what I hate worst about the Zimmerman acquittal:

[cali]

I hate the acquittal for what it says about that jury, jurisdiction, and stand your ground, which although it wasn't introduced by the defense, hovered in that court room. I hate what it said about our collective disregard, contempt, fear and hatred of young black men. I hate what it said for the parents of young black men, like LZ Granderson who wrote a moving opinion piece for CNN, and when I started reading the comments following they were so racist and hateful, my stomach sank as if I was on a fast moving elevator.

I hate the comments following virtually every article I read.

The comments following these articles may reflect just a small segment of Americans who are overrepresented on line. I don't know. But it feels more than that. It feels like an overwhelming balloon of hate that's been filling up slowly over the past few years and has burst.

What can we do? What can we say that is any solace not just to Trayvon Martin's Parents, Syrbrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, but to all those who are parents of kids like Trayvon, who are in danger of being profiled and harassed, arrested for being in the wrong place and young and black, or killed by some gun toting self-appointed asshole "protecting" the neighborhood.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/14/opinion/granderson-zimmerman-verdict/


Tweets from Trayvon's parents:

http://thegrio.com/2013/07/13/trayvon-martins-parents-tweet-reactions-to-george-zimmerman-not-guilty-verdict/

[Bjorn Against]

1. I agree there is a lot of racism and it needs to be called out as racism

The Zimmerman supporters may not like being called racists but that is what they are, if they are going to support the murder of a black kid they deserve to be called out.

[cali]

2. i just feel overwhelmed by the racist hate and sick to my stomach from it

and ashamed.

[Bjorn Against]

3. I think racism is worse right now than it has ever been in my lifetime

I was born in 1977 well after the Civil Rights Act was passed so I was never around during the height of the KKK. I certainly have seen plenty of racism in my life, but never have I seen so many people cheer the murder of an innocent black child. This is literally on the same level of racism as the KKK, just like the KKK Zimmerman supporters see nothing wrong with murdering black kids. It is disgusting and those who push this racist shit should be shamed for it, this is no mere "difference of opinion" like they innocently try to pretend, this is endorsement of a racist child murderer.

[cali]

8. I do too. And it's difficult not to see it as backlash from President Obama's election

Yes, I think this is as openly racist as white America has been in many years.

[livetohike]

5. Me too. I couldn't sleep last night I am so disgusted

and frustrated. I'm a soon to be 61 year old woman who 40 years ago thought things were changing. Time to take to the streets.

[cali]

4. I keep thinking of this poem

obviously Trayvon Martin didn't live on a farm but he was on that high arc of childhood moving into adulthood that I've always thought this poem is referencing:

Fern Hill

Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heyday of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.

And as I was green and carefree, famous among the barns
About the happy yard and singing as the farm was home,
In the sun that is young once only,
Time let me play and be
Golden in the mercy of his means,
And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman, the calves
Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills barked clear and cold,
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, the hay
Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air
And playing, lovely and watery
And fire green as grass.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it, was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
The sky gathered again
And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
Out of the whinnying green stable
On to the fields of praise.

And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house
Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long,
In the sun born over and over,
I ran my heedless ways,
My wishes raced through the house high hay
And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that time allows
In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs
Before the children green and golden
Follow him out of grace,

Nothing I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me
Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand,
In the moon that is always rising,
Nor that riding to sleep
I should hear him fly with the high fields
And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land.
Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,
Time held me green and dying
Though I sang in my chains like the sea.

[malaise]

6. Nice post

Look up the case of Stephen Lawrence in England. It took 18 years for the family to get justice and even now it turns out that the police attempted to trash his family for demanding justice.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/23/stephen-lawrence-undercover-police-smears

Sadly they fucked with some very self aware Jamaicans

[cali]

7. thanks malaise, that means a lot. and thank you for the link.

[Tippy]

9. malaise...thanks for the link

[Grammy23]

10. We have a lot of work to do in this country. Some soul searching must take place in order to

make any meaningful change in our attitudes and perceptions. I still fail to understand how the jury missed the fact that Trayvon had as much right as Zimmerman to protect himself from a threat. It was never in dispute that Trayvon was walking back to his father's fiancé's home where he was visiting. He was apparently minding his own business, doing like most teenagers do....talking on his cell phone to a friend about the ball game and what they each were doing at the time. It was Zimmerman who introduced the threat to the teenager and he responded to that threat with some kind of confrontation. Who threw the first punch will never be known but, to me, is really immaterial. Zimmerman had already introduced the element of fear into the whole situation by following him and never identifying himself to the teen. If HE was allowed to be afraid and then act on it (without punishment for his actions) why can't Trayvon have that same benefit? Was he not in HIS rights to act on his perception of threat to his life? Or do we believe that Black Teenage Boys do not have the right to be afraid?

I believe it's clear that Zimmerman made his assumptions based on Trayvon's race and age. He quickly profiled the situation, even though, in fact, his assessment of that was incorrect. Trayvon was NOT a thug out looking to burglarize anyone that night. He was doing something totally within his right until Zimmerman decided that he didn't like what he saw and chose to act on it. He could have waited for the police (as instructed) but he chose to continue to pursue and follow the "suspect". And we know how that ended.

Instead of bemoaning the outcome of this trial or cheering it (depending on your point of view), we need to examine how perceptions and assumptions influence our thinking and reasoning. How did we get to this point where a teenager is shot and killed and many people are totally OK with the shooter being found not guilty? Honest recognition of our attitudes is where we need to start. I know many people who really are racist in their attitudes but they deny them. And I am not saying assumptions that are racist don't exit on both sides of this issue. It's time to sit down and talk, examine and admit our weaknesses and imperfect assumptions so we can work toward our strengths.

[cali]

11. I see it in th same way

thanks for your insightful, rational post.

However, I disagree with you somewhat in your final paragraph. I don't believe the people cheering the acquittal will ever examine their assumptions or biases. They''re not interested in sitting down and talking. They view the acquittal as something that lends legitimacy to their prejudices.

[cali]

13. They weren't merely emotional "biases" as you claim.

Do you dispute that there would have been no killing had Zimmerman not harassed Martin? I think there was plenty of evidence to support a verdict of manslaughter.

Now what do you think about those things I brought up in the OP; the burgeoning of open racism since Obama was elected, for instance.

[cali]

15. The racism that has grown so exponentially and is displayed so openly

has a great deal to do with this case and its potential aftermath. President Obama's election absolutely does not indicate that the racists are "ever more icreasingly the minority". I think it's readily apparent that the opposite of what you claim is true.

Back to the Zimmerman verdict. Zimmerman provoked the situation. Had he simply stayed in his truck AS INSTRUCTED by police, Martin would be alive. I think there's quite a bit of evidence, including Zimmerman's not listening to police instructions which reflects his aggression and hostility, to come to the conclusion that Zimmerman started the fight.