By now, many of us have heard the tragic story of the heinous killing of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin. Trayvon, a Miami native, went to visit his father one weekend in Sanford, a suburb north of Orlando, FL. While watching the NBA All-Star Game, he decided to walk over to a local 7-Eleven to pick up snacks for him and his younger brother. On his way back, he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain. Zimmerman, called in to 911 reporting that he saw someone who looks “up to no good or, or on drugs” walking in his neighborhood. After the boy began to run from him Zimmerman chased him, against instruction of the dispatcher. After an apparent scuffle between the two, some local residents called the police reporting the sound of someone screaming for help then a gun shot. When the police arrived, Trayvon was found dead, armed with a bag of skittles, an Arizona Iced Tea, and his cell phone. The Sanford Police, known to have a history of questionable practices, let Zimmerman walk away with his hands clean and did not even notify Trayvon’s family after the incident.
This has resulted in a huge public outcry from outraged citizens across the nation. Many are under the impression that if Zimmerman had been black, he would have been cuffed and booked with no questions asked. Or if Trayvon had been white, this whole thing would never have happened in the first place. There have been rallies all over calling for Zimmerman’s arrest, and that he be put to trial. Recent demonstrations have shined the spot light back onto the long ignored racial tensions that still exist in our society and especially in Florida, one of the most racist states in terms of its legislative record.
This is one of those few moments where a large amount of people are voicing their anger at the institutions in place that allowed this heinous tragedy to occur, and those that turned a blind eye.
So who should we be mad at? Should we point the finger at Zimmerman, who pulled the trigger? Should we blame the Sanford Police department who not only allowed this to happen but also tried to change eyewitness testimonials? What about the extremely loose, stand-your-ground gun laws in Florida, that set a precedent for other states to follow, which enabled Zimmerman to carry a concealed weapon and use it in “Self-Defense” against an unarmed teen? We might even blame the state legislators who enacted this law, and others that have targeted and disenfranchised our communities of color. But I think that there is a much deper cause to all of this, one that has allowed the this and many other similar incidents before it to occur.
I blame you.
I blame you who don’t know the name of you district’s state or national representative, or where they stand on important issues. I blame you who don’t even know what district you live in. I blame you who doesn’t inform and arm yourself with the proper knowledge to make sure these things never happen. I blame you who is outraged, demonstrating, and demanding justice, yet did not care to be just as passionate, if not more, when elections season came and put the people who allowed this to happen in office.
The stark reality here is that we love to get outraged and react to atrocities like this and hundreds of others that happen here and across the world with consent of our politicians; “react” being the key word here. You, who demands justice, what did you do to preempt this incident. Where was your anger when Jeb Bush signed the Stand Your Ground law which allowed “self-defense” to be synonymous aggression?
As people of color, we love to rush to the front lines when an injustice has occurred to one of our own. Yet we rarely gather the same enthusiasm when it comes to the civic engagement necessary to avoid these injustices. What we need to realize is that decisions are being made for us, about us, and we are not at the table to have our input. If the opposite were true, politicians like Rick Scott would never even have had the chance to attempt to silence the votes of ex-convicts in Florida who overwhelmingly (and conveniently for old Ricky) belong to a certain melanin enriched, demographic minority. We are comfortably uncomfortable with our social climate to the point where we can voice our discomfort when convenient, but not care enough to go out of our way to change the reality of our circumstance.
So yes I blame you, and anyone else outraged, who never thought it important that the person representing them in government never gave a damn about what happens to them or their community. Justice will never come to us as easily as a click of a facebook status, retweet, or tumblr re-blog. If you think you did your part by sharing a link are your page you’re sadly mistaken. If you think you’re doing your part by demonstrating and rallying, you’ve only done the last half the job you should have started during the 2010 and 2008 elections. I’m not saying that expressing our outrage about this incident is wrong but, in the grand scheme of things, it is too little too late in terms of preventing the situation from occurring. Our only hope now is to move forward, learn from our past negligence and make sure nobody will ever have to become a martyr for justice like Trayvon did. Zimmerman should be put to justice, but so should our law enforcement officials who seem to not being doing their jobs as well as our politicians who allow laws that enable these things to happen.
So where does this mean for us? It is ultimately up to you to decide. You see the injustices that plague our society. You see the law makers who allow them to occur repeatedly. You see what little has been done to stop this.
Its 2012 and November elections are is just around the corner. So ask yourself what will YOU do to preempt these injustices so that you never have to react against them? How will YOU leave your mark on society?
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