, open my glove compartment, and go get it for you, sir.”


One time on the New Jersey Turnpike, as I was driving back to college, a state trooper and his partner stopped me for speeding. After I gave the verbal warning and got the okay, I reached into my glove compartment.


“Rolling papers?” he asked.


“What?”


“Are those rolling papers?” There were about five super-flat packets of Stride gum in the back of my glove compartment.


I pulled them out and put them in the trooper’s hand, which he inspected with his partner as if the two of them had never seen a pack of gum before, and I was let off with a warning and sent on my way.


And as I drove away, I took those packets of gum and threw them in my book bag. How stupid, I immediately thought, for keeping them in there. I should have known they looked like rolling papers.


It wasn’t until I got back to my dorm room that I was amazed that in that encounter, I somehow felt guilty, like I had done something wrong for having gum in my car. There are people who will argue that if only Trayvon Martin had declined to hit George Zimmerman after he was a) hit first, or b) approached, or c) followed, depending on which version of the story you believe, or if Trayvon hadn’t been wearing that hoodie, despite the adverse weather conditions, he’d still be alive. Sure, he wasn’t guilty of anything really, but he could have made life easier for himself by maybe not acting or looking so, I don’t know, bla—intimidating?


This is a significant part of the underlying concern a lot of people, particularly black people, have with this case. It isn’t enough that Trayvon Martin was killed with nothing more than a cell phone, a photo button, a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and a package of Skittles on him, but then insult is added to injury when it’s insinuated that he somehow, inherently, deserved it for walking-while-black in a gated community that happened to have previously been plagued by black criminals. Somehow, for a lot of people, it wasn’t George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon ended up killed because, as we “all know,” Trayvon was sort of asking for it.


You put on a hoodie and you know what baggage comes with that, right?


This case will, frighteningly, come down to whether or not the six jurors believe that George Zimmerman was justified in his fear. Another way of asking that is, of course, whether or not those six jurors, if placed in the same situation, could imagine themselves reasonably drawing and acting upon those same assumptions.


Is it impossible to imagine that? Of course not. But that’s precisely the problem.


Because as I think about what certainly occurred that evening, and what likely did, even if I give every single concession to George Zimmerman’s contested version of events (ie: Trayvon hit him first, Trayvon pushed Zimmerman to the ground, Trayvon beat him up, Trayvon saw the gun –- which is amazingly unlikely in the blackness of the night with the weapon concealed, but let’s just say that happened), I can’t help but think to myself:


Good. Good for you, Trayvon Martin, for doing what I would hope to God my brother would do if he was walking down the street with a package of Skittles and was followed and confronted by a man with a decade of life and 70 pounds over him.


Because what people don’t understand about this unfortunate situation is that I feel some degree of fear when I’m doing nothing wrong, like in the restaurant, rest stop, and convenience store, and my very presence causes someone to feel afraid.


And if you aren’t safe with a package of Skittles, walking around your family’s cul-de-sac in Delaware, wearing your Old Navy flip-flops, then when are you ever safe? If you find yourself approached by some stranger, why can’t you run from them without it being assumed that you’re fleeing the scene of some crime you’re destined to commit? If you’re a teenager and confronted by an adult you perceive to be creepy, why can’t you fight for your life? Stand your ground?


And why, if you get killed after all of that, would people say it must have been your fault?


A lot of people don’t understand that. They think black people see race in everything and Al Sharpton should have just minded his business. Trayvon Martin was a hood and George Zimmerman did what any responsible person would have done. Justice was already served, they say, and a verdict finding Zimmerman guilty of anything would some sort of de facto reparations –- an example of white guilt and a bone thrown to the civil rights movement.


And that’s only because they haven’t walked a mile from a 7-11 back home in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, like so many other people have.


As University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb wrote, “We live in an era in which the protocol for addressing even the most severely bigoted behavior very often includes a conditional apology to the offender—a declaration that he has made a terrible error, but is, of course, in no way racist—and, eventually, an outpouring of support for the fallible transgressor, victim of the media and the ‘race-hustlers.’ We grade racism on the severest of curves, and virtually no one qualifies.”


That’s true, which is why I think questions of George Zimmerman’s racial views are irrelevant. Labeling anyone a racist is a futile argument, especially since it amounts to nothing. I have never seen someone effectively convinced that a person is a racist. It’s a judgment that’s impossible to be talked into or out of.


But I offer this. Just a few hours ago, Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who I believe has genuinely been a relatively reasonable person throughout this trial, took to CNN to give his first interview since the two sides rested their cases. He was asked by the anchor what he thinks George Zimmerman’s life will be like if he’s acquitted.


O’Mara, with a stone face and look of genuine disappointment in the truth embedded in his answer, said that Zimmerman will never be safe. He’ll always live his life in fear. He will never know when a “crazy person” (his words) will kill him.


“Everyone knows what George Zimmerman looks like,” O’Mara said. “He doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like.”


And this was said without even the slightest hint of irony. The irony jumped out of my television, into my living room, pointed at me, and laughed in my face. And I called it “sir,” and I apologized for even noticing it in the first place. And it shot me in my heart and made me come to my computer and confess my truth -- that I have met George Zimmerman.


Zimmerman doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like, but everyone knows what he looks like?


Which, of course, is fundamentally different than George Zimmerman knowing what “they,” – those many, many Trayvon Martins out there – look like."


Caseen Gaines


https://www.facebook.com/notes/case-gaines/i-have-met-george-zimmerman/10151681580949484

Thanks for posting!

[Warren Kiefer]

[
"My brother is a tall, skinny, black kid with an athletic build who frequently wears a hoodie, often with his ear buds in. Sometimes he does this in a beautiful cul-de-sac community where he does not live, but my relatives in Delaware do, where all the houses look the same and there are only a few streets. All the backyards connect without fencing, and sometimes he’ll go for a walk down the street, or through the grass, sometimes at night, oblivious to who may be seeing him, wondering what he’s up to, while he's ignorantly and blissfully listening A$AP Rocky.


He is Trayvon Martin.


And as I’ve read and watched and discussed this case to anyone foolish enough to get me started on the topic, and although I, like many people, have occasionally been frustrated by the ways in which the media has characterized this case (George Zimmerman’s race, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), the witnesses (like Rachel Jeantel, who has been beaten up on by not only the conservative media, but also the black community, the Twitter citizenry, and the defense and prosecution lawyers, even when they’ve tried to show her deference), the importance of the verdict (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant) and the potential of race riots after it is delivered (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), I am almost embarrassed to admit how amazingly personal this case is to me as black man who will someday have black children.


That is because my brother is Trayvon Martin, and my future children are Trayvon Martin.


The indisputable facts of this case: George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator with a license to carry a concealed weapon, was accustomed to being on red alert after a series of burglaries by young black males who plagued his gated community. On the rainy evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw a potential perp -- a young black male with a hoodie who was talking through his ear buds to a friend on the phone -- and Zimmerman called the police as he had done half a dozen times before in the weeks before the incident.


Instead of remaining in his car, he got out and followed the teenager, even though police told him that an officer was on the way and they didn’t “need” him to do that. The teenager continued to travel away from Zimmerman, who continued after him. Eventually there was a confrontation, a fight, and the teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot by a single bullet through his heart. Zimmerman has maintained that Martin was beating him up violently against the concrete, and that the killing was in self-defense.


And, believe it or not, the fact that Zimmerman can even claim self-defense, or the fact that anyone, regardless of race, can claim self-defense in a situation even tangentially resembling this one, is the most disturbing and terrifying aspect to me.


Defenders of George Zimmerman say, he had a reasonable reason to identify and suspect Trayvon Martin considering the recent burglaries. Getting out of his car wasn’t illegal, nor was ignoring the suggestion of the police dispatcher! Certainly nothing is wrong with asking someone, “What are you doing around here?,” and if, at any given moment, he had a reasonable fear for his life, then he had a legal right and responsibility to protect himself.


I have walked into restaurants and rest stop bathrooms where I have instantly been aware of my blackness, only because everyone else around me is. I have walked into places where people have literally whispered and pointed, without even the slightest bit of shame or covertness, to their companions at me, the lone black person in the establishment. I have had relationships dissolve because of parents who were “concerned” about what people might say about the black guy.


Me. The Old Navy cargo shorts and silly t-shirt rocking, flip-flops all day, every day, during the summer wearing, me. On the Cosby scale, I’m about six shades darker than Lisa Bonet and six shades lighter than Malcolm Jamal Warner. I’m Mr. I-wrote-a-book-on-Pee-wee-Herman-and-frequently-listen-to-the-Spice-Girls-and-the-only-hoodies-I-own-advertise-either-the-college-I-attended-or-the-musical-theater-show-I’m-directing-at-my-full-time-job.


But, you see, I’m Trayvon Martin. And if you’re a black male, regardless of your age, your height, your weight, how dark your skin is, what you’re wearing, and what you’re listening to on the device in your pocket, someone somewhere is seeing you as Trayvon Martin.


Even if you’re carrying a package of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, just trying to continue your phone call and get to your father’s house to watch the NBA All-Star game with your little half-brother, you are Trayvon Martin.


And nice people who know me personally, hopefully, will shake their heads in confusion at this and will say, “Well, that isn’t fair! If they only knew you, no one would ever be afraid of you.” And, of course, that’s the point and the problem. Because if I can cause someone to feel nervous, concerned, or uncomfortable while they’re eating in a restaurant, then it doesn’t require a leap of faith to understand why George Zimmerman assumed that the teenager walking around his neighborhood was a threat.


But what I think is equally disturbing is that I can understand, and by extension, at least to some extent, accept the decision of George Zimmerman to notice Trayvon Martin and make that 911 call in the first place.


When I walk into a convenience store late at night, especially if I’m the only person there besides the employee, I’m amazingly aware of how my presence might make him or her feel uncomfortable. I consciously try to smile and look pleasant. Sometimes I even go so far as to have my debit card in my hand before I reach the counter so I don’t have to reach in my pocket and run the risk of causing any alarms – literal or figurative. When stopped by a cop (which, especially when I was a teenager, would happen all the time), I sat patiently with my hands on the wheel, and gave clear and non-threatening verbal warnings before I made any movements.


“My registration is in my glove compartment,” I’d say. “I’m going to take off my seat belt, open my glove compartment, and go get it for you, sir.”


One time on the New Jersey Turnpike, as I was driving back to college, a state trooper and his partner stopped me for speeding. After I gave the verbal warning and got the okay, I reached into my glove compartment.


“Rolling papers?” he asked.


“What?”


“Are those rolling papers?” There were about five super-flat packets of Stride gum in the back of my glove compartment.


I pulled them out and put them in the trooper’s hand, which he inspected with his partner as if the two of them had never seen a pack of gum before, and I was let off with a warning and sent on my way.


It wasn’t until I got back to my dorm room that I was amazed that in that encounter, I somehow felt guilty, like I had done something wrong for having gum in my car. There are people who will argue that if only Trayvon Martin had declined to hit George Zimmerman after he was a) hit first, or b) approached, or c) followed, depending on which version of the story you believe, or if Trayvon hadn’t been wearing that hoodie, despite the adverse weather conditions, he’d still be alive. Sure, he wasn’t guilty of anything really, but he could have made life easier for himself by maybe not acting or looking so, I don’t know, bla—intimidating?


This is a significant part of the underlying concern a lot of people, particularly black people, have with this case. It isn’t enough that Trayvon Martin was killed with nothing more than a cell phone, a photo button, a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and a package of Skittles on him, but then insult is added to injury when it’s insinuated that he somehow, inherently, deserved it for walking-while-black in a gated community that happened to have previously been plagued by black criminals. Somehow, for a lot of people, it wasn’t George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon ended up killed because, as we “all know,” Trayvon was sort of asking for it.


You put on a hoodie and you know what baggage comes with that, right?


This case will, frighteningly, come down to whether or not the six jurors believe that George Zimmerman was justified in his fear. Another way of asking that is, of course, whether or not those six jurors, if placed in the same situation, could imagine themselves reasonably drawing and acting upon those same assumptions.


Is it impossible to imagine that? Of course not. But that’s precisely the problem.


Because as I think about what certainly occurred that evening, and what likely did, even if I give every single concession to George Zimmerman’s contested version of events (ie: Trayvon hit him first, Trayvon pushed Zimmerman to the ground, Trayvon beat him up, Trayvon saw the gun –- which is amazingly unlikely in the blackness of the night with the weapon concealed, but let’s just say that happened), I can’t help but think to myself:


Good. Good for you, Trayvon Martin, for doing what I would hope to God my brother would do if he was walking down the street with a package of Skittles and was followed and confronted by a man with a decade of life and 70 pounds over him.


Because what people don’t understand about this unfortunate situation is that I feel some degree of fear when I’m doing nothing wrong, like in the restaurant, rest stop, and convenience store, and my very presence causes someone to feel afraid.


And if you aren’t safe with a package of Skittles, walking around your family’s cul-de-sac in Delaware, wearing your Old Navy flip-flops, then when are you ever safe? If you find yourself approached by some stranger, why can’t you run from them without it being assumed that you’re fleeing the scene of some crime you’re destined to commit? If you’re a teenager and confronted by an adult you perceive to be creepy, why can’t you fight for your life? Stand your ground?


And why, if you get killed after all of that, would people say it must have been your fault?


A lot of people don’t understand that. They think black people see race in everything and Al Sharpton should have just minded his business. Trayvon Martin was a hood and George Zimmerman did what any responsible person would have done. Justice was already served, they say, and a verdict finding Zimmerman guilty of anything would some sort of de facto reparations –- an example of white guilt and a bone thrown to the civil rights movement.


And that’s only because they haven’t walked a mile from a 7-11 back home in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, like so many other people have.


As University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb wrote, “We live in an era in which the protocol for addressing even the most severely bigoted behavior very often includes a conditional apology to the offender—a declaration that he has made a terrible error, but is, of course, in no way racist—and, eventually, an outpouring of support for the fallible transgressor, victim of the media and the ‘race-hustlers.’ We grade racism on the severest of curves, and virtually no one qualifies.”


That’s true, which is why I think questions of George Zimmerman’s racial views are irrelevant. Labeling anyone a racist is a futile argument, especially since it amounts to nothing. I have never seen someone effectively convinced that a person is a racist. It’s a judgment that’s impossible to be talked into or out of.


But I offer this. Just a few hours ago, Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who I believe has genuinely been a relatively reasonable person throughout this trial, took to CNN to give his first interview since the two sides rested their cases. He was asked by the anchor what he thinks George Zimmerman’s life will be like if he’s acquitted.


O’Mara, with a stone face and look of genuine disappointment in the truth embedded in his answer, said that Zimmerman will never be safe. He’ll always live his life in fear. He will never know when a “crazy person” (his words) will kill him.


“Everyone knows what George Zimmerman looks like,” O’Mara said. “He doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like.”


And this was said without even the slightest hint of irony. The irony jumped out of my television, into my living room, pointed at me, and laughed in my face. And I called it “sir,” and I apologized for even noticing it in the first place. And it shot me in my heart and made me come to my computer and confess my truth -- that I have met George Zimmerman.


Zimmerman doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like, but everyone knows what he looks like?


Which, of course, is fundamentally different than George Zimmerman knowing what “they,” – those many, many Trayvon Martins out there – look like."


Caseen Gaines


https://www.facebook.com/notes/case-gaines/i-have-met-george-zimmerman/10151681580949484[/QUOTE]

Your article is well written and gives us some thoughts to ponder, BUT, you as others have done, state as facts things you nor anyone else knows. I was not there, you were not there, you only have "your" ideas about what Trayvon Or Zimmerman did or did not do. How can you be absolutely sure Trayvon did not attack Zimmerman, I was not there , you were not there. I, like you, have thoughts that Zimmerman could have easily prevented the entire tragedy and made some serious choices, but these are only my thoughts. You see, I was not there.

[MikeV]

The fact and the law is even if you are the instigator in an altercation once the other party as innocent as can be starts to threaten your life or great bodily harm to you or others you have the right to use deadly force. So while we can feel bad for TM and/or GZ none of that matters. No matter if GZ did not follow the instructions or the 911 operator. Once your life is in danger no matter who starts it you can protect yourself.

While I sympathize with your post it is emotional and has no place in law.

[Bucco]

This was very well written, perhaps professionally, which if so...well, anyway

Despite being well written, it is devoid of any pertinent facts relating to the case, it is yet another attempt to make the issue more emotionally charged and all about race.

I would offer, if I had the same writing ability as this professional has, advice I heard as a youngster growing up in a neighborhood dominated by African Americans ...but.....nobody wants to hear about "stop blaming everyone else" or looking inward.

By the way..

The writer of this..Caseen Gaines


"He has won awards for essays on Flip Wilson’s contributions to television and racial representation in the Planet of the Apes film series. He has been published in The Obama Movement: Why Barack Obama Speaks to America’s Youth, an anthology of essays compiled by Joseph Vogel.

Gaines' first book, Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Pop Phenomenon, will be published this September by ECW Press.

As co-founder and co-artistic director of Hackensack Theatre Company,
Gaines has directed critically acclaimed productions of The Rocky Horror Show,
Dreamgirls, Cabaret, and Rent.

Hackensack Theatre Company's performances have played to thousands in New York metropolitan area and raised thousands of dollars for various charities
including Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and Shelter-Our-Sisters.

He recently had a featured appearance in Load-Lock-Love and Nicky Newark, two independent films produced by Feenix Films.

He holds a B.A. in American Studies, Journalism and Media Studies, and English from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a Master’s in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark.

Gaines can most frequently be seen in the classroom where he teaches high school English."

http://www.caseengaines.com/

[DougB]

I believe not all are getting the point of the post

[Bucco]

I believe not all are getting the point of the post

I understood BETTER than you know, but wanted everyone to know this was PROFESSIONALLY DONE by someone who makes his LIVING touching people with his writing, that is important to understand. Passing it off as something else is wrong.

I said it was well written and it is...has not much to do with this case at all except for playing on it.

Listen I UNDERSTAND. I GET THE POINT I know exactly what is going on.

There are those of black skin who UNDERSTAND and have other viewpoints but they cannot get on the stage.

[ilovetv]

One "small" factor being ignored. A court of law deals with facts not drama.

Nobody knows what either the victim or the shooter were thinking and saying while not on the phone. Nobody knows what was said that the phone did not pick up.

And in the end, it was a self-defense case and the jury was convinced that there was reasonable doubt as to his guilt of the charges.

This nation is in deep trouble if everyone is going to spin prosecutions, trials, convictions and sentencing thru a filter of hack television drama presented by the most biased and politically-motivated "news" networks ever seen in this country.

Enough with the drama already!!

[DougB]

I understood BETTER than you know, but wanted everyone to know this was PROFESSIONALLY DONE by someone who makes his LIVING touching people with his writing, that is important to understand. Passing it off as something else is wrong.

I said it was well written and it is...has not much to do with this case at all except for playing on it.

Listen I UNDERSTAND. I GET THE POINT I know exactly what is going on.

There are those of black skin who UNDERSTAND and have other viewpoints but they cannot get on the stage.

Didn't even read your post until after

[Patty55]

Back in the late 1960's my father was robbed at gunpoint by a 13 year-old "child". After giving the "child" his money he was told to turn around, face the wall and the child smacked him across the back of his head with the gun knocking him out. My father layed on the floor unconscious for hours, the police caught the child immediately because he was stupid enough to drop his ID bracelet. They treated the child with leniency because he might grow to be a pillar of society.

The child, sadly, never became a pillar, instead he became a rapist. Before he was 18 he went on stealing and raped a toddler.

We got a gun (prior to that we had a baseball bat) and were taught how to use it. We were taught you might only have one shot, make it count. We were taught to keep it loaded because you won't have time to fiddle with loading it. That gun never shot anyone.

For a while in the late 70's early 80's I worked at the Probation Dept. The "child" was one of our best customers, his offenses read like a road map.

Unlike the narrative posted by the OP, mine is true.

[TrudyM]

The point of the article as I read it is not if Zimmerman is guilty (and he was found not guilty after it was written) it is how a segment of society is afraid all the time that someone will feel threatened and act against them and as they can not change the color of their skin they can't do anything to keep people from being afraid of them.

I understand the fear, have experienced it myself from both sides. When driving through Utah a couple of guys in a pickup with rifles on a rack asked us what we were doing in their town when we stopped at a café for a sandwich, they then followed us for 50 miles after we left and only turned around when we hit the state line. That was the scariest 50 miles of my life.

I have also crossed the street to avoid walking past a group of young males (black or white) hanging out as it made me uneasy. The point being I crossed the street I didn't follow them down it with a gun. When we as a society allow people to act with violence out of fear not in their own home or vehicle but on a public street we are in trouble. Cops we hope at least have some training.
I don't think the jury found him innocent they found him not guilty under the law big difference.
It is the justification that one has the right to accost anyone at any time because they don't look right that my family uses as a reason for us to move back to Hawaii instead of FLA as they are convinced it isn't safe in Florida.
By the way My husband isn't black he is Hawaiian born Japanese so doesn't get the same reaction as a black man if he was black I would never even consider living in the south, or any state with a stand your ground law and such easy gun laws.

[Bucco]

The point of the article as I read it is not if Zimmerman is guilty (and he was found not guilty after it was written) it is how a segment of society is afraid all the time that someone will feel threatened and act against them and as they can not change the color of their skin they can't do anything to keep people from being afraid of them.

I understand the fear, have experienced it myself from both sides. When driving through Utah a couple of guys in a pickup with rifles on a rack asked us what we were doing in their town when we stopped at a café for a sandwich, they then followed us for 50 miles after we left and only turned around when we hit the state line. That was the scariest 50 miles of my life.

I have also crossed the street to avoid walking past a group of young males (black or white) hanging out as it made me uneasy. The point being I crossed the street I didn't follow them down it with a gun. When we as a society allow people to act with violence out of fear not in their own home or vehicle but on a public street we are in trouble. Cops we hope at least have some training.
I don't think the jury found him innocent they found him not guilty under the law big difference.
It is the justification that one has the right to accost anyone at any time because they don't look right that my family uses as a reason for us to move back to Hawaii instead of FLA as they are convinced it isn't safe in Florida.
By the way My husband isn't black he is Hawaiian born Japanese so doesn't get the same reaction as a black man if he was black I would never even consider living in the south, or any state with a stand your ground law and such easy gun laws.

I cannot speak for anyone but me, but as I said before I GOT THE POINT OF A PROFESSIONALLY PENNED ARTICLE.

Anyone on here can cut and paste an article to show some bias for something.

We all know about bias....ALL OF US.....you do not think I am getting the point...I got it....I do not think you or the OP are getting the point and that is where the rub is.

Yes. the kind of stereo typing you mention takes place and always has in this country as folks came over to begin new lifes. Those who did well did not, blame anyone else they had to overcome it and did it WITHIN whatever group they were a part of.

Being black is tough....absolutely no doubt about it...I have seen it and witnessed it first hand. Problem is those who have the stage now are all about blame....those who have other ideas about growing within are drowned out and thus the divide gets bigger and the hate grows.

This overcoming is not about someone else doing it for you...it is about doing it yourself and getting help as a result of that. Allowing the Black Panthers to speak for you, or Sharpton to make political hay on this is not going to do one single thing except keep the black population dependent on these folks...and trust me, they are dependent on the Sharptons and Jackson's of this world.

I am not angry that you think that "we" (whomever that might be) do not understand, but frankly am getting a bit sick of hearing it. I "get it" and most folks I know "get it" and have sympathy but the rhetoric and actions are simply driving any support away !

PS....and eliminating living where there is a "stand your ground" type law really narrows you down as they exist in over half the states in this union.

[Taltarzac725]

My younger brother is married to a rather dark woman from Jamaica. She has a very thick accent when angry but speaks without much of an accent when calm. He is white and of mainly German/Irish/Scotch/English descent. They would get looks here in the Villages from both whites and blacks about their mixed marriage. Their son would also often point at his skin and say something like it is only skin deep. This was only a few years ago when he said it and he was about 5 at that time. So racism goes on. It comes from both races though.

I remember that some of the most racist people I have ever met were an African American at the University of Minnesota Law School I had stupidly befriended before I got wind of what he was really like. Earlier in my academic career there was a prince from one of the West African countries attending the University of Nevada, Reno who was in my Minorities in America Anthropology class. He believed that all the African Americans were inferior to those who had stayed in Africa.

[Bucco]

My younger brother is married to a rather dark woman from Jamaica. She has a very thick accent when angry but speaks without much of an accent when calm. He is white and of mainly German/Irish/Scotch/English descent. They would get looks here in the Villages from both whites and blacks about their mixed marriage. Their son would also often point at his skin and say something like it is only skin deep. This was only a few years ago when he said it and he was about 5 at that time. So racism goes on.

Just to be startling and crystal CLEAR.

I have not read ONE SINGLE POST on this forum....NOT A SINGLE SOLITARY ONE that even implied that racism did not exist. NOT ONE

And this highlights the problem in having any kind of discussion. EVERYTHING is generalized.....we all have black friends who suffered racism...what part of that is not clear ?

In this case, a young boy was killed. The police WERE doing their job and had actually or nearly had come to the same conclusion as the jury eventually did.

It was hijacked from them and USED.....why is nobody angry at those who did that ?

Sharpton, Jackson, The Black Panthers do NOTHING until they can get themselves on TV. Why is racial divide reserved for such media affairs ? We deal with and move forward individually and allow this to divide us even further instead of allowing forward progress.

Yep..there is bias...yep..there is racism...it has always existed toward groups and always will.

This was not....is not a case to pursue for justice. Nobody on here knows for sure whether Zimmerman was a fat, racist with a gun looking for trouble OR whether Martin was out alone smoking pot looking for trouble.

Why do we allow these media host, politicians, etc. stir us up ?

[zonerboy]

Why can't we judge the article by what it has to say, the perspectives it presents, the ideas it expresses, instead of by who wrote it ?
Professional writer or not, what difference does it make?
Are his points sound? If you think not, then state why you think they are lacking. Sound reasoning will shine through despite mediocre writing skills.
This article appears to have been written before the jury verdict was in. It does not discuss wether or not Zimmerman was guilty of second degree murder. It does not argue who threw the first punch. It deals with deeper, more fundamental issues.

[jebartle]

I will repeat that the dispatch (thru no-fault of his own) asked GZ if "He could see where the suspect was going", I know, I know, he had no business getting out of his car, BUT GZ took that as an invitation to SEE where suspect was going, when told NOT to follow, he was returning to his car when altercation took place!

[57ChevyFI]

George Zimmerman NATIONAL news. These people not so much

Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom
Kelly L. Hunnewell
Autumn Pasquale

[Gerald]

the law has spoken . It is time to accept the ruling and move on. Many will still use it as an excuse to cause trouble. To make a profit. We have been there before.

[Bucco]

Why can't we judge the article by what it has to say, the perspectives it presents, the ideas it expresses, instead of by who wrote it ?
Professional writer or not, what difference does it make?
Are his points sound? If you think not, then state why you think they are lacking. Sound reasoning will shine through despite mediocre writing skills.
This article appears to have been written before the jury verdict was in. It does not discuss wether or not Zimmerman was guilty of second degree murder. It does not argue who threw the first punch. It deals with deeper, more fundamental issues.

1. If the intent is to embarass me in some way, it aint gonna happen.

2. IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....first of all TOTV rules do not allow a post to be entirely someone elses "work". The OP never once made a comment or allowed why it was posted...WHAT POINT TO BE MADE ?????

3. I took this as a flamer post...no personal thoughts....a lifted piece of literary and then leave. Set on emotions and no personal thoughts.

And by the way...the headline was ZIMMERMAN so it was about the ZIMMERMAN trial with no valid points being made.

Every post I have made on here as allowed for me understanding but not tolerant of flamers or plagerizers or anything close.

[angiefox10]

1. If the intent is to embarass me in some way, it aint gonna happen.

2. IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....first of all TOTV rules do not allow a post to be entirely someone elses "work". The OP never once made a comment or allowed why it was posted...WHAT POINT TO BE MADE ?????

3. I took this as a flamer post...no personal thoughts....a lifted piece of literary and then leave. Set on emotions and no personal thoughts.

And by the way...the headline was ZIMMERMAN so it was about the ZIMMERMAN trial with no valid points being made.

Every post I have made on here as allowed for me understanding but not tolerant of flamers or plagerizers or anything close.

Nope... There are quotes around the words and a link the the post. No plagiarism here.

No... I didn't give my opinion. The is a post about what it's like to be black... I don't know what it's like to be black. It made me think and I took something away from it as did everyone who read it. We all read it differently and got something different out of it.

Often times we all post items without comments... for conversation. This is no different. I can't comment on the trial as I didn't watch the trial. As I said... this is about being black in America.

Written by a "writer" who just happens to be black.

This has made me google many of the comments made on this thread and I'm learning.

Now... I will comment did you know..... "public records show that Zimmerman was arrested (http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=5782626) in Orange County in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer."?

From some of the comments here... I looked up his mugshots.... there are several. I find that interesting.... Does anyone else?

[BobnBev]

I thought the picture of the White girl with the Skittles was......well, nevermind

[BobnBev]

Nope... There are quotes around the words and a link the the post. No plagiarism here.

No... I didn't give my opinion. The is a post about what it's like to be black... I don't know what it's like to be black. It made me think and I took something away from it as did everyone who read it. We all read it differently and got something different out of it.

Often times we all post items without comments... for conversation. This is no different. I can't comment on the trial as I didn't watch the trial. As I said... this is about being black in America.

Written by a "writer" who just happens to be black.

This has made me google many of the comments made on this thread and I'm learning.

Now... I will comment did you know..... "public records show that Zimmerman was arrested (http://myclerk.myorangeclerk.com/CaseDetail.aspx?CaseID=5782626) in Orange County in 2005 on charges of resisting arrest with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer."?

From some of the comments here... I looked up his mugshots.... there are several. I find that interesting.... Does anyone else?

And he paid a $46 fine.......bigger fine if you're speeding in a golf cart :blahblahblah::boom:

[buggyone]

1. If the intent is to embarass me in some way, it aint gonna happen.

2. IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.....first of all TOTV rules do not allow a post to be entirely someone elses "work". The OP never once made a comment or allowed why it was posted...WHAT POINT TO BE MADE ?????

3. I took this as a flamer post...no personal thoughts....a lifted piece of literary and then leave. Set on emotions and no personal thoughts.

And by the way...the headline was ZIMMERMAN so it was about the ZIMMERMAN trial with no valid points being made.

Every post I have made on here as allowed for me understanding but not tolerant of flamers or plagerizers or anything close.

I really hate to agree with Bucco on anything, but he is entirely right on this issue.

The piece was intended just to irritate or inflame others into posting. That is not the intent of this forum.

[Bucco]

I really hate to agree with Bucco on anything, but he is entirely right on this issue.

The piece was intended just to irritate or inflame others into posting. That is not the intent of this forum.

Thank you Buggy...we may disagee on many things but I think we both recognize a flamer and a thread meant to start trouble and nothing else.

And of course I got sucked in...shame on me. I am usually able to ignore people like this !!!

[mickey100]

https://fbcdn-photos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1044638_10102793228324929_2126992060_a.jpg

"My brother is a tall, skinny, black kid with an athletic build who frequently wears a hoodie, often with his ear buds in. Sometimes he does this in a beautiful cul-de-sac community where he does not live, but my relatives in Delaware do, where all the houses look the same and there are only a few streets. All the backyards connect without fencing, and sometimes he’ll go for a walk down the street, or through the grass, sometimes at night, oblivious to who may be seeing him, wondering what he’s up to, while he's ignorantly and blissfully listening A$AP Rocky.


He is Trayvon Martin.


And as I’ve read and watched and discussed this case to anyone foolish enough to get me started on the topic, and although I, like many people, have occasionally been frustrated by the ways in which the media has characterized this case (George Zimmerman’s race, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), the witnesses (like Rachel Jeantel, who has been beaten up on by not only the conservative media, but also the black community, the Twitter citizenry, and the defense and prosecution lawyers, even when they’ve tried to show her deference), the importance of the verdict (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant) and the potential of race riots after it is delivered (which, in my personal opinion, is irrelevant), I am almost embarrassed to admit how amazingly personal this case is to me as black man who will someday have black children.


That is because my brother is Trayvon Martin, and my future children are Trayvon Martin.


The indisputable facts of this case: George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator with a license to carry a concealed weapon, was accustomed to being on red alert after a series of burglaries by young black males who plagued his gated community. On the rainy evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw a potential perp -- a young black male with a hoodie who was talking through his ear buds to a friend on the phone -- and Zimmerman called the police as he had done half a dozen times before in the weeks before the incident.


Instead of remaining in his car, he got out and followed the teenager, even though police told him that an officer was on the way and they didn’t “need” him to do that. The teenager continued to travel away from Zimmerman, who continued after him. Eventually there was a confrontation, a fight, and the teenager, Trayvon Martin, was shot by a single bullet through his heart. Zimmerman has maintained that Martin was beating him up violently against the concrete, and that the killing was in self-defense.


And, believe it or not, the fact that Zimmerman can even claim self-defense, or the fact that anyone, regardless of race, can claim self-defense in a situation even tangentially resembling this one, is the most disturbing and terrifying aspect to me.


Defenders of George Zimmerman say, he had a reasonable reason to identify and suspect Trayvon Martin considering the recent burglaries. Getting out of his car wasn’t illegal, nor was ignoring the suggestion of the police dispatcher! Certainly nothing is wrong with asking someone, “What are you doing around here?,” and if, at any given moment, he had a reasonable fear for his life, then he had a legal right and responsibility to protect himself.


I have walked into restaurants and rest stop bathrooms where I have instantly been aware of my blackness, only because everyone else around me is. I have walked into places where people have literally whispered and pointed, without even the slightest bit of shame or covertness, to their companions at me, the lone black person in the establishment. I have had relationships dissolve because of parents who were “concerned” about what people might say about the black guy.


Me. The Old Navy cargo shorts and silly t-shirt rocking, flip-flops all day, every day, during the summer wearing, me. On the Cosby scale, I’m about six shades darker than Lisa Bonet and six shades lighter than Malcolm Jamal Warner. I’m Mr. I-wrote-a-book-on-Pee-wee-Herman-and-frequently-listen-to-the-Spice-Girls-and-the-only-hoodies-I-own-advertise-either-the-college-I-attended-or-the-musical-theater-show-I’m-directing-at-my-full-time-job.


But, you see, I’m Trayvon Martin. And if you’re a black male, regardless of your age, your height, your weight, how dark your skin is, what you’re wearing, and what you’re listening to on the device in your pocket, someone somewhere is seeing you as Trayvon Martin.


Even if you’re carrying a package of Skittles and an Arizona iced tea, just trying to continue your phone call and get to your father’s house to watch the NBA All-Star game with your little half-brother, you are Trayvon Martin.


And nice people who know me personally, hopefully, will shake their heads in confusion at this and will say, “Well, that isn’t fair! If they only knew you, no one would ever be afraid of you.” And, of course, that’s the point and the problem. Because if I can cause someone to feel nervous, concerned, or uncomfortable while they’re eating in a restaurant, then it doesn’t require a leap of faith to understand why George Zimmerman assumed that the teenager walking around his neighborhood was a threat.


But what I think is equally disturbing is that I can understand, and by extension, at least to some extent, accept the decision of George Zimmerman to notice Trayvon Martin and make that 911 call in the first place.


When I walk into a convenience store late at night, especially if I’m the only person there besides the employee, I’m amazingly aware of how my presence might make him or her feel uncomfortable. I consciously try to smile and look pleasant. Sometimes I even go so far as to have my debit card in my hand before I reach the counter so I don’t have to reach in my pocket and run the risk of causing any alarms – literal or figurative. When stopped by a cop (which, especially when I was a teenager, would happen all the time), I sat patiently with my hands on the wheel, and gave clear and non-threatening verbal warnings before I made any movements.


“My registration is in my glove compartment,” I’d say. “I’m going to take off my seat belt, open my glove compartment, and go get it for you, sir.”


One time on the New Jersey Turnpike, as I was driving back to college, a state trooper and his partner stopped me for speeding. After I gave the verbal warning and got the okay, I reached into my glove compartment.


“Rolling papers?” he asked.


“What?”


“Are those rolling papers?” There were about five super-flat packets of Stride gum in the back of my glove compartment.


I pulled them out and put them in the trooper’s hand, which he inspected with his partner as if the two of them had never seen a pack of gum before, and I was let off with a warning and sent on my way.


And as I drove away, I took those packets of gum and threw them in my book bag. How stupid, I immediately thought, for keeping them in there. I should have known they looked like rolling papers.


It wasn’t until I got back to my dorm room that I was amazed that in that encounter, I somehow felt guilty, like I had done something wrong for having gum in my car. There are people who will argue that if only Trayvon Martin had declined to hit George Zimmerman after he was a) hit first, or b) approached, or c) followed, depending on which version of the story you believe, or if Trayvon hadn’t been wearing that hoodie, despite the adverse weather conditions, he’d still be alive. Sure, he wasn’t guilty of anything really, but he could have made life easier for himself by maybe not acting or looking so, I don’t know, bla—intimidating?


This is a significant part of the underlying concern a lot of people, particularly black people, have with this case. It isn’t enough that Trayvon Martin was killed with nothing more than a cell phone, a photo button, a bottle of Arizona iced tea, and a package of Skittles on him, but then insult is added to injury when it’s insinuated that he somehow, inherently, deserved it for walking-while-black in a gated community that happened to have previously been plagued by black criminals. Somehow, for a lot of people, it wasn’t George Zimmerman’s fault that Trayvon ended up killed because, as we “all know,” Trayvon was sort of asking for it.


You put on a hoodie and you know what baggage comes with that, right?


This case will, frighteningly, come down to whether or not the six jurors believe that George Zimmerman was justified in his fear. Another way of asking that is, of course, whether or not those six jurors, if placed in the same situation, could imagine themselves reasonably drawing and acting upon those same assumptions.


Is it impossible to imagine that? Of course not. But that’s precisely the problem.


Because as I think about what certainly occurred that evening, and what likely did, even if I give every single concession to George Zimmerman’s contested version of events (ie: Trayvon hit him first, Trayvon pushed Zimmerman to the ground, Trayvon beat him up, Trayvon saw the gun –- which is amazingly unlikely in the blackness of the night with the weapon concealed, but let’s just say that happened), I can’t help but think to myself:


Good. Good for you, Trayvon Martin, for doing what I would hope to God my brother would do if he was walking down the street with a package of Skittles and was followed and confronted by a man with a decade of life and 70 pounds over him.


Because what people don’t understand about this unfortunate situation is that I feel some degree of fear when I’m doing nothing wrong, like in the restaurant, rest stop, and convenience store, and my very presence causes someone to feel afraid.


And if you aren’t safe with a package of Skittles, walking around your family’s cul-de-sac in Delaware, wearing your Old Navy flip-flops, then when are you ever safe? If you find yourself approached by some stranger, why can’t you run from them without it being assumed that you’re fleeing the scene of some crime you’re destined to commit? If you’re a teenager and confronted by an adult you perceive to be creepy, why can’t you fight for your life? Stand your ground?


And why, if you get killed after all of that, would people say it must have been your fault?


A lot of people don’t understand that. They think black people see race in everything and Al Sharpton should have just minded his business. Trayvon Martin was a hood and George Zimmerman did what any responsible person would have done. Justice was already served, they say, and a verdict finding Zimmerman guilty of anything would some sort of de facto reparations –- an example of white guilt and a bone thrown to the civil rights movement.


And that’s only because they haven’t walked a mile from a 7-11 back home in Trayvon Martin’s shoes, like so many other people have.


As University of Connecticut professor and New Yorker columnist Jelani Cobb wrote, “We live in an era in which the protocol for addressing even the most severely bigoted behavior very often includes a conditional apology to the offender—a declaration that he has made a terrible error, but is, of course, in no way racist—and, eventually, an outpouring of support for the fallible transgressor, victim of the media and the ‘race-hustlers.’ We grade racism on the severest of curves, and virtually no one qualifies.”


That’s true, which is why I think questions of George Zimmerman’s racial views are irrelevant. Labeling anyone a racist is a futile argument, especially since it amounts to nothing. I have never seen someone effectively convinced that a person is a racist. It’s a judgment that’s impossible to be talked into or out of.


But I offer this. Just a few hours ago, Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who I believe has genuinely been a relatively reasonable person throughout this trial, took to CNN to give his first interview since the two sides rested their cases. He was asked by the anchor what he thinks George Zimmerman’s life will be like if he’s acquitted.


O’Mara, with a stone face and look of genuine disappointment in the truth embedded in his answer, said that Zimmerman will never be safe. He’ll always live his life in fear. He will never know when a “crazy person” (his words) will kill him.


“Everyone knows what George Zimmerman looks like,” O’Mara said. “He doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like.”


And this was said without even the slightest hint of irony. The irony jumped out of my television, into my living room, pointed at me, and laughed in my face. And I called it “sir,” and I apologized for even noticing it in the first place. And it shot me in my heart and made me come to my computer and confess my truth -- that I have met George Zimmerman.


Zimmerman doesn’t know what a person who wants to kill him looks like, but everyone knows what he looks like?


Which, of course, is fundamentally different than George Zimmerman knowing what “they,” – those many, many Trayvon Martins out there – look like."


Caseen Gaines


https://www.facebook.com/notes/case-gaines/i-have-met-george-zimmerman/10151681580949484

Excellent post. I imagine it was made to help people get a different perspective and see the "other side" of the whole issue.

Now that the jury has ruled, we know there is no winner. Trayvon Martin is still dead and George Zimmerman must live with the fact that he killed another human being for no good reason.

[cbg150]

I think the intent of the piece was to make people think in new empathetic ways...not a bad idea given some if the "opinions" expressed on this forum.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bucco]

I think the intent of the piece was to make people think in new empathetic ways...not a bad idea given some if the "opinions" expressed on this forum.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is great...folks posting as if they invented being empathetic. Ever read "BLACK LIKE ME" or any of the other books of that genre.

NOWAY...this was a thread intended to do what I suppose I have gotten sucked into....but teaching me or others about empathy it was not intended to do nor could it.

I have no heard much in the way of any racist talk except for those of you who feel entitled and have the need to "teach" all us rednecks how to think.

For the record, I grew up very poor and where I was the minority.....while I am not black, I understand more than you ever will about how rough the color of your skin can be.

The posts favoring acquittal that you take as racist is one of the main reason for the problems in this country on race...that you even had the nerve to think that !1

If you have as a first thought or any thought that someone who posted for Zimmerman acquittal is a racist, then it is YOU who need to learn empathy along with a few other things.

[John_W]

After reading your post I now know how Ron Goldman's father felt when O.J. Simpson walked.

What I really find odd, is that blacks make up 10% of the population but commit 80% of the violent crimes. Yet, you wonder why an African American teenager wearing a hoodie walking through a neighborhood he doesn't live in, is watched suspiciously, your answer is right there. Don't tell me I'm a racist, I'm actually a Democrat and voted for Obama the last two elections.

[zonerboy]

I had no intention of embarrassing anyone. Some posters here do a fine job of embarrassing themselves without any help from me.
For me the posted article made many valid points. For example, racism undoubtedly had a great deal to do with this unfortunate incident. Many whites have biased ideas about blacks, and just as many blacks (if not more) have prejudiced ideas about whites. That is one of the authors main points. If there were less racism, incidents such as this one would be much less likely to occur. We need to treat each other with more understanding and more kindness. We need to do more thinking, and less relying on knee jerk stereotypes which are often wrong. But that's just my opinion. And I'm done preaching.
By the way, I do agree with you on one thing, Bucco. No article or no person could ever teach you anything about empathy.

[Maryland Girl]

I was a teacher of middle school students for many years. In discussing fighting, bullying, etc., race would almost always come up. My students were black, white, Asian, etc. One day, during the discussion, one of the students brought up Michael Jackson and asked why he would want to 'bleach' his skin to make it lighter. I explained that 'bleaching' ones skin was behavior. That no matter how much MJ 'bleached' his skin he would never be racially white. Then I rubbed my skin and explained that no matter how much time I spent in the sun to tan myself, I would never be racially black. I then had the children rub each others arms and asked if they thought it was logical for them to hate that person for their skin color since it was obvious they were born that way and could do nothing to change that. After some time passed, the children in some small way came to see that what they didn't like about someone should be based on that person's behavior, character, etc. That to base it on their race was pointless. We had many an interesting discussion and I hope that at least one child carried this forward so that when they became upset at someone, they could distinguish between disliking that person based on race as opposed to other characteristics. For myself, I have not liked every black person I have met and I surely have not liked every white person I have met. But, I do have black friends and white friends whom I respect because of the people they are-not because of their race.

[Bucco]

I had no intention of embarrassing anyone. Some posters here do a fine job of embarrassing themselves without any help from me.
For me the posted article made many valid points. For example, racism undoubtedly had a great deal to do with this unfortunate incident. Many whites have biased ideas about blacks, and just as many blacks (if not more) have prejudiced ideas about whites. That is one of the authors main points. If there were less racism, incidents such as this one would be much less likely to occur. We need to treat each other with more understanding and more kindness. We need to do more thinking, and less relying on knee jerk stereotypes which are often wrong. But that's just my opinion. And I'm done preaching.
By the way, I do agree with you on one thing, Bucco. No article or no person could ever teach you anything about empathy.


Please allow what stereotypes you are mentioning...on TOTV...in the trial.....in everyday life all over the world.

Your words ring hollow to me and very preachy....I do not know you and assume you are sincere, but I get very very suspicious of the preachy kind of folks who talk in generalities.

I also assume that was sarcasm at the end and I normally ignore anyone who finds that need, but if you are making judgements of me on this board, then it is you sir who might need to look inward

[Bucco]

I was a teacher of middle school students for many years. In discussing fighting, bullying, etc., race would almost always come up. My students were black, white, Asian, etc. One day, during the discussion, one of the students brought up Michael Jackson and asked why he would want to 'bleach' his skin to make it lighter. I explained that 'bleaching' ones skin was behavior. That no matter how much MJ 'bleached' his skin he would never be racially white. Then I rubbed my skin and explained that no matter how much time I spent in the sun to tan myself, I would never be racially black. I then had the children rub each others arms and asked if they thought it was logical for them to hate that person for their skin color since it was obvious they were born that way and could do nothing to change that. After some time passed, the children in some small way came to see that what they didn't like about someone should be based on that person's behavior, character, etc. That to base it on their race was pointless. We had many an interesting discussion and I hope that at least one child carried this forward so that when they became upset at someone, they could distinguish between disliking that person based on race as opposed to other characteristics. For myself, I have not liked every black person I have met and I surely have not liked every white person I have met. But, I do have black friends and white friends whom I respect because of the people they are-not because of their race.

I am sure that they did carry it forward. I admire folks like you who attack the issue without all the generalizations. It is a personal thing.

When I was young, all of my friends and most of my neighbors were black. We did not even know the difference until, at least we thought, girls came into play...strange but that is my memory. Anyway, we used to talk about it as it was prevelant in those days (40's and 50's). We, as kids could not figure it out.

I think over the years, as I aged and as a result of growing up as I did, I figured it was LEARNED behavior from others. But as I have been spouting off on here for a few hours, I also learned to beware of those who preach.....because as my black friends would say....do not trust them, until you really understand what is inside. Preaching it is one thing...living it is different.

Learned a lot from those years but not into the preaching....everyone makes their own call and I do know.....you cannot legislate it.....you cannot guilt it....you just have to learn it. I see the Sharptons and the Jacksons and those preaching here and I know how suspicious my buddies would be of them.

Enough..great post...loved it.

[JP]

If you don't want to be treated like a gang banger of any race, don't dress and act like one.

[golf2140]

The media is pushing this issue. How many young blacks were killed in Chi. this weekend. To many

[jebartle]

Who is black that he has been pulled over 87 times, (he has NO record) and works for a news agency.








If you don't want to be treated like a gang banger of any race, don't dress and act like one.

[Bucco]

Who is black that he has been pulled over 87 times, (he has NO record) and works for a news agency.

Yeah, they surely do not over state things on MSNBC !!! :)

[tucson]

I understood BETTER than you know, but wanted everyone to know this was PROFESSIONALLY DONE by someone who makes his LIVING touching people with his writing, that is important to understand. Passing it off as something else is wrong.

I said it was well written and it is...has not much to do with this case at all except for playing on it.

Listen I UNDERSTAND. I GET THE POINT I know exactly what is going on.

There are those of black skin who UNDERSTAND and have other viewpoints but they cannot get on the stage.

I agree 100% :-)

[dsned]

First of all TM was not walking along minding his own business, he was up on people's grass looking in windows. If someone is doing that in tv we would call the police and keep our gun handy.

[dillywho]

I still love and try to adhere to what my father always said:

"I never did see a board that didn't have two sides."

[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

[Bogie Shooter]

I for one have heard enough about George Zimmerman. His painting business seems to be going well.

[TexaninVA]

Very well written piece ... and I agree Zimmerman likely provoked this by his behavior.

However, being fully honest and with no constraints posed by PC, the reality is most crime is committed by young black males. We all know that even if we can't say it in a public forum without getting blasted (which is how some will respond to my reply no doubt).

In other words, there is a lot of truth to the stereotype which is why people are wary when they see young black guys wearing hoodies, especially when in a group. As I recall Jesse Jackson expressed similar misgivings when walking down the street.

That's the unfortunate reality ... whether we like it or not.