Which one is Trayvon?

[kpete]

[Ecumenist]

1. God, that's sad. My cousin is in that graveyard too. He wasn't even 30 years old. eom

[earthside]

2. The unfortunate thing right now is ...

... that the mainstream media and the rightwing press are in full push-back mode.

They clearly want to make people believe that Trayvon "had it coming."

I just checked Drudge and the spin is brutal (nasty job, but it helps to know what the haters are saying).

It is really quite discouraging to see what is happening in this nation; there can be no tragedy that isn't propagandized by the extreme right into an attack on liberals, 'socialists', progressives, etc.

[Jamaal510]

3. It's baffling how Gingrich and friends can still get away with

alleging that there is a "liberal media".

[patrice]

8. We're seeing that crap on facebook. "It wasn't racism" + Distraction from SYG. nt

[amb123]

4. Brutal but True

Sadly enough.

[Brigid]

5. Yes, the truth is often brutal.

And sad, too.

[Smilo]

6. Yes - true..........but what happened to Trayvon

is so heinous and so callous that there had to be a backlash.

Trayvon Martin was innocent in all this - even if he did hit Zimmerman - he had every reason to do so - but the fact that his murder was covered up by Zimmerman and the Sanford PD makes this crime different.

All life is precious and all murders should be fully investigated and justice seen to prevail.

Until we treat ALL people in America with the same respect and courtesy we treat our close friends, then we will see more killings, especially of young black men. What a tragedy and one that could be averted.

[mactime]

7. What reason would that be?

What reason would he have to assault Zimmerman?

[fifthoffive]

10. Possibly

Because Zimmerman was following him and Trayvon felt threatened. Trayvon may have hit Zimmerman in an attempt to get away, and as he was killed in a different location from where the altercation is alleged to have happened, he probably did get away, just not for long enough or far enough.

[Marrah_G]

9. oh wow

[RZM]

11. This could be interpreted in a couple of ways

On the surface it's simply a commentary on the fact that too many young black men die because of gun violence.

But I think there's a subtler message that is actually intended be slightly critical of the black community's response to Trayvon's death.

In the first frame, it's the black woman who is clearly mad about Trayvon's death. But it's the white man who then points out that Trayvon is just one of a large number of young black males who have died due to gun violence. What's unsaid but assumed here is that the overwhelming number of those young men were killed by other black men. So it could be interpreted as the white community gently pointing out that the black community that their strong reaction to this particular incident does not jibe with the relatively muted reaction to the many instances of black-on-black crime that occur everyday.

Not that there aren't plenty of people talking about that in the back community, because there are. But a single instance of gun violence in the black community almost never galvanizes that community or makes national headlines. So the message could be: 'I understand why you're upset about this incident, but what about the real problem for young black men?'

[svan81]

13. Straw man.

That's a straw man argument.

People aren't upset that a white person gunned down a black person. They are upset that the police knew who the shooter was and did not arrest him.

When a black person kills another black person, the police arrest the killer if they know who it is. But in this case, a white person killed a black person but did not get arrested even though the police knew who it was.

[RZM]

14. I don't know about that

I think race is the single most important thing here. Zimmerman wasn't exactly 'white,' but that doesn't even matter. The point was that he wasn't black. The racial angle is what is keeping this story moving. Had Zimmerman been black, maybe this story would have gotten some play in Florida and perhaps even a mention in the national news. Yet once the media and blogosphere got wind that it was black on black violence, it would have faded. We certainly wouldn't be talking about it as much as we are now. In fact, I suspect to the degree it would still be discussed, the focus would be almost exclusively on SYG.

[svan81]

17. No

No, that's the whole point of why people are upset. If the shooter was black, he would have been arrested on the spot. If the cops did their job, none of this circus would have happened.

[jtuck004]

15. I wonder why the white guy doesn't subtly take responsibility for his part?

Like following the black male when they enter a store, as if he is more likely to shoplift than the last 80 people, merely because of the color of his skin.

Or, everything else being equal, selling the black family a more expensive mortgage at a higher rate than a white family, just because of the color of their skin.

Or accosting and killing them in parking lots and streets, simply because of the color of their skin. Heck, based on the disproportionate number of traffic stops, one would get the impression that skin color relates to driving ability.

When a population is marginalized, villanized, and treated as if they are worth less than real people, when they must make their way in a world in which children, based solely on the color of their skin, are told that they may be killed whether or not they say yes sir and yes ma'am, early conversations are not about going to college but more about keeping their empty hands in plain view, and live wtih the knowledge that there may be no difference between holding a bag of Skittles or a 9mm, it doesn't seem unlikely that they would turn on each other.

Maybe the white folk ought to look around and see the great disparity in how people are treated and fix their own behavior before commenting on others.

[RZM]

16. Those are questions for the cartoonist

I'm sure his email is available at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website.

I don't claim to have all the answers, I just posited a message I thought he might be trying to convey.

[jtuck004]

18. I think his cartoon stands on its own, and your message is your own. But maybe not. n/t

[rayofreason]

12. The statistics are ugly...

...since African-Americans males are 8 times more likely to die from homicide as compared to White males. And since most violent crime is intraracial, the perpetrators are overwhelmingly African-Americans males.

But believe it or not, the murder rate has actually dropped by about a factor of 2 since 1990.