I'm Suspicious.

[kpete]

WED MAR 21, 2012 AT 10:21 AM PDT
I'm Suspicious.
bymallyroyalFollow

see?

I hope you do, because that's what (it seems like) everyone else sees, whether I look like that, or this:

which is actually how I look, more often than not. if not that, then preppy pastels in this season.

it doesn't matter, apparently.

the Trayvon Martin killing is really affecting me, even more than I thought it would when I heard about it weeks ago. it seems like a repudiation of the psychic gains black American males made on November 2, 2008. it FEELS like a deliberate "get back in your place, nigger!" to all those like me in this country.

More:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/21/1076461/-I-m-Suspicious-

[freshwest]

1. K & R

[MarianJack]

2. I am a White Man but my son is African American.

This killing, pardon me, this murder, makes me quake in my shoes. I have always told my son that if he is ever stopped by a cop, cooperate, call his mother and I and SAY NOTHING. We have told him that of the cops tell him that we said to talk, WE DIDN'T!

This would HOPEFULLY get him to the point where he'd beok until we arrive with the lawyer.

This young man's needless deaths have shown that there are extremist thug vigilantes out there and that they are armed and that they are on the hunt.

Zimmerman needs to go to jail for a very long time and this needs to be a very public case.

BTW, my son will be 12 on March 31st.

PEACE!

[LuckyLib]

10. African American parents alert their children from an early age (especially sons)

about what to do (and not do) in a situation of confrontation and confusion. That they should have to do so is part of our American tragedy.

[MarianJack]

11. We reviewed the steps with him this evening.

If he's confronted and /or arrested by a cop we told him to cooperate completely and say NOTHING until mom and I arrive with a lawyer. We've also told him that if the cops SAY we told him to talk, WE DIDN'T!

What terrifies us is that he fall into the crosshairs of an extremeijst vigilante thug who thinks that he's Rambo.

I'm assuming that my wife's and my ability to parent our son isn't being called into question here.

PEACE!

[LuckyLib]

12. Not at all. Simply pointing out what lots of folks have no concept of.

A need for parents of young males of color to have to have such a conversation at all. I work with young Latino students and know your fear. As educators, we tell them the same thing -- be vigilant, be smart, and don't say a word until family and an attorney are present.

[MarianJack]

13. It's tragic that conversations like this are necessary.

My wife is Puerto Rican and she knows racism first hand. However, when someone targets her they regret it before they get much older.

In some ways, I think that expressions of racism hurt me more than it does her. She has been living with it for her entire life. I haven't. I also see it happening to my wife and son, the 2 people I love most in this world, and it makes me furious.

The upsetting thing is that the election of an African American President has given these bigots a percieved license to make their bigotry public again. In one way, that's good because their ugliness is out in the open. In another way, hatred is always ugly and inexcuseable.

PEACE!

[Roy Rolling]

3. Not suspicious

Now if you were carrying a box of Skittles and can of iced tea, you would be a threat..

[liberalhistorian]

4. Sorry, I do get your point, but I just do not

see anything funny at all about this whole senseless tragedy.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. This was plan murder. Period. No excuses can be made. Murder because the kid was black.

[PWPippin]

6. I'm fearful

I'm 69 year old white female who joined a picket of the S & W Cafeteria in Lynchburg, VA, in 1965, to try to help bring about changes during my life that I hoped would become permanent. I, too, have been so disturbed by the murder of Trayvon that I've had recurring nightmares and cannot get his screams for help out of my head. I can't stop thinking of the sheer terror he had to have felt. I have rarely been so affected by any other news item. I cry for our country, our future and, most of all, young black men.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Unfortunately this murder

Follows a long line of people detained for walking while black. This tension has increased over the last few years and will continue to do so. There are corners of this country that are genuinely scared of them no longer being the "rightful majority.".

This will increase and have no clue how to stop it. But walking while black, or brown, will be a definite increased danger.

[Uncle Joe]

8. A few weeks ago, I was walking Benji (an Ilasa Apso)

Last edited Wed Mar 21, 2012, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)

around my Condo neighborhood and I was wearing a hoodie, because it was cold and it was around 2:00 - 3:00 in the morning, most everyone was in bed at that time.

A tall black man (towering over me) was getting stuff out of his car, Benji is naturally curious about people and we stopped on the sidewalk just before we reached his car.

I was going to let the man get his stuff out and cross the sidewalk to his unit and then walk on, but the man didn't hear us, he turned around, saw me and grabbed at his chest like Redd Foxx having a heart attack while screaming "O Lord!" I couldn't help but laugh and tell the man I was sorry for startling him.

I didn't mean to scare him but the irony wasn't lost to me as he was a giant of sorts compared to my average height.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[BlueJazz]

9. This guy has been pissed off since I heard about it This happened in a redneck, shit eating..

...part of Florida. If this MF gets away with this murder, all hell is going to break loose.