Tag: Trayvon Martin

I think there’s too much discussion about whether George Zimmerman is racist. I don’t care. I don’t think it matters. What matters is what Zimmerman did (and lest we forgot: suspect, pursue, shoot, and kill an unarmed and innocent Trayvon Martin).

Part of the problem is the racism is too broad of a label. Since there’s no simple definition, it’s difficult to place the label (well, it’s easy to place the label, it’s difficult to do so accurately). Certainly some people simply hate other people because of their race. And this goes for people of all races. Deep down-to-the-core racism. But to say you have to be this racist to be racist is setting the bar too low.

I give George Zimmerman the benefit of the doubt and say he does
not hate black people. But he did behave like a racist. And this begs the question: is someone who
behaves like a racist a racist? Maybe, but I think it sets the bar too
high. Everybody has at some point behaved like a
racist, and a term that applies to everybody isn’t too useful as a psychological or
sociological concept.

It reminds me of how some people love saying police are racist. Once I (half jokingly) accused a partner of
mine of being racist when he said something disparaging about the multitude of petty
thieves, drug dealers, and junkies milling about Rutland and Barnes in 325 Post
(back before those blocks were torn down). He got a bit offended and
said, “I don’t hate black people. I hate these black people.”
Yes, indeed he did, and not because of the color of their skin. He hated
them for the content of their character. This was more about class than race.

Of course many of those quick to judge don’t know police (or any working-class people, for that matter). Blue-collar views are often misunderstood by the smug
liberal progressive suburban set, especially when it comes to race. When I was at the retirement party for another police friend of mine (who is not known for his liberal progressive beliefs) I couldn’t help but notice
that there were a lot more black people present (30 percent?) at his house than there probably will be at my retirement party. Now I know it’s a
cliche to say you’re not a racist because “some of your best friends are
black.” But certainly it’s better than not having black friends! As a white-collar professor, my professional and personal world is much less diverse (and much more white) than it was as a Baltimore police officer. 

In the long run I guess I’d prefer to judge people on how they act than try and gauge the depths of their soul. I
don’t think anybody doubts that had one of Trayvon’s white friends been
walking down the same street and spotted by the same George Zimmerman, the white
kid
would still be alive. Clearly race mattered. And that matters more than whether we call Zimmerman a racist.

…on the attempts to justify the actions of Zimmerman because on Martin’s appearanceand social media posts. So I’ll just quote Ta-Nehisi Coates. First there is the interesting case of The Daily Caller, one of the organizations leading the charge to defame Martin. Coates says:

The Daily Caller is published by Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson is a man who once informed us, on national television, that he’d assaulted a gay man for subjecting him to the sort of treatment which nearly all of women-kind experiences hourly. This is not the assumption of a violent handle, or the quotation of rap lyrics it is the admitted commission of actual violence. Moreover, it’s the kind of violence that’s routinely dismissed as pathological in black boys, as well as the kind that had it ever been committed by Trayvon Martin would immediately serve as irrefutable evidence that he deserved to slaughtered in the street.

Coates continues:

I would not withhold the life of Trayvon Martin from scrutiny and investigation. When someone claims a vicious assault upon their person–as George Zimmerman has–it is only intelligent to investigate the relevant background of the alleged assailant. It certainly is relevant to ask what, precisely, Martin was suspended for. It surely is important to ask if Martin had a history of violence. Whether or not Martin had a criminal record, most certainly is pertinent.

But what, precisely, is the relevance of wearing gold grills? What, specifically, is the pertinence of having once given an obscene gesture? Why, exactly, does it matter that Martin’s imagination sometimes ranged into profane thoughts of sex and violence? How does any of this help us understand his killing at the hands of by George Zimmerman?

Excuse me, Ta-Nehisi, but I’d like to take that one.

See, some people think they know what Martin was reallylike, something MSNBC will never tell you: Trayvon was just another n****r. So this country, real America, is better off with him gone. Now normally, thanks to all us horrible politically correct un-American non-gun-loving liberals, “These assholes always get away.” Well here’s one who didn’t.

Zimmerman’s killing of Martin reflects paranoid racist America’s Id. So there’s a greater storyline here, a patriotic battle, a veritable Zoroastrianconflict between the forces of light and dark, good and evil. Martin represents the dark, thus Zimmerman must be on the side of light. And if you believe that, then your Id does contorted cartwheels of logic to justify Zimmerman’s actions. “You see,” blurts Id, “Martin was a thug. A criminal. An asshole. A bad egg. He might have even been looking for a house to break into. I mean, we’ve never found the skittles, have we?!” Id just knowsthis to be true. Maybe can’t prove it, but believes it to the end.

But, I’m sorry to cut you off, Ta-Nehisi. You were saying?

It does not–unless you believe that the fact that Martin once gave a middle finger to a camera somehow proves that he is the sort of person who would saunter up to a man who outweighs by nearly 100 pounds, summon the powers of Thor, deck the man with one-shot, and stove him against concrete. We do not draw such conclusions from most teenagers, or even most people. That those who see nothing wrong with labeling a black man as a “Food Stamp President,” would draw them in the case of young black boy cannot be dismissed as coincidental.

And Coates again:

I’m sorry that Trayvon Martin’s actual appearance obstructs your inalienable right to scandalize children. That you are forced into cartwheels, and rendered ridiculous, all in the laudable quest to justify bias is the true tragedy, one which pales when compared to an actual death. If I have in any way, contributed to your travails, I hope that some day you will be wise enough, or simply human enough, to forgive.

To say Zimmerman’s actions were reprehensible but perhaps legally covered by the horrible and deeply flawed Stand-Your-Ground law is one thing. But I find it deeply troubling when people want to see everything through a prism that somehow morally justifies the death of Trayvon Martin.