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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"that’s just the way it is" -- best post I've found on Trayvon Martin
From David Brothers, 4thletter! blog: http://4thletter.net/2012/03/thats-just-the-way-it-is/
"This Trayvon Martin thing has crawled all the way under my skin. In part because its an absolute travesty, which I feel like is obvious to anyone with two eyes and half a brain. But really, its because Ive heard this song over and over again, ever since I was a kid. Say sir when speaking to authority figures, keep your hands out of your pockets, look directly into their eyes, be respectful, do everything you can to make sure that my firstborn son doesnt come home in a pine box because people can and will hurt you for no reason past your skin color.
One of the biggest tragedies in the Trayvon Martin case isnt that he was hunted and murdered and his killer will probably get away scot-free. Its that a mother and father lost their son for a senseless reason, and now their son is an idea. Hes a cautionary tale. Hes a prop for someone elses argument, and will be until the end of time. Hes not even a statistic. At least with a statistic, its anonymous and eventually fades into nothing. An idea is inescapable. People are already taking that boys name in vain, using his photo and name however they wish and to prop up whatever point they have to make. Im probably guilty of it myself, just by writing this paragraph.
Theres a lot of Brothers boys. My little brother is 22. My littlest brother turns four this year. Ive got close boy cousins that range from 10 to 18 or so. Im slimmer than most of em, but were all pretty tall. Tall enough and black enough to be threatening by default, to know not to mouth off to the police, to know how many black people are in a room within seconds of walking in, to knowing exactly how angry we can get in public before we become a Problem. It is what it is.
None of us are innocent, despite what we might tell our parents. Stories like Trayvon Martins, or Sean Bells, or Kathryn Johnstons, or Oscar Grants prove that the first thing people are going to do when I get shot is look at what I did to deserve it. Not even in a funny Richard Pryor, It oughtta be against the law to make a motherfucker want to kill you, sort of way, either. I mean people are going to go out and look for the things that I was involved in that make me less of an innocent, and therefore more worthy of being killed. He smokes weed? Probably a drug dealing thug. Oh dang, he has a tattoo in Swahili on his arm? Is that gang-related? Did he hate white people? Is he a radical black nationalist? Came from a single parent household, huh? Got up to hoodlum stuff while he was overseas? Lets find some old girlfriends, what do they got to say? Whats with those scars up and down his arms? Have you seen his iTunes? Did he buy all this murder music? I made a joke the other day that my library is 1/4 drug dealing music, 1/4 drug using music, 1/4 murda muzik, and 1/4 love songs. Pick your proof. Build your picture of me..."
More here: http://4thletter.net/2012/03/thats-just-the-way-it-is/
orwell
(7,773 posts)...every day...guilty of Presidentin' while black.
I honestly don't know how people of color put up with the institutional racism every day of their lives without losing it.
Thanks for the post.