Teen's death raises painful, pressing questions

[maddezmom]

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

6:00 a.m. EDT, March 18, 2012
They do not see you.

For every African-American, it comes as surely as hard times, setback and tears, that moment when you realize somebody is looking right at you and yet, not seeing you -- as if you had become cellophane, as if you had become air, as if somehow, some way, you were right there and yet at the same time, not.

Ralph Ellison described that phenomenon in a milestone novel that begins as follows: "I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe. Nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

Trayvon Martin was killed Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., fully 60 years after Ellison published "Invisible Man." The circumstances of the unarmed 17-year-old's death suggest that even six decades later, invisibility plagues black folks, still.

It happened like this. He was visiting his father, watching hoops on television. At halftime, he left his dad's townhouse in a gated community and walked to a 7-Eleven for snacks. There was a light drizzle and he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. On the way back, he drew the attention of George Zimmerman, captain of the Neighborhood Watch. Mr. Zimmerman, who is white, called police from his SUV and told them he was following a "suspicious" character. The dispatcher promised to send a prowl car and told Mr. Zimmerman to stay in his vehicle.

more:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-teens-death-raises-painful-pressing-questions-20120316,0,1862120.story

[UnrepentantLiberal]

1. That's fucked up.

Is it still the 1920s? The DOJ needs to step in.

Invisible Man is a great book:

“For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn't accept any other; that much I've learned underground. Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is possibility.”

― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Pitts nails my thoughts on this case

Of course, the most pressing question is this: What, exactly, was it that made this boy seem "suspicious"? The available evidence suggests a sad and simple answer: He existed while black.

The manner of said existence doesn't matter. It is the existing itself that is problematic. Again: Sometimes, they do not see you.

That's the point I made on another thread on Friday afternoon. Three weeks later and no arrest? How about three weeks later and no explanation of the so-called suspicious activity / criminal activity Trayvon was allegedly engaging in . . .

[sarchasm]

3. Abhorrent idiocracy

It's completely unsettling to me that in 2012 we are still in the grips of an authoritarian psychosis in regards to race, women's rights, the environment, peace and war.

[peacebird]

4. The 911 tapes are so damning, this murderer needs to be put in prison for a very long time....

He called the cops, complaining the kid looked suspicious, and whining that 'they always get away', then when the teen started running AWAY this man got out of his car, chased him down and confronted him. In the tapes you hear the teen begging for help, then a gunshot and silence.

This murder was premeditated the moment the rambo-wannabe got out of his car.

[saras]

5. The murder was premeditated many months before that, when this guy started practicing

He was a murder waiting to happen, and had a long string of harassment complaints to back it up.